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2018年1月12日 星期五

Cybersecurity Issuewatch Newsletter

 
 
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Senate takes up surveillance bill
 

By Morgan Chalfant

House lawmakers voted to reauthorize a controversial spy program on Thursday after President Trump's tweets threatened to upend the vote.

Attention now shifts to the Senate with a vote likely in the coming week.

The House approved the bill reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) after striking down an amendment that would have put new limits on the spy program. It allows the intelligence community to collect data on non-American targets outside the United States without a warrant.

Privacy and civil liberties advocates have long been pushing for more controls on how the government uses information incidentally collected on Americans under the law.

Trump, whose administration has been pushing for a clean reauthorization for several weeks, sent lawmakers into a frenzy in advance of the vote when he appeared to side with those pushing for reforms.

"'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.' This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?" the president tweeted.

He sent out a tweet clarifying his position about an hour later, saying that he has "personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!"

The debate surrounding 702 has been roiled by accusations from Republicans that Obama administration officials improperly "unmasked" members of Trump's transition team in intelligence reports.

The Senate moved to swiftly take up the measure after it passed the House, voting 69-26 to begin debate on it in the coming week. The program is set to expire on Jan. 19 without congressional action.

Reform advocates have slammed the version of the bill that passed the House on Thursday.

"The government will use this bill to continue warrantless intrusions into Americans' private emails, text messages, and other communications," said ACLU policy counsel Neema Singh Guliani. "The Senate should reject this bill and rein in government surveillance powers to bring Section 702 in line with the Constitution."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is promising to filibuster the legislation if certain changes are not made. Paul, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and others say that a warrant should be required for investigators to sift through American communications collected under the law.

The FISA deadline is not the only one that lawmakers face in the coming week. Congress is barreling towards a government shutdown on Jan. 19 if lawmakers cannot agree on a spending deal. Republican leaders said Thursday that the House would consider yet another short-term funding bill to avert a shutdown.

Experts and officials have previously warned of the negative impacts that these short-term deals have on cybersecurity efforts across the federal government.

Monday also marks the deadline for departments and agencies to implement a security tool that cracks down on fraudulent emails. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in October announced that it would mandate the use of the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) across agencies that operate .gov domains, giving them until Jan. 15 to implement the tool.

DMARC allows organizations to flag emails that fail authentication tests or, when stronger settings are enabled, send the messages to a recipient's spam folder or block them outright.

According to email authentication startup ValiMail, 52 percent of federal domains had implemented DMARC as of Friday. That is up from 47 percent tracked by data security firm Agari at the beginning of the month.

Finally, the coming week could offer crucial updates on congressional investigations into Russian interference, with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon expected to meet with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

 

In case you missed them, here are some of our recent stories:

Russia-linked hackers targeting US Senate

Bill would bar feds from contracting with firms using Huawei, ZTE technology

Mueller interview fraught with peril for Trump

Equifax subject of most consumer bureau complaints in all but one state, analysis shows

Russia-linked hackers apparently targeting 2018 Olympics

Mueller team adds prosecutor specializing in cyber crime

Homeland Security speeds up election security aid to states

Senate Dems' bill would penalize credit reporting agencies for breaches

Pentagon faces slew of cyber challenges in new year

Trump orders new guidance on 'unmasking' requests

Twitter misses deadline to provide Senate info on Russia meddling

 
 
 
 
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Finance Issuewatch Newsletter

 
 
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Lawmakers eye another short-term spending bill


By Sylvan Lane

Lawmakers are preparing to pass a short-term resolution to keep the government funded at current levels as they struggle to agree on a long run solution.

Congress will have four days to avoid a government shutdown when lawmakers return Tuesday, with a deadline of Jan. 19.

The House will consider another stopgap spending bill in the coming, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced Thursday.

That would be the fourth temporary spending patch, or continuing resolution (CR), to come up for a vote since September.

Republican leadership has not yet decided how long the funding in the short-term spending measure will last, according to lawmakers leaving a GOP conference meeting Thursday morning.

But Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee, said GOP leadership told lawmakers who write the spending bills that they could decide the length of the next CR once a deal on budget caps is reached.

He added that appropriators are leaning toward extending government funding until Feb. 16.

Lawmakers have struggled to reach a deal on boosting spending caps to avoid automatic across-the-board spending cuts. Adding to the pressure are efforts to also strike a deal on immigration.

