The Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19 approved a fiscal year 2017 agriculture spending bill, including some provisions that differ from its House counterpart. The Senate bill requires citrus disease inspections in Argentina, allocates $7.5 million more for import-related Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) implementation and $3.4 million more for food safety, and directs an interagency shrimp import pilot program. Senate appropriators cleared and released hard copies of the legislation immediately following full committee markup. The committee adopted two amendments proposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, outlining new protocols for seafood labeling (see 1605190040). The Senate and House bills now await floor consideration.

BOSTON -- The FCC was criticized by another group of stakeholders at INTX, as the show drew to a close Wednesday. All four state telecom regulator panelists heaped criticism on the FCC over a range of process and legal issues. Critiques involved moving Lifeline subsidies for the poor to broadband from voice in a way that allows the FCC to certify providers as eligible telecom carriers (ETC) instead of just states having that authority, and pre-empting anti-municipal broadband state law. Process concerns included that the federal commission takes too long to issue the text of orders, is too partisan, and commissioners don't cooperate. State commissioners of both parties said the FCC doesn't work closely with state telecom regulators and follow through by having such cooperation reflected in rules. Asked in Q&A whether the FCC had any bright spots, panelists praised it for moving USF to broadband.

House lawmakers decided to take up some of the spectrum amendments that alarmed CTIA (see 1605130054), in a second tranche of floor amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2017 (HR-4909). CTIA singled out three amendments of deep concern out of the more than 300 filed, two that will proceed to floor consideration and one that won't. The House Rules Committee deemed 61 amendments in order Monday, and on Tuesday another 120 amendments in order. The chamber hadn't vote on the measure or the amendments at our deadline.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told the Corrections Technology Association the FCC has been too slow to help find a solution to combating contraband cellphones in correctional facilities. The FCC should make it easier for prisons and carriers to work together on the problem, but hasn’t acted, Pai said. “That’s a shame, and a disservice to the American public,” he said. Pai has raised the issue repeatedly, including at a field hearing in South Carolina in April (see 1604060058). “This issue isn’t an abstraction to me,” Pai said in his written remarks. “Over the past few months, I have heard directly from corrections officers who are on the front lines. I have visited with guards at prisons in Jackson, Georgia, in Bishopville, South Carolina, and in Leavenworth, Kansas. And later this week, I’ll be visiting a correctional facility in Boston.” The bottom line is “we have to prevent inmates from using contraband cellphones,” he said.

Public interest groups continue to have concerns about the FCC’s proposed order on Globalstar's launch of broadband using terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), interest group officials said Monday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a TLPS order Friday (see 1605130059). Public interest officials expect to be briefed on the order in meetings this week at the FCC.

BOSTON -- A panel Tuesday of the FCC's four regular commissioners at INTX 2016 morphed into a referendum largely along party lines on the agency's set-top box rulemaking and broadband privacy rulemaking. Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael O'Rielly repeatedly debated the FCC's overall regulatory role. Section 222 in Title II of the Communications Act deals with telephone records, not broadband data services, so it can't be cited as a basis for broadband privacy regulation, O'Rielly said: "The words on the page [of the law] actually have to mean something." But Clyburn said "We are not in the 1800s" and it's up to regulatory bodies to interpret how older laws apply to modern technology. It's the job of the legislative branch to fix those laws, O'Rielly responded. The panel was taped as an episode of C-SPAN's The Communicators.

The Department of Commerce’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors (DEBA) will kick off its work by examining possible digital economy metrics to inform policymaking, along with how to improve U.S. workers’ skills to adapt to the growth of digitization and ways to close the “digital divide” between small and large businesses, DEBA leaders said Monday. Commerce formed DEBA in November as part of the department’s Digital Economy Agenda to encourage growth in the digital economy by promoting Internet freedom, ensuring users’ access to the Internet and promoting trust in online services. DEBA will provide recommendations to the secretary of commerce and the NTIA administrator on policy issues (see 1511240034).

Bemoaning a lack of openness and transparency and repeating recent criticisms about merger oversight, the FCC's two Republican commissioners -- Mike O'Rielly and Ajit Pai -- presented a litany of complaints about the agency on a panel at the FCBA annual seminar Friday. "I look forward to the next" chairman, O'Rielly said.

Public interest groups continue to have concerns about the FCC’s proposed order on Globalstar's launch of broadband using terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), interest group officials said Monday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a TLPS order Friday (see 1605130059). Public interest officials expect to be briefed on the order in meetings this week at the FCC.

The Department of Commerce’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors (DEBA) will kick off its work by examining possible digital economy metrics to inform policymaking, along with how to improve U.S. workers’ skills to adapt to the growth of digitization and ways to close the “digital divide” between small and large businesses, DEBA leaders said Monday. Commerce formed DEBA in November as part of the department’s Digital Economy Agenda to encourage growth in the digital economy by promoting Internet freedom, ensuring users’ access to the Internet and promoting trust in online services. DEBA will provide recommendations to the secretary of commerce and the NTIA administrator on policy issues (see 1511240034).