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May 11, 2013, 12:00 pm
By
Jennifer Martinez
The oversight chairman has been tasked with a major piece of the House's immigration overhaul, The Hill has learned.
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Archived under:
Technology
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May 10, 2013, 10:10 pm
By
Jennifer Martinez
The departures come after Mark Zuckerberg's advocacy group sparked an outcry from liberal and progressive groups.
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Archived under:
Technology
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May 10, 2013, 4:11 pm
By
Pete Kasperowicz
The House next week will pass legislation reaffirming that it is U.S. policy to keep the government out of the business of managing the Internet.
Early in the week, members will vote on H.R. 1580, which states simply that the policy of the U.S. is to "preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet."
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Archived under:
Technology, House, Technology
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May 10, 2013, 3:59 pm
By
Jennifer Martinez
The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider amendments to the section of the Gang of Eight bill that proposes to modify the immigration rules for highly skilled foreign workers when the panel resumes its markup next week, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Friday.
“After reviewing the remaining amendments that members may wish to offer, and consulting with ranking member [Sen. Chuck] Grassley [(R-Iowa)], I have decided the best path forward is to move next to Title IV of the bill," Leahy said in a statement.
The tech industry will be keeping a close watch on the proceedings when the markup picks up next Tuesday.
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Archived under:
Technology
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May 10, 2013, 9:10 am
By
Brendan Sasso
Hackers in more than two dozen countries stole $45 million from thousands of ATMs in a matter of hours, The New York Times reports. ESPN has had talks with at least one mobile carrier to exempt its content from data caps, according to The Wall Street Journal. Such a deal could raise net-neutrality concerns. Yahoo is considering buying video site Hulu, Bloomberg writes. The State Department demanded the takedown of 3D printable gun files, according to Forbes. The Onion's tech team (seriously) explains how they were hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.
Archived under:
Technology
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May 9, 2013, 7:04 pm
By
Brendan Sasso and Jennifer Martinez
THE LEDE: Four House lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday to allow consumers to unlock their cellphones, which allows them to switch carriers. Unlike some of the other bills on the topic, the Unlocking Technology Act would amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to permanently legalize cellphone unlocking. The bill is sponsored by Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.), and won praise from consumer advocacy groups. "This bipartisan bill not only makes it clear that consumers can, of course, unlock their phones without fear of legal repercussions; it also addresses a longstanding problem with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)," Sherwin Siy, vice president of legal affairs for Public Knowledge, said. "For too long, the DMCA has been a barrier to consumers, educators, researchers, and others, in ways that don't even protect artists." "This bill proposes more permanent fixes to the copyright laws that carriers exploit to keep people from using their wireless phones and tablets as they choose," Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood said.
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Archived under:
Technology
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May 9, 2013, 5:12 pm
By
Amrita Khalid
Lawmakers on Thursday urged NASA to be more realistic about developing space technology in light of budget constraints.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) chided NASA for not making the cost of projects clear to Congress and warned the agency that it risked having them axed entirely.
Noting the recent exoplanet discoveries by NASA’s $591 million Kepler telescope, Rohrabacher noted that Congress nearly shut down a similar telescope due to a lack of funding.
“The [National Science Foundation’s] Arecibo telescope was actually the first observatory to find evidence of this exoplanet, and we almost closed that down due to lack of funds. And that telescope remains a very important part of the projects that we are talking about,” Rohrabacher said. Rohrabacher pressed NASA scientists to give their estimates for a booster for the Space Launch System (SLS) in Huntsville, Ala., but they were unable to provide one.
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Archived under:
Technology
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May 9, 2013, 2:56 pm
By
Brendan Sasso
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at pressuring cable and satellite TV providers to allow their customers to pick and choose the channels they pay for. Cable companies usually require customers to purchase a tier or bundle of channels. The system means that consumers often have to pay for dozens of channels just to gain access to the few they watch. “This is unfair and wrong — especially when you consider how the regulatory deck is stacked in favor of industry and against the American consumer," McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor.
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Archived under:
Technology
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May 9, 2013, 1:29 pm
By
Jennifer Martinez
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said the White House should put China's alleged cyberattacks against U.S. government computer systems first on the list of issues to discuss in its next bilateral meeting with Beijing.
The Michigan lawmaker was responding to a Pentagon report published earlier this week that accused the Chinese government and military of hacking into U.S. government computer systems to steal intelligence.
"We should make this a bilateral issue between us and China, and in any discussion moving forward we should have three issues we talk about with them before we talk the first trade issue: [It] should be cyber, cyber, and cyber and that's where we need to go," Rogers said during a brief interview with The Hill. "If we don't elevate this problem, they're going to continue their bad behavior because to date there's been no consequence."
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Archived under:
Technology
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May 9, 2013, 1:09 pm
By
Brendan Sasso
The proposal could boost the Internet speeds available for airplane passengers and potentially bring down prices.
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Archived under:
Technology, Aviation
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