House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is pressing the Commerce Department over NOAA’s proposal for creating the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of central California amid concerns over “new regulatory impediments” to permitting undersea fiber cable installations in that area. He noted NTIA’s role in implementing $48.2 billion in connectivity money from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and contrasted that with NOAA’s evaluation of the Chumash NMS, which “envisions adding additional layers of dated bureaucratic red tape to the existing permitting process.” NOAA has acknowledged “‘several U.S. agencies have legal authority to regulate the laying and maintenance of cables off our nation’s shores,’ in addition to state regulatory requirements,” Comer said Friday in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “Despite NOAA’s admission,” the 2011 undersea cable permitting policy the agency “proposes to use for the permitting of undersea internet cables in the Chumash Heritage NMS … has been so onerous that the Committee could not identify a single example of a new undersea communications cable deployed in an NMS governed under the policy.” Some “of the designated NMS sites across the U.S. protect areas that undersea cables might seek to simply avoid,” but “the proposed designation of the Chumash Heritage NMS would fill the last gap off the California coast already utilized by numerous cables for trans-Pacific connectivity,” Comer said: “Substantial cost increases for internet infrastructure connecting the U.S. West Coast to Asia and U.S. Pacific territories, delays, and new maintenance restrictions created by imposition of the 2011 permitting guidance under the Chumash Heritage NMS designation, if left unaddressed, will seemingly occur if NOAA moves forward without mitigating onerous requirements that empower bureaucrats but offer little benefit to marine environments.” NOAA “has proposed substantial revisions to its Chumash Heritage NMS designation as a concession to facilitate undersea electrical cables for offshore wind energy projects” but has “invested little time or effort into analyzing the impact of the designation on existing and potential future use of areas for undersea fiber-optic cables,” he said. Comer pressed Commerce to brief House Oversight about how NOAA and NTIA evaluated the Chumash designation’s impact on undersea cables. NOAA “will review the letter and answer the congressman through official channels,” a spokesperson emailed us.

A reshuffle of the House Appropriations Committee’s leadership has shifted Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, to be Financial Services Subcommittee chairman, new panel Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Thursday night. The subcommittee handles federal funding for the FCC and FTC. Former Financial Services lead Steve Womack, R-Ark., now heads the Transportation Subcommittee. Cole took the House Appropriations gavel last week, replacing now-former Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas. Cole said Friday that Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to end advance federal funding for CPB as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069), will remain chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., will continue to chair the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee.

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said Thursday she has appointed Rep. Randy Weber (Texas) as Communications Subcommittee vice chair. The post has been vacant since former Vice Chair Buddy Carter (Ga.) relinquished it in January to become Environment Subcommittee chairman (see 2402290054). Weber was among nine Republicans who joined House Commerce last year (see 2301110046). Rodgers also slightly reshuffled House Commerce subcommittees’ GOP rosters. Mariannette Miller Meeks (Iowa) joined House Communications, while Troy Balderson (Ohio) is leaving the subpanel. John James (Mich.) and Jay Obernolte (Calif.) will join the Innovation Subcommittee, while Rick Allen (Ga.) and Greg Pence (Ind.) will leave the subpanel. The reshuffling follows the January departure (see 2401020056) of former House Communications member Bill Johnson, R-Ohio.

