Privacy and data collection

• Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) circulated a discussion draft for a privacy bill, called the United States Consumer Data Privacy Act, that would give consumers the ability to access, correct, delete and port the data collected about them by companies, while also giving the Federal Trade Commission limited authority to make rules, according to an obtained copy of the draft. Wicker’s draft, which also proposes pre-empting state laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, rivals one from committee ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) that gives the FTC greater enforcement powers and allows consumers to sue companies for data violations.

• The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it has dropped a plan to expand facial recognition scans to U.S. citizens arriving and departing the country, days after the agency filed a proposal to amend current regulations to “provide that all travelers, including U.S. citizens, may be required to be photographed upon entry and/or departure.” Under current regulations, U.S. citizens are allowed to opt out of the face recognition scans, which Homeland Security says are used to crack down on illegal immigration and visa overstays; a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection said the department had considered expanding the program because having separate processes for citizens and non-citizens creates “logistical and operational challenges.”

• Alex Zhu, the head of TikTok, is expected to make his first known visit to Capitol Hill this week to meet with lawmakers, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, amid rising privacy, security and censorship concerns in Washington over the app’s Chinese ownership. Zhu has reportedly reached out to the offices of Republican Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), who have all questioned the app’s independence, and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s (Tenn.) office confirmed he is expected to meet with her regarding online child protection.

Telecommunications and wireless

• The House of Representatives passed the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act in a 417-3 vote, paving the way for the compromise bill targeting unwanted robocalls to land on President Donald Trump’s desk before the year ends. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), one of the bill’s sponsors, told reporters that the Senate is expected to vote on the legislation within the next week or so.

• Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed launching a $9 billion fund to subsidize 5G deployment in rural areas, which would allocate funding over the next 10 years through a reverse auction. Pai said he intends to circulate the proposal, which would override an existing program intended to spur 4G LTE service, among his colleagues early next year, and he also plans to collect comments on where to target the funding and what speed metrics should be used.

• Huawei Technologies Co. filed a petition with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to overturn the FCC’s November vote barring federal broadband subsidies from American companies that use the Chinese telecommunications company’s equipment. The suit was filed ahead of a House Energy and Commerce’s communications subcommittee hearing on FCC oversight Thursday, where Pai and other commissioners testified.

• The Defense Department has been looking for ways to share its spectrum with wireless carriers and other businesses as the Trump administration continues to push for the development of 5G networks. As a part of this effort, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Lisa Porter, the deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, hosted a private dinner in November with executives from AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint Corp. and CTIA, a wireless industry group, to discuss 5G, according to people familiar with the matter, and a Pentagon official said that spectrum sharing was one of the issues raised during the event.

Trade

• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is seeking to remove from the new trade deal between Mexico and Canada Section 230 liability protections for internet companies that host online content, with a Pelosi spokesman citing lawmaker concerns about codifying “the increasingly controversial” legal shield at a time when Congress is considering revisions to it. Tech industry groups such as the Internet Association have been pushing to extend the protections through the trade pact.

• The Trump administration is proposing tariffs of up to 100 percent on $2.4 billion of French imports — including wine, cheese, handbags and porcelain — in response to France’s digital services tax, which U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer’s office says unfairly targets American tech companies. The 3 percent tax on revenue was signed into law in July, and Lighthizer said the proposed tariffs send “a clear signal” that the United States will retaliate against “digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on U.S. companies.”

Amazon

• Federal Claims Court Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith, who is overseeing Amazon.com Inc.’s lawsuit over losing a Pentagon cloud contract, said during proceedings in November that the company contends that it only lost its bid for the JEDI deal because of political interference by President Donald Trump. In a recording of the proceedings released Thursday, Campbell-Smith added that Amazon believes the procurement process was “compromised and negatively affected by the bias expressed publicly” by Trump.

Antitrust

• Antitrust investigators at the FTC have expanded the scope of their probe into Amazon beyond its retail business to include Amazon Web Services, according to people familiar with the matter, who said the agency has started questioning software companies about Amazon’s cloud-computing unit. AWS is a dominant player in the cloud-computing market, with research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. estimating that it makes up 48 percent of the market share, compared to chief rival Microsoft Corp.’s 16 percent.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s congressional staff is working on legislation that would aim to strengthen existing antitrust laws, according to four people familiar with the matter, with two of those sources saying the bill would focus on giving the government more power and scope for punishing antitrust violations. The Massachusetts senator has been tough on the tech industry in her Democratic presidential campaign, arguing that a large concentration of power exists among big tech companies such as Amazon, Apple Inc.,  Facebook Inc. and Alphabet.

Google

• Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are stepping down from their day-to-day leadership roles at Alphabet Inc., although the two founders will still be controlling shareholders and board members at the company. Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google who has testified before Congress and has been the public face for several company controversies in recent years, will now also run Alphabet.

• Four former Google employees filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Google fired them for participating in protected labor organizing, including a protest against the company’s potential work with Customs and Border Protection. A Google spokesperson said the workers, who were fired just before Thanksgiving, were terminated for “intentional and often repeated violations of our longstanding data security policies.”

• The House and Senate are in session.

• The FCC’s next open commission meeting is Thursday. Tentative agenda items include a vote on a proposal to consider allowing other Wi-Fi gadgets on the 5.9 GHz band reserved for automakers and a proposal to designate 988 as the national suicide prevention hotline number.

1) Senators’ year-end push on privacy
Margaret Harding McGill, Axios

2) House passes anti-robocall bill
Chris Mills Rodrigo, The Hill

3) Trump Administration Proposes Tariffs Against $2.4 Billion of French Goods
Josh Zumbrun and Noemie Bisserbe, The Wall Street Journal

4) Scoop: Pentagon proposes sharing wireless spectrum with industry
Margaret Harding McGill et al., Axios

5) Warren Pursues New Antitrust Legislation
Ashley Gold, The Information

6) Amazon, Verizon Partner to Push Computing to Millions of Devices
Scott Moritz and Matt Day, Bloomberg

7) In leaked recording of internal meeting, Jeff Bezos and Amazon’s top execs respond to employee questions about some of the company’s biggest challenges
Eugene Kim, Business Insider

8) Facebook Testing a Way to Let You Move Photos to Rival Sites
Adam Satariano, The New York Times

9) Amazon Suit Claims Trump Bias Tainted Cloud Bid, Judge Says
Naomi Nix, Bloomberg

10) Twenty additional women sue Lyft alleging rape, sexual assault on the ride-hailing app
Faiz Siddiqui, The Washington Post