The Senate is likely to bring the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) back to the floor after Congress reconvenes following next week's recess, said Senate Intelligence Committee leaders Tuesday during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event. The Senate is "literally 10 days out” from consideration of S-754, said Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. Burr and Senate Intelligence Vice Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., are S-754's main sponsors. Movement on S-754 has been stalled since just before Congress' August recess, when Senate leaders reached a deal on a set of 22 amendments it would consider when the bill returned to the floor (see 1508050070). Burr said he and Feinstein since the August recess “have both pestered our leadership to death" to bring the bill to the floor. “There's no more compelling reason for us to do that than the last attack, and the one before that, and the one that’s going to happen next week, next month, and next year,” Burr said.
Jimm Phillips
Jimm Phillips, Associate Editor, covers telecommunications policymaking in Congress for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2012 after stints at the Washington Post and the American Independent News Network. Phillips is a Maryland native who graduated from American University. You can follow him on Twitter: @JLPhillipsDC
The U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations said they reached a final deal on the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which would affect a range of e-commerce, IP and other areas of trade law. The deal will now go through a technical review before going to the U.S. Congress and other national legislatures for consideration. Although a range of industry stakeholders expressed optimism Monday about TPP, many reserved judgment until they're able to review the final text of the agreement. Members of Congress also raised skepticism Monday about TPP’s final contours. It’s unclear the extent to which TPP’s IP provisions will factor into Congress’ consideration of the deal, stakeholders told us.
Even as both houses of Congress paved the way Wednesday for short-term government funding, federal agencies' contingency planning in case of another shutdown continued. The release of all agencies' shutdown contingency plans highlights the possible effects of a shutdown if a similar resolution fails to pass in December, observers told us. Industry and agency officials previously told us the FCC has restructured its budget, so there will be funding to allow portions of its website to remain online during a shutdown (see 1509250054). One change from the 2013 shutdown is that many agencies' websites will remain online, we found.
Cybersecurity interests urged NTIA to focus its multistakeholder process on vulnerability research disclosure more on increasing vendors' use of third-party researchers as a way of detecting software vulnerabilities than on developing new best practices on research disclosure. The vulnerability research disclosure multistakeholder process is the first in a planned series of NTIA initiatives aimed at cross-sector cybersecurity issues (see 1508280036). Although most at a Tuesday meeting focused on incentivizing vulnerability research disclosures, a few attendees said NTIA isn't empowered to fix legislative issues that create roadblocks to vulnerability disclosures.
The FCC should pursue "strong" privacy rules in its upcoming rulemaking, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill said Saturday during a Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. The NPRM is expected to get a vote as early as the FCC’s Oct. 22 meeting and is likely to revive sharp divisions within the commission (see 1509110027 and 1509230063). Brill said she supports a dual FCC-FTC role in privacy protections for broadband users. She said Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband service “presents a rare opportunity to discuss consumer privacy in a specific context -- the relationship between consumers and their broadband providers.” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen recently said the FTC is better equipped to protect privacy (see 1509020040).
The course of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition process is less certain since an ICANN working group meeting over the weekend on a related proposal on changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms and amid renewed congressional scrutiny of the transition, stakeholders said in interviews. ICANN stakeholders had planned to use a meeting Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles to move closer to a consensus on the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) draft ICANN accountability proposal (see 1509240072), but stakeholders who participated in or observed the meeting told us they don’t believe the group made enough progress. Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined two vocal critics of the IANA transition in requesting a Government Accountability Office review of whether it’s constitutional for the transition to proceed without Congress’ approval.
Librarian of Congress James Billington will leave his post earlier than expected, after saying Friday that he plans to retire Wednesday. Billington announced in June that he planned to retire Jan. 1 (see 1506180057). Deputy Librarian of Congress David Mao will serve as acting librarian until the Senate confirms a permanent replacement for Billington, the Library of Congress said. Billington's early departure refocuses attention on the selection of Billington's replacement, but doesn't necessarily put additional pressure on the White House to select a nominee, copyright stakeholders told us in interviews.
The European Commission moved forward Thursday with its digital single market (DSM) strategy by announcing new consultations aimed at collecting public feedback on Internet platforms' behavior in the European market and geographic restrictions of content. European Commission Digital Economy and Society Commissioner Günther Oettinger pointed to the new DSM consultations Thursday as an area in which U.S. stakeholders should work with the EU to maintain their trans-Atlantic ties on information and communications technology (ICT) issues. The U.S. responses to the EU's DSM strategy have been mixed since the strategy first went public in May (see 1505060038 and 1505070053), with some perceiving the strategy as “a secret key to a Fortress Europe,” Oettinger said during a Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies event. “My message to all our friends in D.C. is clear -- don't fall into that trap.”
ICANN's board and the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN's Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) are “much closer to being aligned” on proposed changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms “than it appears in the chaotic nature of the multistakeholder model,” said ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé during an appearance on C-SPAN's The Communicators set to appear online Friday and to be broadcast on C-SPAN Saturday. The ICANN board is aligned with CCWG-Accountability on the basic contours of the groups' draft ICANN accountability proposal but has been objecting to a few portions of the proposal, including those that deal with enforcing proposed new ICANN community powers, said Chehadé.
Participants in a House Judiciary Committee copyright roundtable in Nashville Tuesday rallied around high-level concepts like equitable royalties compensation for songwriters and performers, but couldn’t agree on specific solutions, industry stakeholders who attended the roundtable said in subsequent interviews. House Judiciary had set the roundtable as part of a planned “listening tour” on copyright issues to follow up on earlier hearings related to the committee’s Copyright Act review (see 1509110063). The Nashville roundtable was intended to focus on music licensing issues, with participants largely coming from music publishers and other well-established industry entities.