The FCC should ensure that efforts to streamline international licensing and other authorizations actually accomplish that, said industry parties reacting to an NTIA letter suggesting commission process changes to facilitate executive branch reviews (see 1605120035). Parties voiced concern that the administration's proposal for the FCC to require certain applicants to provide more information upfront is overly broad and could add to industry burdens. They said the FCC should issue an NPRM that proposes specific time frames and other steps to streamline its international reviews, which are coordinated with the executive branch's "Team Telecom" on national security, law enforcement and other issues. Comments on an FCC public notice teeing up the NTIA letter were posted in docket 16-155 Monday and Tuesday.

The divide over FCC-proposed set-top rule changes remains wide, based on filings in docket 16-42 Monday, the deadline for replies, several of which were posted Tuesday. Early-filed comments likewise showed a divide (see 1605230058). Pay-TV industry-side commenters such as Comcast and NCTA cited a record filled with filings against the plan. Proponents of the set-top NPRM dismissed those comments as anti-competitive obstructionism. Opponents “espouse bogus arguments to obfuscate the debate,” said the Computer & Communications Industry Association. “The NPRM drew far more opposition, from a much wider variety of parties, than it did support,” said NCTA.

House Republicans are targeting the FCC set-top box rulemaking in an FY 2017 funding bill that also would slash the agency’s budget by tens of millions of dollars per year to $314.84 million. GOP appropriators loaded the funding bill, unveiled Tuesday, with policy riders curbing FCC action against broadcaster joint sales agreements, on its set-top box proceeding and on various provisions involving net neutrality. The Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee will mark up the bill at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in 2358-C Rayburn.

House Republicans are targeting the FCC set-top box rulemaking in an FY 2017 funding bill that also would slash the agency’s budget by tens of millions of dollars per year to $314.84 million. GOP appropriators loaded the funding bill, unveiled Tuesday, with policy riders curbing FCC action against broadcaster joint sales agreements, on its set-top box proceeding and on various provisions involving net neutrality. The Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee will mark up the bill at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in 2358-C Rayburn.

The divide over FCC-proposed set-top rule changes remains wide, based on filings in docket 16-42 Monday, the deadline for replies, several of which were posted Tuesday. Early-filed comments likewise showed a divide (see 1605230058). Pay-TV industry-side commenters such as Comcast and NCTA cited a record filled with filings against the plan. Proponents of the set-top NPRM dismissed those comments as anti-competitive obstructionism. Opponents “espouse bogus arguments to obfuscate the debate,” said the Computer & Communications Industry Association. “The NPRM drew far more opposition, from a much wider variety of parties, than it did support,” said NCTA.

House Republicans are targeting the FCC set-top box rulemaking in an FY 2017 funding bill that also would slash the agency’s budget by tens of millions of dollars per year to $314.84 million. GOP appropriators loaded the funding bill, unveiled Tuesday, with policy riders curbing FCC action against broadcaster joint sales agreements, on its set-top box proceeding and on various provisions involving net neutrality. The Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee will mark up the bill at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in 2358-C Rayburn.

A proposed local number portability administrator contract for Telcordia treats interconnected VoIP differently than the FCC has, the LNP Alliance said. That wrinkle points to the need for the commission to give parties more time to review the lengthy master services agreement (MSA) between Telcordia (also called iconectiv) and North American Portability Management (NAPM), said a filing from the LNP Alliance posted Saturday in docket 09-109. CenturyLink and NAPM called for the FCC to approve the MSA without delay.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and two other GOP senators are formally calling on NTIA to extend its current contract with ICANN to administer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions past the contract's current Sept. 30 expiration date, saying in a letter late Thursday that they have “deep concerns” about IANA transition-related plans that ICANN submitted to NTIA in March. NTIA plans to complete its review of the IANA transition plans by mid-June (see 1603100070 and 1603110075). If ICANN enacts those plans -- a formal IANA transition plan and a related set of recommended changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms -- without the backing of its contract with NTIA, “it will greatly endanger Internet freedom,” the senators said in the letter to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling. An NTIA spokeswoman said the agency has received Cruz's letter and is currently reviewing it. “The proposal will significantly increase the power of foreign governments over the Internet, expand ICANN's historical core mission by creating a gateway to content regulation, and embolden ICANN's leadership to act without any real accountability,” Cruz said in the letter. “Simply put, regardless of its intentions, the proposal as a whole does not adequately address the grave concerns expressed by Congress.” Cruz and the other two senators who signed the letter -- James Lankford, R-Okla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah -- have repeatedly questioned ICANN in recent months about its engagement with the Chinese government and now-former CEO Fadi Chehadé's involvement with the Chinese government-led World Internet Conference (see 1602040061, 1603030067 and 1604040056). Neither Congress nor NTIA has determined fully whether the IANA transition would result in the transfer of U.S. government property because the transition will involve the transfer of control of the root zone file, Cruz said in the letter. The GAO still is analyzing whether the root zone file transfer constitutes a transfer of government property. If the GAO determines the root zone file is government property, the Constitution “would require a vote in Congress to dispose of such property,” Cruz said. Concerns linger that ICANN could choose to move its headquarters from Los Angeles to a location outside the U.S. in a bid to “escape U.S. law and redraft its bylaws” once it completes the IANA transition, Cruz said in the letter. “This issue is far from resolved” since ICANN's post-transition jurisdiction isn't set to be resolved until after the transition. “The fact that this issue has been deferred to an unspecified point in the future when the U.S. would have a far lesser voice in the transition process raises questions about ICANN's intent on this matter,” he said. Cruz, a Senate Commerce Committee member, sent the letter days before the committee is set to hold a hearing on the status of the IANA transition. The Tuesday hearing is expected to focus on ICANN stakeholders' perspectives on the IANA transition, with transition skeptics reportedly pushing Senate Commerce to air their concerns during the hearing. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also a Senate Commerce member, is circulating his own planned letter to Strickling seeking a delay in the IANA transition (see 1605180063).

