Blackburn Taps Kinzinger, Long for NTIA, Media Ownership Leads; Touts Browser Act Momentum
House Communications Subcommittee Republicans are delegating Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., to “lead the work that we’re doing with NTIA and looking at USCyberCom,” and Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., for “leading the work on media ownership,” Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said during an episode shown this weekend of C-SPAN’s The Communicators. Her subcommittee is prioritizing NTIA reauthorization legislation, with plans to move a bill this summer. She touted momentum she sees for her Browser Act privacy bill.
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Blackburn announced early in 2017 she would assign members to lead in different policy areas and previously named some, including Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, in his broadband deployment focus; Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., on emergency communications; and subcommittee Vice Chairman Leonard Lance, R-N.J., on encryption. Blackburn referred to Brooks’ area as “enhanced 911, FirstNet” and named Rep. Mimi Walters, R-Calif., as aiding Lance on encryption. “It’s going to be nice to have them kind of take the lead on some of those components,” she said.
Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, “is leading our privacy efforts,” Blackburn said. Flores is among the four co-sponsors for Blackburn’s Browser Act (HR-2520), which would set the FTC as regulator for ISP and online privacy on an opt-in basis even for web browsing data. The Internet Association and others such as the Association of National Advertisers, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union question the legislation, while others including AT&T see promise (see 1705220062 and 1705240053).
“I am pleased that some of my colleagues across the aisle are interested in the bill, and I am very pleased that we have some senators who are looking forward to filing the bill,” said Blackburn, who led the GOP effort to kill FCC ISP privacy rules earlier this year, of the Browser Act.
No Democrats or senators publicly back the measure. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, expressed interest last week; a spokesman declined comment Tuesday. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., “worked in the private sector for over 12 years and understands the importance of protecting personally identifiable information,” a spokeswoman said. “Steve is looking into this proposal and discussing it with Montana stakeholders.” Blackburn said she hasn't talked to the White House about the legislation: “As we move forward with broadband expansion and the infrastructure bill, it will give me the opportunity to talk with them and seek support for what we’re doing with privacy.”
Privacy would have one regulator, “and the FTC has historically been the regulator of privacy in both the physical space and the virtual space,” Blackburn said. The FTC currently can't oversee ISP privacy due to its classification as a Communications Act common carrier under Title II. The FCC retains authority under Communications Act Section 222, despite no implemented privacy rules. Blackburn defended the bill’s pre-emption of state privacy laws and dismissed tech industry monetization of web data: “When people feel more confident and feel as if they have more control over a situation, they will probably end up being a better consumer of those services.” She invoked “data mining” that enables email spam and pop-ups in web browsing. Individuals “have a right” to say they do not want that information shared, Blackburn said.
“What we need, in general here, is a more nuanced bill,” TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said during a podcast released Tuesday. “It needs to take account of context, it needs to weigh costs and benefits, it needs to build those standards in. It can’t dump all those things on the agency and trust they’ll get it right.” Szoka criticized the bill’s pre-emption of certain state privacy laws, citing laws on email privacy: “The bill is effectively legalizing piracy of ad-supported content, which is just crazy given that Marsha’s been the biggest supporter in Congress of copyright and biggest critic of copyright piracy.”
Blackburn lauded the FCC move to undo the Title II classification for broadband. “Title II is all about rate regulation,” she said. “They were going to try to change privacy and have two different sets of rules, one for the ISPs that would come from the FCC and one for the edge providers and the balance of the ecosystem and that would come from the FTC.” GOP repeal of the FCC rules was about preventing such varying rules, she said. The FCC under the Obama administration argued its use of Title II wouldn't involve rate regulation. “It will be up to Congress to take legislative action following what the FCC does,” Blackburn said of net neutrality.
House Commerce lawmakers will take up the Senate’s Mobile Now spectrum bill “and use that as a starting point,” Blackburn predicted. She lauded the Trump administration’s focus on tech and telecom, citing some committee staff moving to the executive branch. She favors President Donald Trump’s creation of an American Technology Council. “I hope they also do something with creators,” she said, noting content creators’ copyright concerns. She pointed to lawmakers’ focus on likely broadband components of an administration infrastructure proposal. “There are a couple of must-haves,” she said, naming a priority for unserved areas and better broadband mapping, with an eye toward definitions of acceptable broadband speeds.