Members of the bipartisan encryption working group – established in March 2016 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) – today released a year-end report laying out key observations and next steps.
Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the first policy proposal to come out of the Committee's review of U.S. Copyright law. This first proposal identifies important reforms to help ensure the Copyright Office keeps pace in the digital age. With the release of this document, the Committee requests written comments from interested stakeholders by January 31, 2017.
Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the first policy proposal to come out of the Committee's review of U.S. Copyright law. This first proposal identifies important reforms to help ensure the Copyright Office keeps pace in the digital age. With the release of this document, the Committee requests written comments from interested stakeholders by January 31, 2017.
A bipartisan coalition of Senate and House lawmakers today asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to provide Congress with more information about a proposed expansion of government hacking and surveillance powers.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Director Comey, for your appearance here today.
The FBI's mission is a complex undertaking: to protect the United States from terrorism, to enforce our criminal laws, and to lead the nation's law enforcement community.
That mission ought to mirror our own priorities in this Committee.
In the past few days, for example, we have witnessed near-fatal terrorist attacks in Minnesota, New York, and New Jersey.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) released the following statement regarding copyright concerns with the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) set-top box proposal.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), today sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler regarding the agency's set-top box proposal.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today provided an update on the progress made by the bipartisan encryption working group:
Today, Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) and Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) along with Congressman Blake Fahrenthold (R-TX) and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced H.R. 5321 the Stop Mass Hacking Act. This is the companion bill to legislation introduced on the Senate side by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY).
Today, the Obama Administration announced that 53 jurisdictions-including Detroit, MI-have committed to Police Data Initiative (PDI). As part of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the White House launched PDI as a community of practices aiming to improve the relationship between citizens and police through uses of data that increase transparency, build community trust, and strengthen accountability.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) applauded the President's Police Data Initiative with the following statement:
The House Judiciary Committee today approved by a vote of 28-0 the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) to protect Americans' privacy and public safety in the digital age.
I want to begin by thanking you, Chairman Goodlatte, and your staff, for working with us to develop the amendment before us now.
I also want to thank the members of the Digital Due Process Coalition, many of whom are represented here today, for their tireless dedication to the work of modernizing federal statute for the Internet age.
Over the last few weeks, Mr. Chairman, as we have worked out our few remaining differences on this bill, we have crafted what I believe to be an effective compromise.
In 2014, in a unanimous ruling delivered by Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court concluded that the police may not search a cellphone without first demonstrating probable cause.
Citing an obvious Fourth Amendment interest in the vast amount of data we store on-and access from-our personal devices, the Court wrote:
Encryption a Top Issue for House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce Committees
Witnesses
The Honorable James B. Comey
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigations
Ms. Susan Landau
Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to associate myself with your comments about our jurisdiction.
"It is not an accident that the House Judiciary Committee is the committee of primary jurisdiction with respect to the legal architecture of government surveillance.
"In times of heightened tension, many of our colleagues will rush to do something, anything, to get out in front of an issue. We welcome their voices in the debate-but it is here, in this Committee room, that the House begins to make decisions about the tools and methods available to law enforcement.
On Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 1:00 p.m., the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing titled "The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans' Security and Privacy." The House Judiciary Committee previously held member briefings on encryption, which included a briefing from technology companies and a classified briefing from the government.
"As of this morning, the bill has earned 304 cosponsors-191 Republicans, 113 Democrats, and 27 members of the House Judiciary Committee. What do all of these members have in common?
"First, we all agree that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act is outdated and provides unjustifiably inconsistent standards for government access to our stored communications.
"This statute continues to serve as one of the main guarantees of our digital privacy.
"But the law was designed in 1986, when few of us used email, and fewer imagined a world in which we could so freely share information online.
Witnesses
Mr. Chris Calabrese
Vice President, Policy, Center for Democracy and Technology
"The growth of the United States economy relies on the expansion of the global digital economy and efficient cross-border data flow.
"According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, digital trade increased U.S. average wages by nearly 5 percent and spurred the creation of about 2.4 million full time positions in 2011. That same year, digital trade also increased our Nation's annual Gross Domestic Product by 4.8 percent.
"As we hear from today's witnesses, I would like for us to consider the following points.
Witnesses
Mr. Peter Allgeier
Ambassador, President, Coalition of Service Industries
Dr. Robert D. Atkinson
President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Tuesday, July 28
10:00 a.m. Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and
Investigations Committee on the Judiciary
2141 Rayburn House Office Building
Hearing on: America's Growing Heroin Epidemic
Witnesses:
· The Honorable Michael Botticelli, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
· Mr. John ("Jack") Riley, Acting Deputy Administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration