Lawmakers are at odds over legislation that allows the U.S. government to surveil noncitizens overseas without a warrant. Set to expire last December, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) specifically authorizes the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect communications of foreigners who are located outside the U.S. and who have been deemed intelligence targets. Currently, the NSA does not have to issue warrants to collect the information from American companies such as AT&T when surveiling noncitizens. Critics of the legislation argue that it threatens the civil liberties of Americans given that some of the communications collected could…

Some members of Congress are advocating for legislation that would ban the popular social media platform TikTok in the U.S. Those in favor of the ban argue that the social media site is dangerous to American security given that the app is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which, many argue, could be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Continued use of the app, they say, could put Americans’ data at risk. In the omnibus spending bill that passed in December, Congress included language banning TikTok’s use on government-issued phones and devices, following the lead of several states that enacted…

Congress is moving closer to creating a federal digital data privacy standard for consumers. In July, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) in a 53-2 vote, a resounding show of support for a digital privacy law. Some lawmakers and data privacy stakeholders are at odds, however, over whether one federal statute is enough to protect the data privacy of all Americans. ADPPA (H.R. 8152) would focus on data minimization, or limiting the amount of data companies can collect to what is necessary to provide a specific service. Among its other aims,…

The Trump administration moved to protect Americans’ data privacy in September when it banned Chinese-developed social media apps TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app stores, sparking a debate over national security and free speech. The U.S. Commerce Department’s order barred all new U.S. downloads of the apps after Sept. 20 and would ban the apps’ functionality beginning on Nov. 12. Ahead of the September announcement, President Donald Trump had argued for weeks that the apps were allowing the Chinese Communist Party to surveil Americans. “The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the…

On March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Air plane crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board, including eight American citizens. The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX. Evidence suggested that a new automated system could have contributed to the crash. Later in the month, the Aviation and Space Subcommittee of the U. S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on the state of airline safety. A focus of the hearing was the way in which aviation safety remains a paramount concern even as technology has advanced and changed. Daniel K. Elwell, Act­ing Administrator of the…

On June 8, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved a bill to create a streamlined process by which the Federal Government would authorize commercial space launches. H.R. 2809, the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, introduced by Committee Chair Lamar Smith (TX-R), would expand the authority of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce to include supervision of commercial space activity. Because the private sector is increasingly investing and developing spacecraft, satellites, and other technologies for nongovernmental exploration of outer space, the bill would establish a certification process for the private sector to operate those technologies….

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Modernization and Reform Act, enacted in 2012, created a gradual process for integrating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), otherwise known as drones, into the national airspace. In addition to military purposes, drones have a variety of applications, from weather monitoring and bridge inspection to border patrol and search-and-rescue operations; however, government agencies and others must first obtain authorization from the FAA for their use. As drone technology has advanced and costs have dropped, private-sector demand for these devices has increased. In February 2015, the FAA proposed new rules that would allow commercial drones to fly during…

Major train accidents occurring earlier this year have prompted Congress to readdress the issue of passenger rail safety. Funding for Amtrak has long been controversial, with many Republicans wanting to privatize the system and many Democrats arguing that the United States has fallen behind other countries, such as Germany and Japan, by not making a greater investment in rail travel. The last time Congress reauthorized funding for Amtrak was through passage of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which required the Nation’s busiest railroad operators to implement a technology called positive train control (PTC) and to have it in…

On January 27, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade held a hearing on “The Evolution of Terrorist Propaganda: The Paris Attack and Social Media.” The purpose was to explore the question of whether U.S. companies like Twitter, YouTube, and Facbook are doing enough to stop or limit social media use by terrorists. Subcommittee Chair Ted Poe (TX-R) said that groups like ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) “have hosted press conferences, raised money on Twitter, and other social media,” likening such practices to “letting our enemies take out an ad in the New York…

On July 26, right before adjourning for a five-week recess, the Senate failed to failed to pass legislation to establish security standards to prevent large-scale cyber attacks on the Nation’s critical infrastructure, including the electrical grid and transportation system. Despite a final push by the White House and the military, the 52-to-46 vote fell short of the 60 needed to overcome a Republican-led filibuster and advance the bill to final passage. The legislation ― S. 3414, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, sponsored by Senator Joe Lieberman (CT-I) ― was a national security priority of the Obama Administration. (See the December…