US senate passes DIGIT Act
The US Senate has passed the bipartisan Developing and Growing the Internet of Things (DIGIT) Act. The bill which was reintroduced in May 2019, would assemble a working group of federal entities and experts from the private and academic sectors tasked with providing recommendations to Congress on how to facilitate the growth of Internet of things (IoT) technologies. The group’s recommendations would focus on how to plan for and encourage, the development and deployment of IoTs in the USA. The bill would also direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue a report assessing spectrum needs required to support IoTs. The bill still has to pass in the House of Representatives and signed by the president before becoming a law. The bill has the support of several groups, including the App Association, the US Chamber of Commerce, the CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, the Computing Research Association, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Intel, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the Security Industry Association, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association, and VMware.