House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Tony Cardenas of California is leading a letter with almost two dozen other chamber Democrats urging the FCC not to refresh the record in docket 14-261 on reclassifying linear streaming services as MVPDs. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has maintained the agency doesn’t have the authority to reclassify streaming services, and the FCC said her thinking hadn’t changed after a June letter from Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., (see 2306230062). Twenty other Senate Democratic caucus members pushed last month in favor of a proceeding refresh (see 2310180067). “It was clear even in the 2014 FCC proceeding on this issue that video streaming and the video streaming marketplace were different, and therefore the FCC decided not to proceed,” Cardenas and the other Democratic lawmakers said in a draft of the letter to Rosenworcel we obtained Monday. “Aside from being an inappropriate standard to apply to the streaming marketplace, there is also reason to believe that these issues may be outside of FCC’s scope. The 2014 FCC proceeding record shows that there were issues with the FCC asserting jurisdiction. Ultimately, it is the role of Congress to determine changes to the streaming marketplace, and for these reasons, we urge you to close the 2014 proceeding.” Other House Democrats signing on to the letter include Innovation Subcommittee ranking member Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Communications member Yvette Clarke of New York.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and other backers of his Senate-passed 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (S-2787) are resuming their push for the House to pass the measure now that the chamber has resolved the leadership crisis that halted all legislative activity for most of October. The measure’s backers believe its enactment may be the easiest way to blunt the short-term effects of the FCC losing its spectrum auction authority, a lapse that began almost eight months ago. Lawmakers are continuing to press for full restoration of the mandate but believe that will be difficult until DOD releases its much-anticipated report on repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use.
The FCC faces a bid by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., to defund its Communications Equity and Diversity Council as part of upcoming floor action on the Appropriations Committee-approved FY 2024 spending bill that covers funding for the commission and FTC (HR-4664). Lawmakers pursued relatively few other FCC-focused amendments to HR-4664, but several targeted halting FTC action on proposed changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act premerger notification process and other recent agency actions. House Appropriations advanced HR-4664 in July with proposals to cut funding to both the FCC and FTC compared with what they got in the FY 2023 omnibus funding package. The Senate Appropriations Committee proposes increasing annual money for both agencies (see 2307130069).
FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Debra Jordan and lawmakers voiced optimism during a Wednesday night CTA event about the trajectory of the commission’s work on its August NPRM on a voluntary Cyber Trust Mark cybersecurity labeling program for smart devices (see 2308100032). Jordan offered few updates on the FCC’s progress in developing the NPRM’s record but emphasized that replies to comments filed earlier this month (see 2310100034) are due Nov. 10. “Smart devices make our lives easier” and “more efficient” including via “remotely monitoring the thermostat, knowing when your oven is preheated or the health of our kids,” Jordan said. “But increased interconnection also means increased opportunity for bad things to happen with regard to security and privacy.” Cyber Trust Mark will help consumers “get clear information about the devices that they’re considering buying based on” NIST’s “widely accepted” cybersecurity standards and other “industry research,” she said: “We envision a strong partnership” with the private sector “to make this happen,” similar to the joint Energy Department-Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star program. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said he and other lawmakers are “carefully following” the FCC’s work on the cybersecurity labeling program, which “has the potential to be a good first step in educating consumers.” He cautioned that “we must also make sure the FCC relies on cybersecurity and industry experts to get this right.” Ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., also praised the proposed program. It “will provide consumers with better cybersecurity,” invoking the “Good Housekeeping seal of approval” as a model. “Anything that helps somebody understand whether or not what they’re purchasing” meets cybersecurity standards is a good thing, she said.
The Biden administration’s Wednesday request for Congress to appropriate an additional $6 billion to fully fund the FCC’s affordable connectivity program (ACP) through the end of 2024 (see 2310250075) is drawing initial skepticism from top telecom-focused Republicans amid their push for the commission to be more transparent about how it has been spending the program’s existing $14.2 billion allocation. Congressional Democrats enthusiastically backed the White House’s request, noting it would give Capitol Hill more breathing room to examine whether and how to tie in changes to a longer-term ACP with a push for broader USF revamp legislation. Current estimates peg ACP as likely to exhaust its funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act during the first half of 2024 (see 2309210060).
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and subpanel members from both parties voiced growing frustration during a Tuesday hearing with DOJ’s perceived reticence in enforcing existing anti-robocall statutes and eyed the FCC’s Further NPRM giving consumers more choice on the robocalls and robotexts they will receive (see 2306080043). There was more uneven interest among Senate Communications members and witnesses at the hearing in pursuing additional legislation to address ongoing robocall problems amid those enforcement shortcomings.
The Biden administration is expected to seek about $4 billion in additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program as part of a second part of the supplemental federal funding request it will send to Congress this week, communications sector lobbyists told us. House Democratic leaders are already highlighting the to-be-announced money as a priority alongside the stalled regular FY 2024 appropriations process once the chamber can elect someone to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
The Commerce and Defense departments postponed briefings for the Senate Armed Services and Commerce committees originally expected to happen next week on the Pentagon's report on its study on repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use (see 2309280087), lawmakers and communications lobbyists told us. There has been no clear explanation why, but word of the delay circulated in conjunction with chatter that the two federal departments are disagreeing on what the report’s conclusions mean for bids to sell or share parts of the lower 3 GHz band.
House Commerce Committee Republicans renewed their concerns Tuesday with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s draft net neutrality NPRM reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 2309280084), but no one is expecting GOP members of that panel or elsewhere on Capitol Hill to make a strong push for now on legislation to halt the expected rewrite. Net neutrality legislation would be even more unlikely to pass now amid divided control of Congress than it was last year when Democrats had majorities in both chambers (see 2207280063), lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Lawmakers are less enthusiastic about even pushing a pure messaging bill on the issue amid the current stasis, lobbyists said.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas, Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune of South Dakota and 41 other chamber Republicans urged FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday to “end this charade and shelve” her draft net neutrality NPRM aimed at largely reinstating the commission’s rescinded 2015 rules and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 2309280084). Republicans have given the proposal an almost uniformly negative reception since Rosenworcel first announced it last week (see 2309260047).