House extends eavesdropping law
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The House on Tuesday voted to give two more weeks of life to a law that allows the government more freedom to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists inside the United States, an attempt to buy the logjammed Senate time to pass a bill to replace it.
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The House is expected to approve legislation this week that seeks to increase exponentially the amount of money broadcasters and performers would have to pay for indecency violations.
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AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein breaks silence to tell ABC News' Nightline about the NSA eavesdropping on the internet, but reveals little new information. In 27B Stroke 6.
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The Senate signaled in a key vote yesterday that it supports giving some of the nation's largest telephone companies immunity from dozens of privacy lawsuits related to a federal domestic eavesdropping program initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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Congress is moving to reverse one area of the Bush administration's trend toward secrecy since the 2001 terrorist attacks by expanding the Freedom of Information Act, increasing penalties for noncompliance and making records held by government contractors subject to the law.
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The government can continue to use its warrantless domestic wiretap program pending the Justice Department's appeal of a federal judge's ruling outlawing the program, an Appeals Court in Cincinnati ruled on Wednesday.
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A U.S. Senate committee approved a  bipartisan bill to tighten rules on government eavesdropping on  terrorism suspects, but a Democratic presidential candidate  said on Thursday he would try to block it.
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The House Thursday passed a bill that would criminalize the use of spyware to commit fraud or other crimes, adding an additional two to five years to federal sentences.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee today endorsed a bill backed by the White House to have a secret court review the constitutionality of the eavesdropping program.
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Bloomberg - Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A group of 21 U.S. House Democrats said they would support a Senate measure that shields phone companies from privacy lawsuits for helping the government eavesdrop on suspected terrorists.
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The Senate reopens debate on a bill that would protect from prosecution anyone who helped with President Bush's warrantless spying on Americans. Immunity would extend to telecom companies and the president himself.  Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) reasserts his threat to block the measure.
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. lawmakers promised to push ahead legislation aimed at cracking down on pretexting despite some objections from telecom carriers and the U.S. Department of Justice. Nearly all the members of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee pledged to push the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act, which would give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) authority to file lawsuits against pretexters and the people who hire them. The bill would also require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to draw up new rules for telecom carriers to protect private phone records, and it would prevent carriers from sharing customer information with third parties without permission. Despite some concerns about the bill, lawmakers said consumers need protection against pretexting, the practice of posing as a telecom customer to obtain phone records and other private information. "Someone with bad intentions and a few bucks can get a hold of almost anybody's cell phone records," said Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican. President George Bush signed a bill creating criminal penalties for pretexting in January. But proponents of the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act say the extra protections in the bill are also needed. The Energy and Commerce Committee approved the same bill during the last session of Congress, but the legislation apparently was held up on the House floor because of concerns from federal law enforcement agencies that the bill could slow efforts to get information on terrorism suspects. Lawmakers from both parties complained that they received little explanation about why the bill died last year. Thomas Navin, chief of the FCC's Wireline Bureau, said the Department of Justice was concerned that the FCC would set up rules that consumers are notified too soon after their phone records were accessed by someone else. The DOJ wanted a delay of seven days before consumers were notified, he said. But Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said consumers should be notified immediately. "I don't think the Department of Justice should be listened to on that issue," he said. "I think [victims] should be listened to on that issue." Markey pointed to news reports this week saying the FBI may have violated the law and its internal rules while collecting telephone, data, and other personal records through the Patriot Act. "There is still a lack of respect for the law of our country," he said. Beyond the law enforcement concerns, representatives of trade groups the United States Telecom Association and CTIA-The Wireless Association said the bill could prevent them from sharing customer information with third parties that market complementary products. CTIA members don't share customers' personal information with unrelated groups, but the carriers do use third-party vendors to market wireless-related products, said Steve Largent, CTIA's president and CEO. But Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, questioned industry concerns about language in the bill that could require carriers to get opt-in permission from customers to share their personal data. "It seems if we want to protect privacy, we should change this from opt out to opt in," he said.
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The House approved a bill Thursday that would grant legal status to President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program with new restrictions. Republicans called it a test before the election of whether Democrats want to fight or "coddle" terrorists.
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The US House of Representatives Tuesday passed by voice vote a bill that would boost prison time for scammers who register Web sites under false pretenses.
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The Democratic-led House of  Representatives defied President George W. Bush on Friday and  recessed without replacing an expiring spy law with one that  would shield telephone companies from lawsuits.
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A bill to expand the use of DNA testing to protect the innocent and detect the guilty easily passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, but the outlook remained uncertain in the Senate.
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The Bush administration is working to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies who aid the N.S.A.âs warrantless eavesdropping program.