Tag: HOUSEOFREPRESENTATIVES

The House of Representatives has approved the procedures for a joint resolution that would overturn the FCC's controversial Net neutrality rules. The resolution (PDF) is scheduled for a vote on Thursday in the GOP-controlled House. If it passes, it would then move on to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where its chances of survival are less certain. Even if it passes the Senate, though, the ...

The House of Representatives has voted to overturn a controversial FCC ruling on net neutrality, though it's not clear whether or not the resolution will advance much further. In December, the FCC voted to prohibit Internet service providers from blocking legal content on their networks, while allowing them to restrict access according to bandwidth use. The 3-2 ruling elicited uproars from free ...

Surely to the delight of Tea Partiers and the ambivalence of many others, Nancy Pelosi has changed her Twitter account from @SpeakerPelosi to the more humble @NancyPelosi, as she abdicated her House throne yesterday. The Minority Leader announced the change in a tweet, choking back tears as she opted for a handle "two characters shorter." Be on the lookout for a similar change from @JohnBoehner ...

You'd think that the tech-savvy Dems would've thought of this -- especially after the social networking-powered election of President Obama -- but it actually took the incoming class of Republicans to propose rule changes that now allow electronic devices on the House floor. Until now, cell phones and tablets have been banned from the floors of the House and Senate, although the rules have not ...

Don't adjust your TV sets. Democrats and Republicans really did just find a solution to one of the world's biggest problems: commercial decibel levels. After having already breezed through the Senate in October, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act received a final stamp of approval yesterday from the House of Representatives. It's now headed to the White House, where it ...

With mid-term elections rearing their ugly head this fall, Congressional incumbents and challengers alike are doing everything they can to squeeze every possible vote out of their constituents. This season, though, candidates have added an extra weapon to their campaign arsenal: text messages. Democratic Senatorial candidate Robin Carnahan, for example, has begun posting signs around Missouri, ...

Your TV watching experience may be getting a lot calmer very soon, thanks to a newly Senate-approved bill that would put a limit on how loud advertisers can make their commercials. The appropriately titled Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) calls for the FCC to draft new regulations which would guarantee that televised commercials can't be obscenely loud, or broadcast at a ...

Google has made tracking the upcoming midterm elections a little easier with its 2010 U.S. Election Ratings map. The map breaks down rankings from outlets like Cook, Rothenberg, CQ-Roll Call, and RealClearPolitics (what, no Five Thirty Eight?) for senate, house and governor races in all their color-coded glory. Via the menus on the left, you can select your sources, and the races whose results ...

Considering how notoriously image-conscious they are, you'd think most high-level politicians would've secured their own online domain names a long time ago. A recent survey from the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA), however, finds that many lawmakers still aren't doing enough to protect their own names from online desecration. As the New York Times reports, only about half of all ...

A House bill could soon stop airport employees from getting an eyeful of passengers as they pass through airport checkpoints. The House recently approved legislation that would stop the use of "virtual strip searches" at airports, according to CNET News. Using a low-energy, X-ray machine, airport security personnel can currently view a detailed image of the naked figure that includes every body ...

With the economy in free-fall and Congress struggling to keep their own house in order, you would think that cell phone security would be the last thing on a Representative's mind. New York Republican Rep. Peter King sees it differently. King has introduced a bill that would require cell phone cameras to make some sort of sound when taking a picture. It is called the Camera Phone Predator ...

Looks like Congress is getting a little jealous of the rest of us. The Chief Administrative Office, which controls communications systems for the House, has started a pilot program for lawmakers who wish to use the iPhone instead of the standard BlackBerry. The updated iPhone 3G implemented a number of enterprise friendly features, including Microsoft Exchange support, but it lacks compatibility ...

The stock market wasn't the only thing that tanked yesterday following news of the failure of the $700 billion bailout bill in the House of Representatives. In the hours following the collapse of the political compromise (meant to save Wall Street firms), curious news junkies managed to bring the Web site for the House to its knees. Jeff Ventura, spokesman for the House Chief Administrative ...