House Republicans on Wednesday tanked a procedural vote that would have allowed debate on legislation reauthorizing intelligence agencies’ surveillance authority (see 2404090055). Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats in voting down a rule that would have allowed the lower chamber to consider reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the statute. The House voted 193-228 against the measure. That followed a Wednesday post from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who urged members to “KILL FISA,” claiming it was used to interfere with his campaign. Republicans voting against the rule included Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Chip Roy (Texas). House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Wednesday that Trump is “not wrong, of course. They abused FISA.” He noted, however, that reforms in the proposal would create criminal and civil penalties for documented abuse. The Trump administration relied on Section 702 to “kill terrorists,” Johnson said. Section 702 is set to expire April 19.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers Tuesday introduced the House version of the Kids Online Safety Act (see 2401300086). House Innovation Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., introduced KOSA with Reps. Kathy Castor, D-Fla.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Kim Schrier, D-Wash. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., authored the Senate version, which the Senate Commerce Committee approved in July (see 2207270057). Castor also joined a bipartisan effort in introducing the House version of another Senate Commerce-passed kids’ safety bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). Castor introduced the bill with Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich. The House Commerce Committee is set to consider the bills and the American Privacy Rights Act (see 2404080062) at a legislative hearing Wednesday. “It is time for Congress to come together on comprehensive data privacy and security standards that put Americans back in control of their information online," House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said in a joint statement with ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is expected to back legislation that would maintain the status quo for the intelligence community’s surveillance authorities, civil liberties advocates said Tuesday (see 2404050049). The House is expected to vote Thursday on the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which would reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the controversial Section 702. The House Rules Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday about the legislation and what provisions to consider on the floor. Johnson supports the House Intelligence Committee’s approach, which omits the House Judiciary Committee’s warrant requirement, New America Open Technology Institute Policy Director Prem Trivedi said in a statement Tuesday. Privacy advocates seek a warrant requirement when intelligence agencies search for American citizens' data in the FISA database. In addition, they want a warrant requirement when agencies purchase U.S. citizens’ information through data brokers. Johnson is backtracking on proposals he supported as a rank-and-file member, Demand Progress said. The House Intelligence Committee wants an expansion of FISA authorities and to subject additional network-connected businesses to gag orders that facilitate warrantless FISA surveillance, said Policy Director Sean Vitka. Johnson’s office didn’t comment Tuesday. House Republican leadership previously abandoned a proposal to consider FISA provisions from both committees on the floor (see 2312120073).

A key privacy negotiator for House Republicans said Tuesday he’s “optimistic” privacy legislation can be expedited and signed into law “very soon.” House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said in a statement Tuesday he was “glad” to see House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., release “historic draft legislation” (see 2404080062). Bilirakis lauded the lawmakers for including a state preemption provision and data minimization measures: “The end result is a product that will help safeguard all Americans' sensitive data, maximize transparency, and empower users to control how their personal information is collected, used, and stored.” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., an original member of the Senate Commerce Committee’s privacy working group (see 1906270053), said Tuesday he expects the panel will hold hearings and “produce a bill that protects consumers and fosters an environment which promotes innovators and job creators.” A comprehensive federal privacy law would help solve issues related to children’s online data collection and foreign access to U.S. user information, he said.

Requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok is constitutional and would help block Chinese efforts to control U.S. communications networks, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday on the Senate floor. Similarly, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., last week said the upper chamber has an opportunity to make progress on bipartisan TikTok-related legislation (see 2404050050). In his speech, McConnell rejected First Amendment arguments against the House-passed divestment proposal. McConnell quoted FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr: “You can use a pen to write salacious anti-American propaganda, and the government can’t censor that content. Nor can it stop Americans from seeking such messages out. But if you use the same pen to pick a lock to steal someone else’s property, the government could prosecute you for illegal conduct.” China “has spent years trying to pick the lock of America’s communications infrastructure,” said McConnell: “This is a matter that deserves Congress’ urgent attention. And I’ll support commonsense, bipartisan steps to take one of Beijing’s favorite tools of coercion and espionage off the table.”

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Monday released draft legislation that would set mandatory cybersecurity standards for federal agencies using collaboration software like Zoom, Teams and Slack. Wyden cited multiple hacks of government systems using “poor cybersecurity practices" related to tech company services. He drew attention to a recent incident where Chinese hackers breached federal email systems after Microsoft committed what the Department of Homeland Security called a “cascade” of errors. The bill would direct that the National Institute of Standards and Technology set “interoperable standards, requirements, and guidance” for agencies using collaboration software.

The Senate has an opportunity in the coming “weeks and months” to “make progress” on bipartisan bills related to kids’ online safety and TikTok, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote Friday in a Dear Colleague letter. He mentioned key priorities at the top of the letter, including nominees, impeachment proceedings, foreign intelligence surveillance, the national security supplemental and FAA authorization. He included the kids’ safety and TikTok items with several other legislative proposals. “There are many important, bipartisan issues this Congress could address this year, and I hope our Senate Republican colleagues don’t allow the ultra-right wing of their party to derail progress on these bipartisan bills,” he wrote.