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and two other GOP senators are formally calling on NTIA to extend its current contract with ICANN to administer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions past the contract's current Sept. 30 expiration date, saying in a letter late Thursday that they have “deep concerns” about IANA transition-related plans that ICANN submitted to NTIA in March. NTIA plans to complete its review of the IANA transition plans by mid-June (see 1603100070 and 1603110075). If ICANN enacts those plans -- a formal IANA transition plan and a related set of recommended changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms -- without the backing of its contract with NTIA, “it will greatly endanger Internet freedom,” the senators said in the letter to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling. An NTIA spokeswoman said the agency has received Cruz's letter and is currently reviewing it. “The proposal will significantly increase the power of foreign governments over the Internet, expand ICANN's historical core mission by creating a gateway to content regulation, and embolden ICANN's leadership to act without any real accountability,” Cruz said in the letter. “Simply put, regardless of its intentions, the proposal as a whole does not adequately address the grave concerns expressed by Congress.” Cruz and the other two senators who signed the letter -- James Lankford, R-Okla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah -- have repeatedly questioned ICANN in recent months about its engagement with the Chinese government and now-former CEO Fadi Chehadé's involvement with the Chinese government-led World Internet Conference (see 1602040061, 1603030067 and 1604040056). Neither Congress nor NTIA has determined fully whether the IANA transition would result in the transfer of U.S. government property because the transition will involve the transfer of control of the root zone file, Cruz said in the letter. The GAO still is analyzing whether the root zone file transfer constitutes a transfer of government property. If the GAO determines the root zone file is government property, the Constitution “would require a vote in Congress to dispose of such property,” Cruz said. Concerns linger that ICANN could choose to move its headquarters from Los Angeles to a location outside the U.S. in a bid to “escape U.S. law and redraft its bylaws” once it completes the IANA transition, Cruz said in the letter. “This issue is far from resolved” since ICANN's post-transition jurisdiction isn't set to be resolved until after the transition. “The fact that this issue has been deferred to an unspecified point in the future when the U.S. would have a far lesser voice in the transition process raises questions about ICANN's intent on this matter,” he said. Cruz, a Senate Commerce Committee member, sent the letter days before the committee is set to hold a hearing on the status of the IANA transition. The Tuesday hearing is expected to focus on ICANN stakeholders' perspectives on the IANA transition, with transition skeptics reportedly pushing Senate Commerce to air their concerns during the hearing. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also a Senate Commerce member, is circulating his own planned letter to Strickling seeking a delay in the IANA transition (see 1605180063).

A Parents Television Council-led effort to revamp the TV content ratings system isn't seen as likely to lead to FCC or congressional action soon, said broadcast attorneys we informally surveyed. Though a letter asking the FCC to overhaul the TV Oversight Monitoring Board (TVOMB) that oversees the ratings system was signed by 28 organizations and backed by an online petition, it's seen as a complex, controversial area where FCC authority isn't clear, all the attorneys we spoke with told us. With the FCC already neck deep in complicated issues such as the set-top box proceeding and the incentive auction, Chairman Tom Wheeler isn't seen as likely to address the matter before a new president takes office.