House Republicans and Democrats again delved into the acrimonious topic of FCC reform Thursday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said there’s a real need to improve the transparency and accountability of the FCC and stumped for two draft bills similar to FCC reform legislation (HR-3310, HR-3309) that failed to advance last session (CD March 27/12 p1). Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., bemoaned the draft bills, which they said would slow FCC processes and subject the commission to special rules and more litigation.

Congress should seek to limit telemarketing exemptions and permit enforcement officials to pursue third-party spoofing providers, FTC and FCC officials said at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance. The prevalence of call spoofing, the practice of displaying false phone numbers on caller ID displays, remains a big hurdle for enforcement officials, witnesses said. Subcommittee Chair Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., railed against the increase in robocall complaints and said “these shady companies … remain a serious annoyance and abuse to consumers.”

The latest draft of principles from the NARUC telecom task force still raised questions of overreach and appropriate balance regarding the role of states. Other stakeholders praised the draft and underscored the duties states should still have. The group, formed in late November and preparing a white paper for November 2013, released this draft last month (CD June 11 p13), to be discussed at NARUC’s Denver meeting in late July.

Comments are due July 31 on an FCC proposal to “streamline or eliminate legacy regulations contained in the Computer Inquiry proceedings,” said a public notice released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1aD9NTy). Reply comments will be due Aug. 30 in docket 95-20. The FNPRM was released along with an order partially granting USTelecom’s petition for forbearance from several rules and requirements (CD May 20 p9).

Companies from across the telecom industry urged the FCC last week to reform its rules for assessing regulatory fees. Commenters said change is necessary to ensure no provider is at a competitive disadvantage. An NPRM last month sought comment on several reforms, including changes to the Interstate Telecommunications Service Providers fee category, reallocation of full-time equivalent (FTE) employee fees, and limitations on regulatory fee increases (http://bit.ly/13YxqAR).

The FCC needs to work more with the states, recommended the NARUC Telecom Task Force in a preliminary document. It also clarified that “states” refers not only to public utility commissions but also as shorthand for governors, legislatures and state agencies in general. The task force released its latest draft paper (http://bit.ly/164BVdG) Monday, opening it for comments through June 20. It outlined the principles that state commissioners may codify as well as issued tentative recommendations. The Internet Protocol transition is under way and states’ regulatory roles are changing, often for the lesser, but state input remains vital for many reasons, the group said.

"The Commission should put an end to USTelecom’s continual stream of complaints about the very reasonable and necessary Tribal Engagement rules,” said the National Tribal Telecommunications Association (NTTA), urging the FCC to quickly deny a USTelecom request to scale back the tribal engagement rules (http://bit.ly/ZrCi0d). USTelecom asked the commission to clarify that tribal engagement requirements only apply to Mobility Fund recipients, and not to eligible telecom carriers that don’t receive support specifically targeted to fund development on tribal lands, or whose support is being eliminated (http://bit.ly/ZrC35o). But NTTA thinks the rules should apply to all carriers receiving support for serving tribal areas. “Besides being unreasonable in its initial narrowing of the list of ETCs required to comply, USTelecom has now effectively excluded all price cap carriers,” NTTA said.

HTC promotes Amy Wolverton to vice president-government affairs … Time Warner hires Chris Wilson, ex-TechAmerica, as vice president-public policy … Syniverse mobile services company for carriers and ISPs hires Ed Lewis, ex-Belden Partners, as chief strategy officer … Discovery Communications promotes Matthew Kelly to vice president-development and production, Discovery Channel … Lobbying registrations: TechAmerica, Rubin Strategies, effective May 20 … Telecom engineering company MarCel Partners, Turner Pollard Strategies, effective April 17 … Members of 2013 Advisory Council for Free Speech Week include: Chris Dodd, MPAA, chairman; Gordon Smith, NAB; Michael Powell, NCTA; Caroline Little, Newspaper Association of America; Bob Pittman, Clear Channel; Cary Sherman, RIAA; Gary Shapiro, CEA; Walter McCormick, USTelecom.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) second workshop to develop the Cybersecurity Framework, set to begin Wednesday, will delve deeper into actually creating the framework, industry officials said. NIST and the Department of Homeland Security are working with industries considered to be components of the U.S.’s critical infrastructure to draft the voluntary framework as directed by President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order (CD Feb 14 p1). Participants are expected to begin creating the initial set of standards, best practices and procedures that will be included in the draft version of the Framework that’s expected to go public in October (http://1.usa.gov/Z5zzJD).

In the first major move under acting FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn, another $485 million in Connect America Fund Phase I money will be made available for fixed broadband expansion in unserved areas. Wednesday’s order, which leverages private investment and universal service funding, “will potentially connect hundreds of thousands of unserved consumers to robust broadband networks,” Clyburn said in a statement. The commission expects this to be the final round of Phase I funding, said the order approved 3-0 (http://fcc.us/10QCTsG). It said price-cap carriers will be allocated support “using the same allocations as in the first round of Phase I.” As expected (CD April 25 p1), carriers will get access to $300 million allocated for the second round of Phase I.