The following are the trade-related bills and resolutions that were introduced in the House or Senate during January 6-7, 2009:

Records of donations to presidential library fund- raising organizations would go online under a House bill introduced Tuesday. The Presidential Library Donation Reform Act (HR-36) is sponsored by Democratic Reps. Edolphus Towns of N.Y., the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Henry Waxman and Brad Sherman of Calif., William Clay of Mo., and Republican Reps. Darrell Issa of Calif. and John Duncan of Tenn. It would require any fund-raising organization to submit quarterly reports to the White House, House Oversight and its Senate counterpart committee listing every contribution over $200. The Archivist of the U.S. would make available online the records “as soon as is practicable,” through a “searchable, sortable, and downloadable database.”

The CTIA Tuesday asked the FCC to stay a Wireless Bureau order granting the District of Columbia special temporary authority to test cell-jamming equipment developed by CellAntenna at the district jail Thursday. The CTIA also asked the full commission to reconsider the decision, made at the bureau’s initiative.

The FCC’s chief administrative law judge bucked the Media Bureau in an order that reasserts his authority over three cable carriage complaints taken back by the bureau, industry lawyers said. Judge Richard Sippel’s order Tuesday said deadlines for discovery and other procedures in the case set by him Dec. 12 require compliance. Late last month, the bureau said Sippel’s authority over cases by three independent programmers against four cable operators lapsed when he failed to act by the bureau’s deadline. Cable operators Bright House, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable asked Sippel to hew to the schedule in the cases, as they asked the full commission to stay the bureau’s orders (CD Jan 5 p5).

M2Z attorney Viet Dinh faced tough questions from judges on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Monday as the company pressed its claims that the FCC violated the Communications Act by not ruling within a year on its 2006 petition seeking a license for the 2055-2075 MHz band to offer a free national broadband service.

M2Z attorney Viet Dinh faced tough questions from judges on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Monday as the company pressed its claims that the FCC violated the Communications Act by not ruling within a year on its 2006 petition seeking a license for the 2055-2075 MHz band to offer a free national broadband service.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a final rule amending the FMCSA's New Entrant Safety Assurance Program regulations to raise the standard of compliance for new entrant motor carrier owners and operators to pass the safety audit necessary to operate in interstate commerce.

Any rumored FCC order to grant the movie industry a waiver on selectable output control won’t come to fruition during Kevin Martin’s tenure as chairman, Martin said Tuesday. Some at the commission and in the CE industry had expected Martin to grant a waiver, with heavy conditions, approving an MPAA request last spring (CED May 13 p2). But in perhaps his last briefing with reporters to go over items for the next monthly public FCC meeting, Martin dashed those expectations.

A rumored FCC order to excuse the movie industry from some TV plug-and-play rules (CD Nov 28 p3) won’t come to fruition during Kevin Martin’s tenure as chairman, he said Tuesday. Some at the commission and in the consumer electronics and communications industries had expected a selectable output control waiver, with heavy conditions, to be granted by Martin, approving the May request by the Motion Picture Association of America. But in perhaps his last briefing with reporters to go over items for the next monthly public FCC meeting, Martin dashed those hopes.

NTIA by next week thinks it will “fully obligate” the $1.34 billion Congress appropriated for DTV coupons, Acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baker told House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., in a letter Friday. Responding to Markey’s call for a status report on the coupon program, Baker said reaching the $1.34 billion “ceiling” won’t mean the program has run out of money, but the NTIA will need to halt processing new coupon orders until money from expired coupons has been recycled back into the pool.