FCC Chmn. Martin aims to gnaw down a stack of rulemakings -- some more than 4 years old -- by circulating over 150 items to commissioners for votes outside normal meetings, a latter-day record according to current and former agency officials. Items awaiting commissioner votes exceeded 170 ahead of a March 14 House Telecom Subcommittee hearing (CD March 15 p1), according to officials. A source put the total at 180 now. That compares to a late Nov. total of about 40 rulemakings on the 8th floor, a former staffer said. Usually no more than a few dozen orders await commissioner review at a time.
The House Homeland Security Committee leaned on NTIA Dir. John Kneuer and a Homeland Security official in a Fri. letter on use of public safety interoperability communications (PSIC) grants. The letter sought to clarify the officials’ positions on use of grants for purposes other than equipment upgrades. Committee Chmn. Thompson (D-Miss.) has been adamant that grants go for other purposes as well. The issue was raised this month in a Subcommittee on Emergency Communications hearing on interoperability (CD March 15 p5). The letter was signed by Thompson, Ranking Member King (R-N.Y.), Subcommittee Chmn. Cuellar (D-Tex.) and Ranking Member Dent (R-Pa.). The other addressee, Corey Gruber, is DHS acting assistant secy.-grants & training.
A federal appeals court Wed. upheld an FCC decision to preempt state regulation of VoIP services. The 8th U.S. Appeals Court, St. Louis, said the FCC acted appropriately in ruling “it would be impractical, if not impossible, to separate the intrastate portions of VoIP service from the interstate portions” to have separate state and federal regulation. Stifel Nicolaus analysts called the ruling a “clear victory for Vonage and similar providers of nomadic VoIP services.”
Homeland Security officials were told that their department has fallen down on security by failing to set encryption standards under the REAL ID Act. They were testifying Wed. at a DHS Data Privacy advisory committee meeting. The law requires states to standardize the data that appear on state-issued ID cards, mostly driver’s licenses, and to network their DMV databases so other states can search for records. But the data in the “machine readable zone” (MRZ) on compliant cards alarms committee members and hearing witnesses, who fear they could create a booming new market for data brokers and aggravate ID theft.
CTIA and wireless carriers asked the 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco to uphold a lower court’s decision overturning proposed state regulation of line charges on subscriber bills. The case touches on one of CTIA’s major focuses: Carriers’ need for the certainty of national rules rather than state-by-state regulation. If the court sides with CTIA, which filed an amicus brief, the issue may be headed for Supreme Court review, sources said.
A federal appeals court Wed. upheld an FCC decision to preempt state regulation of VoIP services. The 8th U.S. Appeals Court, St. Louis, said the FCC acted appropriately in ruling “it would be impractical, if not impossible, to separate the intrastate portions of VoIP service from the interstate portions” to have separate state and federal regulation. Stifel Nicolaus analysts called the ruling a “clear victory for Vonage and similar providers of nomadic VoIP services.”
That the partisan divide is as wide as ever over whether there’s enough money to supply DTV coupons to all who want them was evident at this week’s House Telecom Subcommittee hearing on the DTV transition (CD March 29 p1). But for now, Democrats who say NTIA’s coupon program is vastly underfunded seem content to maintain close oversight over the process as they monitor coupon requests, converter box availability and consumer outreach.
That the partisan divide is as wide as ever over whether there’s enough money to supply DTV coupons to all who want them was evident at this week’s House Telecom Subcommittee hearing on the DTV transition (CED March 29 p1). But for now, Democrats who say NTIA’s coupon program is vastly underfunded seem content to maintain close oversight over the process as they monitor coupon requests, converter box availability and consumer outreach.
As parental oversight of kids’ Internet use has become a legislative issue, companies have stepped in to offer products and services that target parents, but in practice are used by others, sometimes illegally, industry and govt. officials told Washington Internet Daily. Generally developers are immune to liability for users’ violations of terms. But some software functions may border on unfair business practices, especially given FTC and state consumer protection authorities’ pursuit of Sony BMG for its CDs’ “rootkit” behavior.
The Web may be changing politics but there’s no proof it’s changing election results, e-campaign experts said Thurs. at the Institute for Democracy & the Internet Politics Online Conference at George Washington U. The panel focused on the extent to which Web presence has replaced direct mail as the chief campaign mobilizing tool. Panelists generally said it hasn’t, predicting that big spoils will go to the first major candidate to favor the Web over the mail carrier. Internet politics are a highly self-policing institution, agreed the bipartisan panel. That makes smear campaigns more difficult -- at least those based on disinformation, said moderator Alex Treadway, dir.-digital media, National Journal Group.