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Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) called on US Trade Representative Michael Froman to file a case against China over its cyber spying.

Sen Schumer urged Froman to file a case against Beijing at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in response to cyberattacks on US businesses.

"The sanctioning of these attacks, in which Chinese military officials have illegally gathered corporate information from members of the US solar, nuclear and metal industries is a threat not just to these specific companies, but to our entire economy," Sen Schumer wrote.

The Justice Department issued criminal indictments on five members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army for online theft of trade secrets from US firms.

Sen Schumer said that since China won't extradite those involved to go on trial here, US government officials have to seek damages through a WTO suit. "Cyber-attacks from China and other nations could prove crippling to American businesses in the years to come, so we need real teeth in our response,” Sen Schumer said. "DOJ did the right thing in filing these indictments, but the only way to really punish China for these outrageous attacks is through the WTO."

The national police officers union is telling Congress not to impose a nationwide ban on online gambling. “We cannot ban our way out of this problem as this would simply drive online gaming further and further underground and put more and more people at risk,” Fraternal Order of Police National President Chuck Canterbury wrote to heads of the House Judiciary Committee.

“Not only does the black market for Internet gaming include no consumer protections, it also operates entirely offshore with unlicensed operators, drastically increasing the threat of identity theft, fraud or other criminal acts.” The police union is pushing back against measures like a bill from Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) that would ban most forms of online gambling across the country.

Lawmakers worried about protecting civil liberties said they had scored a win with the passage of the USA Freedom Act.

The bill had to overcome opposition from members on both sides of the aisle who worried it was too weak to curb the National Security Agency (NSA), but its passage nonetheless amounted to a step forward, they said.

“As result of the Freedom Act passing the House, the NSA might still be watching us, but now we can watch them,” said Rep James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the bill’s author.

“This is a win for civil liberties today,” added Rep John Conyers (D-MI) on the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill ends the NSA’s collection of Americans’ phone records and adds new transparency provisions that Rep Sensenbrenner, who also wrote the Patriot Act, said would prevent abuses from ever happening again. Under the bill, the NSA would have to tell Congress about any new policy changes within a day, and then would have to inform the public within 45 days.

“That way, if the NSA goes too far, Congress will be able to stop it and the American public will be able to know what is happening,” Rep Sensenbrenner said.

The House voted to delay the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s plans to relinquish the United States' oversight of fundamental Internet functions.

In a 245-177 vote -- including 17 Democrats -- the House approved a Republican amendment that would halt the Administration’s plans to end its contract with the company that coordinates Internet addresses. The measure was introduced by Rep John Shimkus (R-IL) as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which just passed. Rep Shimkus’s amendment would require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study before the Commerce Department can proceed with its plans to hand off its oversight role of the system.

The administration has defended its plans, pledging to ensure that the new oversight mechanism will be structured to keep governments and multi-government groups from controlling the Internet. In a floor speech touting his amendment, Rep Shimkus pushed back on those assurances from the Commerce Department.

“While the administration says it won’t accept a proposal that puts the Internet in the hands of another government or government-led entity, there’s no guarantee that won’t happen after the initial transfer takes place,” he said. “But one thing is for sure: Once our authority is gone, it’s gone for good.”

The tech industry is accusing the Senate Judiciary Committee of bowing to “patent troll” lobbyists after Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) shelved his patent reform bill.

“Patent trolls and their special interest allies are the only winners today,” Matt Tanielian, executive director of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, said. Sen Leahy announced that he would be pulling his patent reform bill from his committee’s agenda.

In response, tech groups slammed Sen Leahy and the committee for caving under pressure from patent trolls, the companies that profit by bringing and threatening meritless patent infringement lawsuits. Many groups pledged to continue pushing for patent reform, pointing to the businesses that currently spend time and money defending themselves from patent trolls.

Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) -- who some say played a role in derailing Sen Leahy’s bill -- to circumvent the Judiciary Committee. “If it is not possible for the Senate Judiciary Committee to proceed with its own legislation,” Reid should “stand with innovators and bring the House-passed Innovation Act to the floor of the Senate for an up or down vote,” Beckerman said. The Internet Association includes Google, Facebook, Amazon and Reddit.

The White House is putting its support behind legislation to end some of the country’s most controversial surveillance programs. Ahead of the House vote on the USA Freedom Act, the White House said that it “strongly supports” the bill, which would “provide the public greater confidence in our programs and the checks and balances in the system.”

“The bill ensures our intelligence and law enforcement professionals have the authorities they need to protect the nation, while further ensuring that individuals’ privacy is appropriately protected when these authorities are employed,” the White House added.

The legislation, written by Patriot Act author Rep Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), would effectively end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection and storage of records about Americans’ phone calls. Instead, private phone companies would keep that data and hand it over to government agents who had obtained a court order.

Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to rewrite net neutrality rules would result in “the end of the Internet as we know it” and demanded that President Barack Obama try to stop it.

“This is grotesquely unfair and will be a disaster for our economy and small businesses all around the country,” Sen Sanders said. “We cannot allow our democracy to once again be sold to the highest bidder.” Sen Sanders said that although the FCC is an independent federal agency, President Obama should publicly denounce Chairman Wheeler’s proposal.

Privacy advocates that have pushed for legislation to reform US government surveillance are backing away from a House bill that they say has been "watered-down" as it heads to the floor.

Though the original bill intended to end sweeping surveillance programs, the bill that the House will vote on soon allows for “mass surveillance on a slightly smaller scale,” according to Harley Geiger, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

The bill -- the USA Freedom Act, authored by Patriot Act Rep Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) -- was originally written to prohibit the US government's sweeping surveillance program. But after moving through the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, where it saw some changes but retained the support of privacy advocates, last minute negotiations between House leadership and the Obama Administration have left the bill with weakened language when it comes to banning mass surveillance, advocates say.

Rep Sensenbrenner filed a manager’s amendment at the House Rules Committee to be considered on the floor in place of the bill that passed the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Rep Sensenbrenner’s amendment still prohibits bulk collection but would allow government officials to search for records using “a discrete term, such as a term specifically identifying a person, entity, account, address, or device, used by the Government to limit the scope of the information or tangible things sought.”

While the standard in Rep Sensenbrenner's amendment is more specific than the one under current law, it leaves too much room for interpretation, as opposed to earlier versions of the bill, Geiger said. It may keep the intelligence community from sweeping surveillance on a national level, but “it is ambiguous enough to allow for large scale collection,” he said.

The Federal Communications Commission moved forward with two actions to help automatically control trains and avoid accidents. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said that the twin moves, which will help manage the rollout of the safety technology and preserve historic sites, was an important step forward for the effort.

“This agreement is an acknowledgement by the freight rail industry of the importance of environmental protection and historic preservation,” he said. The Positive Train Control system, he added, “is a transformative technology that has the power to save lives, prevent injuries, and avoid extensive property damage.”

The commission announced that it had signed a deal to allow seven freight rail companies to start testing almost 11,000 poles for the automated safety technology. In exchange, those seven railroads put together a $10 million fund to help states and tribal governments preserve cultural and historic areas.

Rep Justin Amash (R-MI) wants to stop the government’s snooping on people’s phone calls any way he can.

The libertarian stalwart filed two amendments to the annual defense spending bill that would effectively prevent the National Security Agency (NSA) from collecting and storing bulk records about domestic phone calls. The strategy is reminiscent of a nearly successful move that came within seven votes of passage shortly after revelations about the NSA emerged from documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

The new measures are meant as a “backstop” in case a more comprehensive NSA reform bill does not get to the House floor, according to Amash's chief of staff, Will Adams. The legislation could be slated for a floor vote, but so far no session has been scheduled.