The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the government’s use of what it called “sneak and peek” warrants to access citizen’s information. Those warrants allow law enforcement “to conduct a search while delaying notice to the suspect of the search” based on Section 213 of the Patriot Act, an authority the government demanded as part of its efforts to fight terrorism, EFF said in a Sunday blog post. “But the latest government report detailing the numbers of ‘sneak and peek’ warrants reveals that out of a total of over 11,000 sneak and peek requests, only 51 were used for terrorism,” EFF said. “Yet again, terrorism concerns appear to be trampling our civil liberties.” It argued that Section 213 is as important as Section 215, the much-discussed provision of the Patriot Act authorizing the bulk collection of phone records. “The government will continue to argue for more surveillance authorities -- like the need to update the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act -- under the guise of terrorism,” EFF said. “But before we engage in any updates, the public must be convinced such updates are needed and won't be used for non-terrorist purposes that chip away at our civil liberties.”

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., would kill the National Football League’s tax-exempt status, he said Sunday during a Senate campaign debate. Franken is facing Republican Mike McFadden in a re-election campaign and has maintained a strong lead, with the Rothenberg Political Report judging his seat Democrat favored. “I would revoke" the NFL’s tax-exempt status, said Franken, chairman of the Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee. When told there was congressional legislation proposing to revoke the exemption, Franken said, “Then I will support that.” Franken doesn't currently co-sponsor any legislation removing the exemption. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have pushed for such legislation and framed removing the NFL's antitrust exemption as the ultimate answer to incidents of sports blackouts, which they say remain a policy concern beyond the FCC’s vote in September to end its sports blackout rule. The NFL has resisted these policy changes. “It’s something I will look into,” McFadden said. “I’ve never been asked that question on the trail before.”

Capitol Hill staffers visited FCC headquarters Monday to learn how the agency’s AWS-3 spectrum auction, scheduled for next month, will work. The House staffers work for members of the Congressional Spectrum Caucus, led by Reps. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif. Those lawmakers created the caucus in February. “We had about 15-20 staffers from Energy and Commerce offices visit the FCC to see a demo of their auction system,” a spokeswoman for Guthrie told us. “We had a briefing on auction procedures and the history of FCC auctions and then were able to utilize the FCC’s auction system to do a ‘real-time’ demo of the auction system.” A Democratic House staffer told us that about 20 staffers from both political parties attended the briefing. “The FCC walked us through the auction process and we participated in auction simulation,” said the Democratic staffer.

Four senators want Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations to properly account for cross-border data flows. Any agreement “must include meaningful, clear obligations, enforceable through a strong and effective dispute settlement mechanism, that prohibit unnecessary limitations on the cross-border transfer, storage and processing of data or the physical location of computing infrastructure,” said Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; Commerce ranking member John Thune, R-S.D.; Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Finance ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1wwGCeG). “We urge you to stand firm against efforts by other countries to seek reservations and overly broad exceptions that would undermine these obligations and provide lower levels of protection for trade in digital goods and services as compared to other areas of trade.” House Commerce Trade Subcommittee Chairman Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., sent a similar letter to Froman and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker Friday. “Trade agreements must acknowledge and support the growth of international trade through e-commerce, and cross-border data flows are the backbone of this growth,” the lawmakers said (http://1.usa.gov/1nCWMl5). “We urge you to secure enforceable commitments to free and open cross-border data flows around the world, for the sake of U.S. businesses and for a prosperous global economy.”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., hosted a “Silicon Holler Express” bus tour of parts of his state last week, he said in a news release. “We're already doing high-tech business where high-speed Internet is available, but with Kentucky's new 'Super I-way,' we will be able to recruit even more complex businesses, and draw them to what I like to call Silicon Holler," Rogers said in a statement last week (http://1.usa.gov/1sYYRXH). "The first phase of the broadband project is expected to be complete in the next 18 months, so now is the time to plan our work and work our plan." He hosted 50 leaders from Kentucky to highlight this initiative, the release said.

The Competitive Carriers Association lauded five GOP senators for advocating a revamp to FCC Mobility Fund rules to focus on rural areas receiving high-speed mobile broadband. Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Deb Fischer, R-Neb.; Jerry Moran, R-Kansas; and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., sent the letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Friday. “The Senators are absolutely correct; rural households and businesses will benefit tremendously from high speed mobile broadband services,” Competitive Carriers Association President Steven Berry said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1wmwB5e). “It is well within the FCC’s authority to ensure rules for Mobility Fund II will allow rural communities to benefit from the same services as their urban counterparts.”