President Trump complicated matters early Friday when he blasted the bipartisan deal to provide protections to young immigrants known as "Dreamers," saying the version lawmakers presented to him on Thursday was "a big step backwards."

"The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly," Trump wrote over a series of tweets.

He went on to accuse Democrats of threatening a shutdown.

A bipartisan group of senators is trying to reach a deal to protect young immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

In exchange for DACA protections, Trump has demanded a border security package with funding for a border wall with Mexico and changes to the State Department's diversity visa lottery program and family-based immigration policies.

The fight over government funding and immigration is likely to delay progress on a bipartisan bill to exempt many U.S. banks from the Dodd-Frank Act's most stringent rules.

The bill from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) is the most substantial attempt to roll back Dodd-Frank with bipartisan support. Bank lobbyists have rallied behind the bill as the last chance to make major changes to the post-crisis rules long targeted by the financial sector.

But the bill's lack of restraints on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has already cost it support in the House among conservatives. But tough measures against the CFPB would poison the bill for Democrats.

Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a markup Wednesday of more than a dozen bills loosening aspects of Dodd-Frank, which could potentially pass both chambers.

There could also be action soon from the Internal Revenue Service as the new tax law kicks in.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that he anticipates that the IRS will add workers to help implement the new law.

"This touches every single aspect of the IRS, from technology to processes to forms, and we are speaking with Congress about getting additional funding for the implementation," Mnuchin said at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Washington. "We would expect that we would hire a significant number of people to help with the implementation."

The IRS's funding level is significantly below where it was in 2010, causing the agency to reduce its workforce by thousands of employees. The agency has estimated that it needs an additional $495 million for fiscal 2018 and 2019 to implement the new law.

 

Your week ahead:

Wednesday:

  • House Financial Services Committee: Markup of more than a dozen bills to amend the Dodd-Frank Act, 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2mmOzDX.
  • Senate Banking Committee: Re-do vote on the nominations of Jay Powell to serve as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and Randal Quarles to serve on the Fed board, renewing lapsed nominations from the last Congress. 10 a.m.
  • Senate Finance Committee: Hearing on the nominations of two U.S. Trade Representative deputy nominees, 10 a.m. http://bit.ly/2mmDYZC.

 

Recap the week with Overnight Finance:

  • Monday: Trump promises farmers 'better deal' on NAFTA | Clock ticks to shutdown deadline | Dems worry Trump pressuring IRS on withholdings | SEC halts trading in digital currency firm
  • Tuesday: Trump, lawmakers take key step to immigration deal | Trump urges Congress to bring back earmarks | Tax law poised to create windfall for states | Trump to attend Davos | Dimon walks back bitcoin criticism 
  • Wednesday: Congress barrels toward another shutdown crisis | Canada worries Trump will withdraw from NAFTA | Blue-state Republicans push tax law changes | Chamber CEO calls out Bannon, Warren 
  • Thursday: House to consider another short-term spending bill | Treasury, IRS release guidance on tax withholding | Banks rack up big wins under Trump | WH defends Trump trip to Davos

 

Today's stories:

  • Maryland Dems ask Hogan about response to tax law, by Naomi Jagoda
  • Mnuchin says financial regulators will probe impact of cryptocurrencies, by Sylvan Lane
  • Mnuchin says he expects IRS to hire more workers to implement tax law, by Naomi Jagoda
  • Mnuchin says he and Trump are mulling changes to 'ridiculous' debt limit process, by Sylvan Lane
 
 

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@thehill.com, vneedham@thehill.com, and njagoda@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, and @NJagoda.

 
 
 
 
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Breaking News: Trump waives Iran sanctions for what administration says is last time

 
 
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Trump waives Iran sanctions for what administration says is last time
President Trump will continue waiving sanctions against Iran that were lifted as part of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, the White House said Friday.

But the Trump administration is imposing new, nonnuclear sanctions in response to Iran’s ballistic missile activity and crackdown on anti-government protestors.

In a background briefing with reporters, senior administration officials also warned that this will be last such waiver, calling on a follow-up deal with Europeans and a legislative fix from Congress.
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Breaking News: Ryan calls Trump 's***hole' remarks 'unhelpful' and 'unfortunate'

 
 
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Ryan calls Trump 's***hole' remarks 'unhelpful' and 'unfortunate'
Breaking his silence, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called President Trump's "shithole countries" remarks "very unfortunate" and "unhelpful, noting that his ancestors who immigrated from Ireland also faced hostilities when they arrived in America.
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