FCC bureaus and offices no longer will be able to make substantive changes to items after they have been voted on, said Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement Thursday on his latest process change. Pai has announced a tweak to an FCC process each day this week. Beginning at the Feb. 23 commissioners' meeting, “editorial privileges granted to Bureaus and Offices will extend only to technical and conforming edits to items,” Pai said. “Any substantive changes made to items following a meeting must be proposed by a Commissioner.” Pai connected the change to concerns raised by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly during the previous administration. “Filling in a citation in a document is one thing; changing the meaning of that document is another,” Pai said. O'Rielly routinely objected to granting editorial privileges on items under Chairman Tom Wheeler. "I gladly support the effort to officially establish an FCC post-adoption editorial process that is sufficiently narrow and should rarely be needed, finally fixing a process abuse of our past," O'Rielly said in a statement. “Substantive changes to items should only be made in cases in which they are required, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, as a response to new arguments made in a Commissioner’s dissenting statement,” Pai said. Editorial privileges were subject of a story on O'Rielly's and other critiques in 2015 (see 1509170046).

The International Intellectual Property Alliance was one of several industry groups that indicated Thursday it would submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative pushing for China, India and Russia to remain on the office's mid-tier Special 301 priority watch list for copyright and other IP rights violations. USTR was to collect comments through midnight Thursday on its annual Special 301 review on the global status of IP rights enforcement. China, India and Russia have long occupied USTR's priority watch list, which included eight other countries when USTR released its 2016 report (see 1604270049).

The International Intellectual Property Alliance was one of several industry groups that indicated Thursday it would submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative pushing for China, India and Russia to remain on the office's mid-tier Special 301 priority watch list for copyright and other IP rights violations. USTR was to collect comments through midnight Thursday on its annual Special 301 review on the global status of IP rights enforcement. China, India and Russia have long occupied USTR's priority watch list, which included eight other countries when USTR released its 2016 report (see 1604270049).

No disruptive gap in privacy oversight will result if Congress goes forward with GOP plans to kill FCC ISP privacy rules, industry officials representing ISPs told us. They point to Section 222 of the Communications Act as the backstop authority that would give the FCC a role even without the specific rules in place anymore, with an expectation that the FTC eventually would replace that FCC oversight role after later changes to broadband classification. Defenders of the FCC’s rules said both agencies should remain cops on the privacy beat and questioned whether the scenario would play out so neatly. Democratic FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny and House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., jointly pressed for maintaining the FCC rules.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance was one of several industry groups that indicated Thursday it would submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative pushing for China, India and Russia to remain on the office's mid-tier Special 301 priority watch list for copyright and other IP rights violations. USTR was to collect comments through midnight Thursday on its annual Special 301 review on the global status of IP rights enforcement. China, India and Russia have long occupied USTR's priority watch list, which included eight other countries when USTR released its 2016 report (see 1604270049).

No disruptive gap in privacy oversight will result if Congress goes forward with GOP plans to kill FCC ISP privacy rules, industry officials representing ISPs told us. They point to Section 222 of the Communications Act as the backstop authority that would give the FCC a role even without the specific rules in place anymore, with an expectation that the FTC eventually would replace that FCC oversight role after later changes to broadband classification. Defenders of the FCC’s rules said both agencies should remain cops on the privacy beat and questioned whether the scenario would play out so neatly. Democratic FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny and House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., jointly pressed for maintaining the FCC rules.

The FCC's now-closed inquiry into zero rating practices of wireless carriers shows the agency needs to act on another net neutrality matter, said a Pepperdine University antitrust and communications law professor on the blog of the American Enterprise Institute. The associate professor, Babette Boliek, said Wednesday the net neutrality order's general conduct rule, which was used to review the zero rating programs, "is dangerously vague and raises uncertainty in the marketplace." The zero rating inquiry "revealed what has been feared -- that the General Conduct Rule is overly vague, and regulatory review under its authority is currently without a clear legal standard," wrote Boliek, an AEI Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy visiting scholar. "If the General Conduct Rule is to stand, the FCC would do well to provide strong, clear guidance on exactly how it will be used." The agency last week undid a zero rating report and investigations (see 1702030070). The FCC declined to comment Wednesday.

The FCC's now-closed inquiry into zero rating practices of wireless carriers shows the agency needs to act on another net neutrality matter, said a Pepperdine University antitrust and communications law professor on the blog of the American Enterprise Institute. The associate professor, Babette Boliek, said Wednesday the net neutrality order's general conduct rule, which was used to review the zero rating programs, "is dangerously vague and raises uncertainty in the marketplace." The zero rating inquiry "revealed what has been feared -- that the General Conduct Rule is overly vague, and regulatory review under its authority is currently without a clear legal standard," wrote Boliek, an AEI Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy visiting scholar. "If the General Conduct Rule is to stand, the FCC would do well to provide strong, clear guidance on exactly how it will be used." The agency last week undid a zero rating report and investigations (see 1702030070). The FCC declined to comment Wednesday.

Don't expect NTIA reauthorization to be a vehicle for other policy proposals such as spectrum allocation legislation and vehicle-to-infrastructure grants, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told reporters Wednesday, rejecting inclusion of measures that subcommittee Democrats raised last week (see 1702020065). House Commerce Republicans continued to lay out an agenda for 2017 during a meeting with reporters Wednesday, focused heavily on NTIA and FCC reauthorizations, starting with NTIA and then moving to FCC action.

Don't expect NTIA reauthorization to be a vehicle for other policy proposals such as spectrum allocation legislation and vehicle-to-infrastructure grants, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told reporters Wednesday, rejecting inclusion of measures that subcommittee Democrats raised last week (see 1702020065). House Commerce Republicans continued to lay out an agenda for 2017 during a meeting with reporters Wednesday, focused heavily on NTIA and FCC reauthorizations, starting with NTIA and then moving to FCC action.