Phoenix Center President Larry Spiwak pushed back against the basing of net neutrality rules on Communications Act Title II, saying the proposal outlined by House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is "insidious." Waxman proposes to reclassify broadband as Title II and then forbear from the brunt of it, including sections 201 and 202. “While the FCC may forbear from sections 201 and 202, it cannot forbear from the mandates of sections 201 and 202, and it is these very mandates, not the numbers ‘201’ and ‘202,’ that expressly permit the paid prioritization that Waxman seeks so desperately to ban,” Spiwak said Thursday in an op-ed for The Hill (http://bit.ly/1rnx0NW). Spiwak said that “to proceed by reclassification with a gerrymandering of the commission's Section 10 precedent does nothing more than guarantee a third trip to the Courts of Appeal.” He attacked what he judges various legal deficiencies.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., inquired about the practices of social media app Whisper, which specializes in anonymous sharing of messages. “While Whisper may provide its users a unique social experience, the allegations in recent media accounts are serious, and users are entitled to privacy policies that are transparent, disclosed, and followed by the company,” Rockefeller said to WhisperText CEO Michael Heyward in a Wednesday letter (http://1.usa.gov/1uLkuZv), asking the company to brief committee staffers on its privacy policies. “It is questionable, at best, whether users seeking to post anonymously on the ‘safest place on the internet’ would expect that WhisperText has information sharing relationships with third parties such as media organizations.” Rockefeller expressed concern about allegations that the company has tracked locations of consumers who didn’t want to be tracked and created an office outside the U.S. to process user data despite a policy to the contrary. He also flagged the way the company partners with third parties and shares content. "We share the Senator's interest in protecting consumer privacy and will respond shortly," Heyward said in a statement, saying Whisper disagrees with allegations reported by The Guardian and welcomes "the discussion and opportunity to correct the record."

In rewriting the Communications Act, “I would have a very skinny FCC,” said Robert Litan, a Brookings Institution nonresident senior fellow, speaking Wednesday at a Brookings Institution event in Washington on the Communications Act. Litan backs a “very minimalist role” for the agency, focused on its management of spectrum auctions and “I would have them administratively stop discrimination,” whether on the Internet or in traditional media spaces involving network owners blocking content, he said. Robert McDowell, a former Republican FCC commissioner and now partner at Wiley Rein, cautioned about the ease with which the FCC can escape “its congressional tether” and become “oligarchical,” citing the role of the courts in reining the agency in when needed. Litan, a former principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, scoffed at the FCC’s role in approving acquisition deals and said it should be nixed. Larry Irving, a former NTIA administrator and now consultant to telecom and information technology clients, resisted what he viewed as any “straight economic test” or one simply focused on consumer harm, calling communications the “lifeblood of a democracy.” They debated over how prominent the public interest component of the FCC’s role should be, with McDowell cautioning over a potentially “expansive” interpretation. “A straight economic test would frighten me,” Irving said. But the public interest standard should be clearer, he said, noting past challenges in finding the right balance. “It’s impossible,” McDowell said, cautioning against ex ante regulation and noting how much has changed even in the past decade. Irving referred to the many pieces of the FCC puzzle and said “the Communications Act gets most of them right.” But Irving would work to fix certain shortcomings at the agency, he said, referring to a need for expediency on certain fronts. He called efforts to clear federal spectrum “abysmal.” Litan predicted multiple possible drivers of a Communications Act overhaul on Capitol Hill, positing that net neutrality advocates could end up unhappy with the FCC’s rulemaking and ultimately go to Congress seeking a “fix” of the act. Alternatively, Republicans could take control of the Senate, Litan posited: “Imagine a scenario in which they win the presidency in 2016,” Litan said. “Maybe that becomes something the Republicans push because there’s no one to veto.”

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, asked Treasury Department officials and banking regulators what actions they’re taking to prevent data breaches within the financial system, in a letter Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1wtXm64). Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen were among the officials copied on the letter. “The recent breaches show once again that no company is immune from the risk of cyberattack,” said Johnson in a Tuesday release (http://1.usa.gov/1uGxks9). “While financial institutions and retailers are at the front lines in protecting consumers’ information, the financial regulators must also ensure that financial institutions have the appropriate safeguards in place to keep consumers’ data safe,” he said. “I look forward to hearing more about the steps they are taking,” said Johnson. JPMorgan Chase said recently that 76 million households and 7 million small businesses were affected by a breach in June (see 1410060071).