House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., criticized the House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HR-6800) during a Wednesday ACA Connects event. She nevertheless remains “committed” to enacting privacy legislation this year. HR-6800 was “more of a statement” bill than a serious effort to enact more COVID-19 aid and largely passed “on a partisan basis," McMorris Rodgers said. The measure, OK'd 208-199 (see 2005180056), contains emergency broadband funding and would make local broadcasters and other media outlets eligible for the federal Paycheck Protection Program. McMorris Rodgers criticized language to bar ISPs and voice providers from terminating or otherwise altering service to individual customers and small businesses because of an inability to pay caused by pandemic-caused economic hardships (see 2005210033). She criticized House Democratic leaders for moving to change the chamber’s rules to temporarily allow proxy voting and virtual participation in committee business (see 2005180042), saying she has “serious concerns” it could further “concentrate power” in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. McMorris Rodgers is “hopeful” Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., will continue his efforts during the epidemic to ensure all conference calls and other committee business include bipartisan participation. COVID-19 has “underscored” the importance of passing privacy legislation this year, though it’s disappointing House and Senate Democrats filed the pandemic-specific Public Health Emergency Privacy Act last week, McMorris Rodgers said. She fears HR-6866/S-3749, which aims to ensure data collected for public health purposes is strictly limited to use for that purpose (see 2005140058), “is going to undermine our efforts” to pass a more comprehensive measure. Lawmakers “need to make sure that we get it right,” McMorris Rodgers 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
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., signaled potential hiccups ahead Wednesday for the Spectrum IT Modernization Act (S-3717), despite the Senate Commerce Committee easily advancing the measure on a voice vote. Blackburn noted concerns about how the measure would affect DOD spectrum policymaking. It's a matter committee leaders told us will remain on their radar after Memorial Day recess because of opposition to the FCC's approval of Ligado's L-band plan (see 2005080043). Senate Commerce also advanced FCC Inspector General nominee Chase Johnson and three other tech bills.
A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight teleconference was far tamer than the subpanel’s other examinations of commission business during this Congress (see 1912050043). Most subcommittee members focused on telecom-related COVID-19 legislative proposals. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai emphasized his requests for additional funding. Pai also got additional support from House Communications Republicans for the commission’s recent approval of Ligado’s L-band plan (see 2004200039).
The FCC “pushed the deadline back” for developing a replacement for its electronic comment filing system (see 1909160019), GAO said in an April report released Monday. GAO included the FCC in a survey of Regulations.gov and other agencies’ electronic comment systems. FCC officials informed GAO in February that they expected “the new system to be completed” by April but by that time “could not provide updated time frames for completion,” the report said. As of February, “they had developed system requirements and were obtaining leadership approval for them.” After a discovery phase in which the FCC would identify “system requirements that will help [the agency] improve the security and functionality of the platform,” the commission planned to “move to an implementation phase” that “will include awarding a contract for the project, developing and implementing the new system, and going live with the new system,” GAO said. Three ECFS user groups said “they generally find the platform easy to access and use for submitting comments on proposed rules” but said “the search function is challenging to use and does not provide relevant or targeted results,” the report said. ECFS “allows users to focus searches to particular categories of documents," but "officials from two of these user groups said that it is not always clear what some of these categories mean because they are not defined which can make it challenging to determine how best to search for materials,” the report said. The FCC didn't comment. GAO said last month the FCC has made progress addressing ECFS security vulnerabilities after the disruptions during the 2017 net neutrality comment period, but needs to do more (see 2004240029).
Recent changes to Congress’ operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are getting a mixed response from lawmakers and experts amid questions about implications. The House agreed 217-189 Friday to change its rules to temporarily allow proxy voting and virtual participation in committee business. Senate leaders resist allowing remote or proxy voting in that chamber, but the Rules Committee recently agreed to let senators and witnesses appear via webcam. Those changes followed almost two months in which legislating on telecom and tech issues was severely disrupted (see 2003130073).
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., led an expected letter (see 2005130038) Friday with 31 other senators urging the FCC to “immediately stay and reconsider” its approval of Ligado’s L-band plan. Inhofe and other Armed Services members blasted the FCC during a hearing earlier this month for backing Ligado (see 2005060065). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is contemplating a separate hearing (see 2005080043). The order “does not adequately protect adjacent band operations,” including for GPS and satellite communications “from harmful interference that would impact countless commercial and military activities,” the lawmakers wrote Chairman Ajit Pai and other commissioners. “The hurried nature of the circulation and consideration” of the order “was not conducive to addressing the many technical concerns raised by affected stakeholders.” The FCC’s “accelerated timeline” for approving the order, which came two business days after it was formally announced, “was not adequate,” the senators said. “We are concerned that the FCC has discounted testing and assessments conducted” by other federal agencies in opposition to Ligado’s plan and that the commission “did not provide a technical forum to resolve the significant disconnects between this testing and Ligado’s privately funded testing.” The order’s “process for remediation and mitigation of interference to GPS users” remains “unclear and wholly inadequate to a technology of this importance to the American way of life,” the lawmakers said. Other signers include Senate Armed Services ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. Five other Senate Commerce members also signed: Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Deb Fischer, R-Neb.; Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. " Any allegation that the [FCC] moved too quickly in making a decision on this matter is preposterous," a spokesperson emailed. "There were multiple rounds of public comment on the Ligado application, which has been pending for many years. Federal agencies were provided with the Commission's draft decision back in October 2019." The FCC "imposed stringent conditions on Ligado to ensure that its operations would not interfere with GPS, including dramatically lower power limits and a substantial guard band between the spectrum where it can operate and the spectrum allocated to GPS," the spokesperson said. "The bottom line remains that the FCC made a unanimous, bipartisan decision based on sound engineering principles, and we stand by that decision."
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is circulating an NPRM to “take the next statutorily required step to implement” the 2012 spectrum law's mandate for public safety to move off the 470-512 MHz T band by 2021. Pai on Friday also repeated his call for Congress to repeal the rule. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., again urged Congress to undo the T-band mandate. The House was expected Friday night to have voted on the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act (HR-6800), which includes language from the Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act (HR-451) to undo the statute (see 2005130059).
Senate Commerce Committee members signaled interest in including further emergency broadband funding in the next COVID-19 package. Some senators urged their colleagues to think beyond the crisis. The Wednesday hearing featured few references to House Democrats' Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act (HR-6800), which contains substantial broadband funding. The bill also includes language to make broadcasters and other local outlets eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program. Both issues drew increasing support since the March enactment of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2004300058). The House is expected to vote on HR-6800 as soon as Friday.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is considering an additional hearing on the FCC’s approval of Ligado’s L-band plan as a follow-up to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Wednesday panel (see 2005060065). There’s no consensus among Senate Armed Services members on whether to pursue legislation to intervene or reverse the FCC, with several committee members telling us they want feedback from Commerce. Twenty-three House Armed Services Committee members pressed the FCC for further information on its rationale.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is eyeing legislation as a potential way to speed the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, among other actions to improve connectivity amid COVID-19. The committee plans a Wednesday hearing to examine the "state of broadband" during the epidemic and related legislative proposals. Other senators also filed broadband-centric bills Thursday.