REPS. ENGEL, PALLONE, AND THOMPSON URGE FCC TO CRACK-DOWN ON FAKE CELL TOWERS KNOWN AS ‘STINGRAYS’
Following reports this week of possible foreign entities spying on Americans’ cellular calls, Congressman Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, today called on the FCC to crack-down on fake cell towers known as stingrays.
Stingrays are cell-site simulators that function essentially as fake cellphone towers. They allow their operators to trick nearby consumers’ cell phones into giving up confidential information that would normally be protected by consumers’ cell phone providers.
“Press reports surfaced earlier this week that the Department of Homeland Security had identified suspected, unauthorized cell-site simulators operating throughout Washington. More troubling, it appears that these cell-site simulators could be gathering intelligence on unwitting Americans on behalf of foreign governments. If these reports are true, it marks an incredible security vulnerability in the seat of the Federal government,” the three Ranking Members wrote.
The Members continued: “[N]o action has been taken to date to actually address this problem. With foreign actors now potentially taking advantage of the Commission’s inaction, the FCC should act, consistent with applicable law and regulations, to investigate these allegations and address any unlawful use of cell-site simulators in the Capital and anywhere else they are used in U.S. soil.”
Engel Signs Discharge Petition to Bring Legislation Protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller to the Floor
Congressman Eliot L. Engel, a top member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has signed a discharge petition to bring legislation protecting Special Counsel Mueller to the floor. H.R. 3654, the Special Counsel Independence Protection Act,would ensure that any step to remove a special counsel from office must first be approved by a panel of federal judges. Engel is a cosponsor of the bill.
“President Trump’s consistent attacks on Special Counsel Mueller undermine our nation’s law enforcement institutions and are a direct threat to our democracy,” Engel said. “The investigation must be able to continue, unimpeded, until the American people get the full story of what happened in the 2016 election. It’s time for my Republican colleagues in the House to uphold the rule of law and work to protect the Special Counsel’s investigation.”
Congressman Eliot L. Engel (NY-16) and Congressman Steve Stivers (OH-15) today reintroduced the Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act, a bipartisan bill that will allow us to better track Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program’s (CHIP) performances in caring for American mothers and infants.
Rates of maternal mortality have fallen worldwide in recent years but, shockingly, have risen in the United States. Given this trend, it is similarly alarming that the U.S. is not measuring and evaluating the performances of Medicaid and CHIP in caring for newborns and their moms – especially since Medicaid finances roughly half of all births in the U.S.
The Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act aims to remedy this problem.
The bill would bring together diverse stakeholders to identify care quality benchmarks for women and children in Medicaid and CHIP, as well as fund new and existing maternity and infant care quality collaboratives. These collaboratives bring together local stakeholders, like doctors and nurse-midwives, to share best practices and improve care for patients.
The bill has been endorsed by March of Dimes, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the National Partnership for Women & Families, American College of Nurse-Midwives, Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs, Lamaze International, March for Moms and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
The bill was introduced with more than a dozen bipartisan original cosponsors: Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), John Garamendi (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Adam B. Schiff (D-CA), Don Young (R-AK), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Tony Cárdenas (D-CA), John Yarmuth (D-KY), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
“Medicaid and CHIP have been essential in caring for America’s moms and babies – especially in New York’s 16th District, where more than a quarter of children are covered by these programs,” Engel said. “As such, it just makes sense that we should carefully measure the quality of the care moms and infants are getting through these programs. I am pleased to once again co-lead the effort to take better care of America’s mothers and babies.”
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