FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler faced many questions about his set-top box proposal during Wednesday's Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing. Both committee leaders questioned the merits. But there was little rancor at the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, with much attention devoted to spectrum policy and relatively little to the agency’s net neutrality order.
Members of the House Research and Technology Subcommittee sought to identify the main regulatory, market and legislative barriers to the deployment and adoption of mobile health applications, during a hearing Wednesday, and questioned witnesses on cybersecurity and privacy concerns for the emerging technology. Witnesses touted the usefulness of mobile health apps, and urged updates to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and government support of industry best practices for health data privacy and security.
The Copyright Office's proposal to separate its systems from the Library of Congress' IT infrastructure and allocate specific funding for CO IT improvements “has nothing to do with the constitutional arguments” over whether to detach the CO from the LOC, said Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante during a House Appropriations Committee Legislative Branch Subcommittee hearing Wednesday. The CO made its proposal for separating its IT systems as part of a provisional version of its IT modernization plan released Monday (see 1602290071).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler faced many questions about his set-top box proposal during Wednesday's Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing. Both committee leaders questioned the merits. But there was little rancor at the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, with much attention devoted to spectrum policy and relatively little to the agency’s net neutrality order.
Numerous radio and TV broadcasters met with FCC Media Bureau staff Thursday to discuss a wide range of broadcasting issues, according to a pair of ex parte filings in docket 12-268. TV broadcasters including representatives of Gray, Nexstar, Raycom, Sinclair and several state associations asked the bureau not to change retransmission consent and exclusivity rules, said one ex parte filing. The FCC should ”keep in place the current regulatory framework” and close the retransmission and exclusivity proceedings, the filing said. “The best way for the FCC to ensure that consumers have uninterrupted broadcast TV content through [multichannel video programming distributors] distribution is to have pay TV operators negotiate with broadcasters and not the federal government,” the filing said. The FCC should act to prevent “the worsening noise floor” from further interfering with AM and FM broadcasts, radio broadcasters including iHeartRadio and Platte River Radio, and the Colorado Broadcasters Association told Audio Division staff. Division staff also discussed proposed changes to the nighttime power restrictions on some radio stations, the ex parte said. “The staff discussed the impact of relaxing these limits on other radio services, and raised potential alternatives for alleviating these challenges, such as participation in the new FM translator application auctions windows to be opened in 2017,” the filing said.
FBI Director James Comey acknowledged Tuesday that legal precedent could be set if courts side with the government in its fight to force Apple to help it "pick the lock" of an iPhone 5C used by one of the alleged San Bernardino, California, mass shooters (see 1602290035). "Of course, any decision by a judge in any forum is going to be potentially precedential in some other forum, not binding but guidance either positive or against," he said, responding to a question from ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Minutes earlier, Comey, the sole witness on the hearing's first panel, replied with the same answer to the same question on legal precedents from Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. The second panel included Apple's top legal executive.
Senate Commerce Committee members filed 25 amendments, not released publicly, to Mobile Now (S-2555) ahead of its Thursday markup. Some of the amendments would raise the broadcaster repacking relocation fund by $1 billion, force a national unlicensed spectrum strategy, and include stronger dig once provisions. But Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us Tuesday that he doesn’t expect too many up-or-down votes during the markup and he anticipates a possible manager’s package to address some of the members’ concerns. Thune filed a substitute amendment text, as expected (see 1602290069), proposing some technical changes to Mobile Now.
FBI Director James Comey acknowledged Tuesday that legal precedent could be set if courts side with the government in its fight to force Apple to help it "pick the lock" of an iPhone 5C used by one of the alleged San Bernardino, California, mass shooters (see 1602290035). "Of course, any decision by a judge in any forum is going to be potentially precedential in some other forum, not binding but guidance either positive or against," he said, responding to a question from ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Minutes earlier, Comey, the sole witness on the hearing's first panel, replied with the same answer to the same question on legal precedents from Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. The second panel included Apple's top legal executive.
Senate Commerce Committee members filed 25 amendments, not released publicly, to Mobile Now (S-2555) ahead of its Thursday markup. Some of the amendments would raise the broadcaster repacking relocation fund by $1 billion, force a national unlicensed spectrum strategy, and include stronger dig once provisions. But Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us Tuesday that he doesn’t expect too many up-or-down votes during the markup and he anticipates a possible manager’s package to address some of the members’ concerns. Thune filed a substitute amendment text, as expected (see 1602290069), proposing some technical changes to Mobile Now.
FBI Director James Comey acknowledged Tuesday that legal precedent could be set if courts side with the government in its fight to force Apple to help it "pick the lock" of an iPhone 5C used by one of the alleged San Bernardino, California, mass shooters (see 1602290035). "Of course, any decision by a judge in any forum is going to be potentially precedential in some other forum, not binding but guidance either positive or against," he said, responding to a question from ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Minutes earlier, Comey, the sole witness on the hearing's first panel, replied with the same answer to the same question on legal precedents from Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. The second panel included Apple's top legal executive.