Overnight Tech: Trump nominates FCC chief to new term | WikiLeaks dumps CIA docs | GOP bill would roll back internet privacy rules

by Harper Neidig and Ali Breland - 03/07/17 7:13 PM ET

TRUMP TAPS PAI FOR ANOTHER TERM: President Trump has renominated Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to a new five-year term, a Senate aide told The Hill.

The White House submitted the necessary paperwork on Tuesday, the source said, one day after Pai met with the president.

“I am deeply honored to have been nominated by President Trump to serve a second term on the Federal Communications Commission,” Pai said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

“If I am fortunate to be confirmed by the Senate, I will continue to work with my colleagues to connect all Americans with digital opportunity, foster innovation, protect consumers, promote public safety, and make the FCC more open and transparent to the American people.”

The move is not entirely surprising, as Trump had elevated the GOP regulator to the FCC’s top spot less than two months ago. But Trump also needs to nominate another Republican and a Democrat to the commission, which currently only has three of its five seats filled.

{mosads}Former President Barack Obama nominated former FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to a new term in the last days of his administration. Her first term expired after her nomination died in the Senate.

Last week, Trump withdrew Rosenworcel’s nomination from the Senate, but Democrats are still sticking by her.

“We are still waiting for the renomination of Commissioner Rosenworcel, and that will determine how I and other Democrats on the committee are likely to handle all nominations including Chairman Pai’s,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the ranking member of the Senate Commerce technology subcommittee, said in a statement to The Hill.

Read more here.

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GOP SENATOR MOVES TO UNDO INTERNET PRIVACY RULES: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) introduced a measure on Tuesday to reverse the Federal Communications Commission’s privacy rules for internet service providers. The resolution would kill the FCC’s ”Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services” regulation through the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA allows Republicans to repeal late Obama-era regulations with just a simple majority in both chambers. The FCC rules limit broadband providers from accessing and collecting “sensitive” consumer information, including web browsing data and app usage history.

Read more here.

INDUSTRY GROUPS SHOW THEIR SUPPORT: In a letter sent Tuesday to the top members of the Senate Commerce Committee, groups called for lawmakers to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to eliminate the privacy rules. The CRA allows Congress, with presidential approval, to undo regulations recently passed by government agencies, and prevents those agencies from implementing similar rules in the future.

“The rule harms consumers because it creates confusion in a regulatory environment in which customer data is regulated by two different agency standards, based on whether information is used by an internet service provider or edge provider,” the letter reads. Critics have long worried that the FCC’s privacy rules clashed with the privacy framework established by the Federal Trade Commission and that broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast would have one set of rules, while internet companies like Google and Facebook would have another.

Read more here.

DEM ASKS FCC TO RETHINK PRISON PHONE RATES: In a letter issued late Tuesday afternoon. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to reconsider his directive to stop defending the agency’s price caps on the rates inmates are charged for calls from prison.

“Incarcerated Americans rely on these calling services to maintain connections with their families,” Booker said. “The Commission’s decision not to defend its authority to cap intrastate prison rates may have the unintended, but regrettable, consequence of severing connections between parents and children, spouses and loved ones, and family members with their families.”

Under the Obama administration, the FCC made an effort to limit those phone rates but was challenged in court.

WIKILEAKS DETAILS CIA HACKING: WikiLeaks on Tuesday published a massive trove of documents purportedly pertaining to the CIA’s hacking programs — the first of many document dumps the site says it has coming on the intelligence agency. The documents contain descriptions of hacking tools, engineering notes, internal communications and more. The release did not immediately appear to have included the tools themselves, and agent names have been redacted.

This is the first leak from a CIA project the site is calling “Vault 7.” WikiLeaks first released an encrypted version of this batch of documents, nicknamed “Year Zero,” on Twitter late Monday. The site provided a password for the documents around 8 a.m. Tuesday, about an hour before the documents’ intended release time, due to alleged cyberattacks on the online press conference that WikiLeaks head Julian Assange tried to host in advance of the release.

Read more here.

IPHONE OR HEALTHCARE?: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) spurred controversy on Tuesday when he said Americans may have to choose between purchasing a new iPhone or paying for health insurance.

“You know what, Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice,” the House Oversight Committee chairman told CNN’s “New Day,” one day after the House GOP unveiled its plan to replace ObamaCare.

“And so maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own healthcare.”

Chaffetz later sought to clarify those remarks.

“What we’re trying to say, and maybe I didn’t say as smoothly as I possibly could, but people need to make a conscious choice, and I believe in self-reliance,” Chaffetz told Fox News.