After years of railing against the Affordable Care Act and calling for its repeal, and following weeks of secrecy, coyness, and treasure hunts around Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers have finally proposed this much-awaited legislation. Now that it’s out there, what are folks from all sides of the political spectrum saying? [More]
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Key Players Give Their Opinions — For And Against — On GOP’s Obamacare Replacement
By 3.7.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Members Of Congress Literally Chasing Each Other Around Capitol Hill Trying To Find Text Of Obamacare Repeal Bill
By 3.2.17 — Updated: 3.3.17
Since Nov. 8, 2016, Congressional Republicans and the White House have said they would immediately move to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but apart from some leaked details, no concrete legislation has surfaced. A draft bill reportedly exists, but it’s not just being kept from public view; lawmakers from both parties are desperately scrambling to get a peek at the text. [More]
FCC Chair Faces Blowback Over Decision To Undo ISP Privacy Rule
By 2.27.17
Last week, FCC Chair Ajit Pai declared that he would halt the Commission’s new privacy rule before it kicks in on March 2. That last-minute decision is now under fire from within the FCC and beyond. [More]
Pro-Marijuana Lawmakers Form First Ever Congressional Cannabis Caucus
By 2.17.17
Now that marijuana is legal in some form or another — whether for recreational or medicinal use — in 28 states, a bipartisan group of four lawmakers have joined forces to create the first Congressional Cannabis Caucus, aimed at reconciling federal regulations banning marijuana with states’ laws. [More]
Senators Say Loss Of Net Neutrality Will “Unleash A Political Firestorm”
By 2.7.17
There’s nothing subtle about the writing on the wall: New FCC chair Ajit Pai openly despises and wants to do away with the 2015 Open Internet Order, which reclassified broadband as a utility-like service, and cemented the “net neutrality” rules. However, some lawmakers and consumer advocates have made it known that they aren’t ready to give up these recently earned protections. [More]
Cable & Phone Industries Tell Congress To Reverse New Internet Privacy Rule
By 1.27.17
Last fall, the FCC approved a new rule detailing internet service providers can and can’t gather and use your information. The affected industries cried “unfair!” and now, with a new business-friendly FCC Chairman and White House, they are calling on Congress to make this pesky privacy rule go away. [More]
Retailers Ask Congress To Please Not Roll Back Dodd-Frank Debit Card Reforms
By 1.4.17
Both the banking industry and conservative lawmakers are hoping that the incoming Trump administration will agree to repeal the 2010 Dodd-Frank Financial Reforms, but many in the retail world are calling on Congress to retain at least the portion of the law involving debit card transactions. [More]
Congress Decides Maybe It Shouldn’t Gut Independent Ethics Office (At Least Not Until August)
By 1.3.17
Last night, against the reported wishes of party leadership, Republican members of Congress met behind closed doors to adopt an amendment to the House Rules package that would have effectively neutered an independent Congressional watchdog created in 2008. Following a huge backlash from the public and the President-elect, the lawmakers have now walked back this controversial effort, and will reconsider the change this summer. [More]
New Bot-Blocking Legislation Could Make It Easier To Score Tickets To Popular Events
By 12.8.16
About a week after New York barred scalpers from using bots to scoop up tickets to sporting events, concerts, and other popular attractions, the U.S. Congress has sent its own anti-bot legislation to President Obama to sign. [More]
Senators Make Last-Ditch Attempt To Block Expanded Government Hacking Authority
By 11.30.16
There’s a change coming that could arguably make it a lot easier for feds to snoop through your digital stuff, even if you’ve done nothing but been the victim of some malware. If Congress doesn’t act to stop it, that change to Rule 41 becomes effective basically at midnight tonight. So a handful of Senators who want to block it are all but begging their colleagues to act now. [More]
From Healthcare To Financial Protection: How Will The Trump White House Affect Consumers?
By 11.9.16
Elections always bring change; some more so than others. With yesterday’s results in the box and tallied, we now know that we are expecting not only a Trump administration next January, but also to have both houses of Congress and the White House all aligned under control of the same political party. That means that for at least two years, until the next midterm elections, the party in charge — in this case, the Republicans — has the ability to push through changes to policy and law, and we can expect it to do so. [More]
Yahoo Facing Lawsuits, Senate Inquiry, Possibly Merger Issues After Massive Data Breach
By 9.27.16
Last week was pretty rough for Yahoo, which confirmed on Thursday that it suffered a major data breach affecting more than half a billion (yes, with a B) users. Now 500 million people with Yahoo accounts are trying to figure out what to do next… but they’re not the only ones. [More]
Mylan’s Capitol Hill Critics Still Don’t Believe Company Only Makes $80 Profit Per EpiPen
By 9.27.16
Last week, when Mylan CEO Heather Bresch told a congressional panel that her company only makes $50 profit per EpiPen — the emergency allergy treatment that has risen in price by 600% in recent years — lawmakers found that hard to believe. And now that Mylan has revised that profit figure to $80 per EpiPen, the company’s critics are only getting louder. [More]
FCC Explains Cable Set-Top Box Proposal, Everything Else It Does To Senate (Again)
By 9.15.16
Election years beget a compressed Congressional schedule. The House and Senate just got back to work in D.C. after a six-week break, and will be taking another six-week break as soon as we hit October 1 (picking up again after the election), so everything the committees want to do has to get done now. Like bringing in all five FCC commissioners for another episode of everyone’s favorite series, The FCC Explains And Defends Literally Everything It’s Doing. [More]
FCC, Congress Go At It About Pretty Much Everything Once Again
By 7.12.16
The more the FCC actually tries to create or change regulations around communications companies, the more often chairman Tom Wheeler and the other four commissioners find themselves ordered to Capitol Hill for some kind of hearing. And so today in the continuing series, “The FCC And A Congressional Committee Argue With Each Other,” we learned more about privacy, set-top boxes, and zero-rating. [More]
House Passes Bill Allowing Banks To Continue Using “Get Out Of Jail Free” Card
By 7.8.16
A few months back, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed new rules that would limit how banks, credit card companies, and other financial services could shield themselves from legitimate lawsuits by forcing customers to sign away their constitutional rights. Now, the House of Representatives has passed an appropriations bill that, if signed, would stop the CFPB from enforcing these rules and give banks back their “get out of jail free” cards. [More]
Small Store Owners Say Proposed SNAP Regulations Would Send Customers To Supermarkets
By 6.28.16
SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is what has replaced what were once called food stamps with debit cards. Not all stores are authorized to accept food stamps, and proposed new regulations would change the requirements to accept them. While the foods that recipients can use their balance on wouldn’t change, the food that retailers are required to stock before they can accept SNAP would. [More]
Senator Holds Up Intelligence Authorization Bill Over FBI Digital Surveillance Provisions
By 6.28.16
Two kinds of bills run the world, or at least the American slice of it: appropriations acts, which give agencies their budgets, and authorization acts, which tell them how to use them and what they are allowed to do. The bill that authorizes all of the United States’ intelligence activities has been making its way through Congress all year, but now has hit a major roadblock in the Senate, as one Senator has taken a stand against some of its surveillance provisions. [More]
