Week ahead: House turns to Internet rates, email privacy

The House will be busy on technology issues in the coming week, with legislation on email privacy, Internet rates and broadband subsides all on the agenda.

First, the House Judiciary Committee is slated to approve an email privacy bill, which is sponsored by more than 300 members but has seen no movement in years.

Despite the widespread support, Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and his staff have been drafting a manager’s amendment. The amendment is not expected to adopt a civil agency or emergency carve-out, but it will change the notice requirements in the bill and will change the bill’s treatment of “remote computer services.”

{mosads}The Email Privacy Act is aimed at closing a loophole in the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) that lets the government use a subpoena, rather than a warrant, to force companies such as Google and other Web providers to hand over customers’ electronic communications over 180 days old. But law enforcement has been asking for a stronger emergency exemption in the update, while civil agencies have asked for their own carve-out.

On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee will consider a bill that would ban the Federal Communications Commission from regulating the rates that companies charge for monthly Internet service, setting it up for a floor vote.

The bill passed out of committee last month over Democratic objections, and is the latest step by Republicans to chip away at the FCC’s net neutrality rules.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said the agency has no intention of regulating Internet rates, but Republicans are wary.

On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communication and Technology will take up seven bills. Among them is legislation to set a $1.5 billion budget cap on the federal program that offers phone and Internet subsidies for low-income Americans.

Another would make it a federal crime to trick a SWAT team into showing up to an unsuspecting person’s house by calling in a fake emergency.

On Thursday, the House holds a hearing on the ability of the government to handle a cyberattack that takes out the electric grid.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management is holding the hearing, where they’ll hear from a FEMA representative, among others.

Off Capitol Hill, on Monday, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker moderates a panel at an event on smart fabrics. The panel will include executives from Ralph Lauren, Intel and the Industrial Fabrics Association International.

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