Increased congressional activity is likely focused on government surveillance, said members of Congress and privacy advocates Friday after The Washington Post reported on a leaked National Security Agency audit. The NSA audit said the agency’s surveillance programs violated court orders and other privacy protections (http://wapo.st/19ylImi). Aides from several relevant committees attended a last-minute briefing, convened by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to discuss the NSA audit Friday morning. Staffers from the Intelligence, Judiciary and Appropriations committees in both the House and Senate and from both parties were invited, aides told us. They said leadership staffers were also invited to the lengthy meeting.

Increased congressional activity is likely focused on government surveillance, said members of Congress and privacy advocates Friday after The Washington Post reported on a leaked National Security Agency audit. The NSA audit said the agency’s surveillance programs violated court orders and other privacy protections (http://wapo.st/19ylImi). Aides from several relevant committees attended a last-minute briefing, convened by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to discuss the NSA audit Friday morning. Staffers from the Intelligence, Judiciary and Appropriations committees in both the House and Senate and from both parties were invited, aides told us. They said leadership staffers were also invited to the lengthy meeting.

The FCC should extend commenting deadlines for its further NPRM on closed captioning over Internet Protocol, said several consumer groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing in a joint filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/19vxo9v). Comments on the proposed rules -- part of the FCC’s implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) -- are due Sept. 3 and replies Sept. 30. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc., National Association of the Deaf and other groups want a 60-day extension for comments to Nov. 2, with replies due Dec. 2, so they'll have more time to reach a consensus with the consumer electronics industry, said their filing. “We have spoken with a CEA representative and are optimistic that we will be able to convene a meeting between consumer and industry representatives by early October,” said the consumer groups. “Extending the comment and reply comment deadlines would allow the meeting to occur before comments are filed, thereby affording an opportunity to improve the quality of the record.” The groups also need the extension because their pro-bono legal counsel, the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic, is “generally inoperative” during the summer, making it hard for the groups to file comments in September, said the filing. The FCC should grant the extension “to ensure that people who are deaf or hard of hearing, the primary beneficiaries of the IP captioning rules under the CVAA, are not denied the ability to weigh in on the critical accessibility issues raised in the FNPRM,” said the consumer groups.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance offered additional information to the FCC and asked the agency to act on its longstanding reconsideration petition seeking clarification of customer proprietary network information rules. EWA earlier asked the agency to clarify whether non-interconnected Private Mobile Radio Service (PMRS) carriers are telecom carriers under the Communications Act, subject to compliance with CPNI requirements. “The Recon Petition has been pending for over six years and is unopposed. EWA believes the issues raised in it are more than ripe for consideration,” the alliance said (http://bit.ly/13CGngX). “If, as suggested by the intervening FCC action, the FCC does not so classify PMRS carriers, action on the Recon Petition would resolve this issue not only vis-à-vis CPNI but with regard to telecommunications carrier obligations generally. EWA believes the Act is unambiguous in this respect ... but seeks a definitive resolution of this issue so that the obligations of this category of Commission licensee are clearly defined.” More is at stake than just CPNI, EWA said. “This classification has implications as varied as compliance with Accessibility Recordkeeping Compliance requirements and the need to submit the Form 499, Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet. In light of the significance of these requirements and the number of PMRS carriers affected,” the agency should “address this broader issue in response to the Alliance’s Recon Petition or in a separate Declaratory Ruling” and “do so based on the PMRS license classification rather than individualized showings,” said EWA.

The FCC should extend commenting deadlines for its further NPRM on closed captioning over Internet Protocol, said several consumer groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing in a joint filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/19vxo9v). Comments on the proposed rules -- part of the FCC’s implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) -- are due Sept. 3 and replies Sept. 30. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc., National Association of the Deaf and other groups want a 60-day extension for comments to Nov. 2, with replies due Dec. 2, so they'll have more time to reach a consensus with the consumer electronics industry, said their filing. “We have spoken with a CEA representative and are optimistic that we will be able to convene a meeting between consumer and industry representatives by early October,” said the consumer groups. “Extending the comment and reply comment deadlines would allow the meeting to occur before comments are filed, thereby affording an opportunity to improve the quality of the record.” The groups also need the extension because their pro-bono legal counsel, the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic, is “generally inoperative” during the summer, making it hard for the groups to file comments in September, said the filing. The FCC should grant the extension “to ensure that people who are deaf or hard of hearing, the primary beneficiaries of the IP captioning rules under the CVAA, are not denied the ability to weigh in on the critical accessibility issues raised in the FNPRM,” said the consumer groups.

The FCC Wireline Bureau decision to not “automatically” grant Verizon’s Communications Act Section 214 petition (CD Aug 15 p1) to discontinue domestic phone services indicates that it wants to review the application more closely, likely pushing a decision until after Tom Wheeler is confirmed as chairman, said industry observers and interested parties in interviews Thursday. Some applauded the FCC decision because it allows more time for the New York Public Service Commission to make its own judgment and for others to act in the public interest.

The FCC intends to ask Verizon for further information about the scope of its wireless services on Fire Island, N.Y., according to an Excel spreadsheet that was posted Wednesday on the commission’s EDOCs site. After a Communications Daily reporter contacted the FCC Wireline Bureau regarding the item, it was removed from the site. Verizon has sought FCC permission to discontinue its copper services after Superstorm Sandy destroyed much of Verizon’s infrastructure there.

A special committee looking at allegations of wrongdoing at FirstNet leveled by board member Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald put off until September the release of its first report. Meanwhile, NTIA said that funding has been cleared so that Broadband Technology Opportunities Program monies can flow to the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System. LA-RICS is one of the regional systems building a network in advance of FirstNet.

The FCC took the “first step” toward comprehensive overhaul of its full-time employee (FTE) fee system, said an order released Monday (http://bit.ly/16GB8PD). In a series of “interim measures,” the commission revised its calculation of the number of FTEs working on the regulation of interstate telecommunications service providers (ITSPs), and the number of direct FTEs in the International Bureau. Fees won’t go up more than 7.5 percent as a result of the agency’s FTE reallocations, it said. The agency is also changing how certain broadcast licensees that simulcast in analog and digital pay their regulatory fees. The agency declined to act on some big proposals, including combining the ITSP and wireless categories.

Industry interest is high in an NPRM on circulation that would end the UHF discount for broadcast ownership, but attempts to lobby the FCC on one side or the other haven’t yet begun, said agency and industry officials. Although the eighth floor has received many phone calls for information about the item, there hasn’t been any substantive advocacy, said an FCC official. If the discount is revoked, large broadcasters such as Sinclair could find themselves close to the 39 percent national ownership cap, and a pending purchase by Tribune of Local Broadcasting would leave the new company at 44 percent, public interest groups have said (CD July 2 p2). Large companies that could be affected by the deal are likely waiting for an NPRM to be issued with specific language, said a longtime industry official who lobbies the FCC. The status of existing broadcast operations and pending transactions is one of the questions asked in the NPRM (CD Aug 6 p1). Companies may be “keeping their powder dry” until they have something to respond to, said the lobbyist.