The FCC mass-media agenda may be light in 2013, compared with work on USF and spectrum issues that will take up much of the eighth floor’s and many bureaus’ and offices’ attention, commission and industry officials predicted in interviews last week. They said Media Bureau staff may find the new year sharpens their focus on spectrum, with Chairman Julius Genachowski hoping to finish an order for the voluntary incentive auction by the end of next year. He would need rules for how to change the channels of stations that don’t agree to sell all or some of their frequencies.

The telecom industry’s transition to an all-Internet Protocol infrastructure will almost certainly require updated regulations, said industry officials and observers we interviewed. But they don’t agree on how to get there. AT&T’s proposal Wednesday that the FCC start a proceeding on the transition from TDM to IP networks (CD Nov 8 p11) raises issues of agency jurisdiction under Section 214 of the Telecom Act, regulatory disruptions and competitive carrier concern of what will happen if they can’t get access to incumbents’ infrastructure, they said.

State regulators will confront the telecom industry’s transformative change to Internet Protocol-based infrastructure at NARUC’s Baltimore meeting, which starts this weekend. They'll be reviewing two new research papers on the topic, as consumers increasingly turn away from the public switched telephone network of switched circuits. The first report questions how broadband voice service quality can be maintained and measured. The second takes a strong look at telecom reliability during natural disasters and the significance of backup power. Both reports from NARUC’s National Regulatory Research Institute have an eye toward the new technology.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is planning to restart a markup of amendments to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), possibly as soon as next week, Capitol Hill and industry officials said. At a panel in San Francisco late Wednesday, Jim Dempsey, vice president-public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the committee will take up the amendments next week. But a spokeswoman for the committee said it’s planning to finish marking up an ECPA amendment bill, but hasn’t set a schedule for the coming work period. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee has no plans to take up ECPA amendments in the lame duck session, a House aide said. Leahy put a September markup on hold after law enforcement agencies raised concerns (CD Oct 26 p5).

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is planning to restart a markup of amendments to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), possibly as soon as next week, Capitol Hill and industry officials said. At a panel in San Francisco late Wednesday, Jim Dempsey, vice president-public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the committee will take up the amendments next week. But a spokeswoman for the committee said it’s planning to finish marking up an ECPA amendment bill, but hasn’t set a schedule for the coming work period. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee has no plans to take up ECPA amendments in the lame duck session, a House aide said. Leahy put a September markup on hold after law enforcement agencies raised concerns (WID Oct 26 p1).

California redistricting following the 2010 Census proved to be a killer for Republican House Commerce Committee members in the 2012 election. At our deadline, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., was trailing by more than 4,000 votes in her race against Democratic challenger Paul Ruiz, a physician (http://xrl.us/bnyhyp). Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., was losing his reelection bid to former San Diego Councilman Scott Peters, a Democrat, by more than 600 votes. And Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., was losing to Ami Bera, a well-funded Democratic physician, by a margin of less than 200 votes, according to the California Secretary of State website (http://xrl.us/bnyhv6). House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., lost his tightly fought battle to Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who challenged Berman after the two House veterans were re-districted into the same district (WID July 5 p1).

California redistricting following the 2010 Census proved to be a killer for Republican House Commerce Committee members in the 2012 election. At our deadline, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., was trailing by more than 4,000 votes in her race against Democratic challenger Paul Ruiz, a physician (http://xrl.us/bnyhyp). Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., was losing his reelection bid to former San Diego Councilman Scott Peters, a Democrat, by more than 600 votes. And Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., was losing to Ami Bera, a well-funded Democratic physician, by a margin of less than 200 votes, according to the California Secretary of State website (http://xrl.us/bnyhv6). House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., lost his tightly fought battle to Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who challenged Berman after the two House veterans were re-districted into the same district (CD July 5 p6).

The appeals court ruling in Hitachi v. United States on CBP protest deadlines is not consequential enough to merit review, said the U.S. government in its Nov. 2 reply brief to Hitachi’s request for a hearing by the Supreme Court. The issue took four decades to arise, the government said, and importers have the option of accelerated disposition of CBP protests if they seek judicial review.

Draft resolutions from state regulators charge the FCC the with federal overreach, one hammering home points in a resolution adopted during the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ summer meeting and another weighing in on a case before the Supreme Court. The new drafts, including three on telecom, were released Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnxft5) and are likely to undergo much debate at NARUC’s fall conference, beginning Nov. 11 in Baltimore. They will have to pass through the organization’s subcommittees and committees and can be “substantially modified” before adoption as NARUC policy, the document cautioned.

The election is almost certain to mean a change in leadership at the FCC, with Julius Genachowski widely expected to leave in early 2013 even if President Barack Obama is reelected. As is typical for this point in an election cycle, rumors are swirling in the communications industry about who will take over.