U.S. House of Representatives - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• US House approves permanent ban on Internet access taxes

  The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to permanently extend a ban on Internet access taxes that Congress has temporarily extended three times over the past 16 years.

• US privacy board defends conclusion that foreign surveillance is legal

  A U.S. National Security Agency surveillance program targeting foreign terrorism suspects does what Congress intended it to do, members of a government privacy oversight board said Wednesday, defending their report that finds the spying legal and effective.

• FBI, CIA can query US communications collected by NSA

  The FBI and CIA can also query the content of U.S. residents' electronic communications that the National Security Agency inadvertently collects when targeting foreign terrorism suspects, an intelligence official said.

• House approves effort to limit NSA searches of US data

  The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to limit the National Security Agency's ability to search U.S. records, after a similar provision was stripped out of a bill intended to rein in the agency.

• Bill to require warrant for email searches gains ground in House

  A far-reaching bill that would require the government to obtain a warrant to search through people's emails and other online communications now has majority support in the House of Representatives.

• House panel investigating FTC data breach enforcement

  A U.S. House of Representatives committee has reportedly launched an investigation into the Federal Trade Commission's use of information from a peer-to-peer security vendor to bring a data breach complaint against a medical testing laboratory.

• Bill would prohibit FCC from reclassifying broadband as utility

  A U.S. lawmaker has introduced legislation that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from reclassifying broadband as a common-carrier utility, a move many net neutrality advocates have called for.

• House approves weakened bill to limit NSA bulk collection

  The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would limit the National Security Agency's bulk collection of domestic phone records, even as several civil liberties and tech groups withdrew their support after last-minute changes.

• US lawmakers praise hacking charges against Chinese military

  U.S. Department of Justice computer hacking charges against five suspected members of the Chinese army should send a message that the U.S. government is fed up with state-sponsored cyberattacks, some lawmakers said Wednesday.

• Lawmakers to FCC: stop mulling net neutrality reclassification

  Republican legislators don't even want the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to think about reclassifying broadband as a utility -- a route the regulator could take in order to reinstate net neutrality rules.

• Second House committee approves bill to end NSA bulk collection

  One day after the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of U.S. phone records, a second committee has approved the same bill.

• House votes to outlaw NSA's bulk collection of phone records

  A U.S. House of Representatives committee has taken a major step toward outlawing the NSA's controversial bulk collection of telephone and other business records generated by U.S. residents.

• FCC pressured to regulate broadband in net neutrality spat

  Critics who say a new U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposal to restore net neutrality rules is too weak are increasing pressure on the agency to reclassify broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service like the traditional telephone network.

• Lawmakers push US attorney general for NSA surveillance changes

  Several U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday urged the nation's attorney general to curtail the National Security Agency's collection of overseas electronic communications, saying President Barack Obama's promise to revamp a surveillance program focused on U.S. telephone records didn't go far enough.

• US plan to end ICANN oversight could lead to 'Net censorship, lawmakers say

  A U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration plan to end its formal relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers could open the door to Internet censorship by China, Russia or Iran, some U.S. lawmakers said.