The Open Internet Preservation Act is not going anywhere, House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said in an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators set to be televised this weekend. Democrats in the Senate and House introduced the legislation, S-1981/HR-3982, on Feb. 3 in an attempt to restore the FCC’s net neutrality rules (CD Feb 4 p1). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the rules Jan. 14 in Verizon v. FCC. Due to partisan nature of the issue, industry lobbyists have told us any bill is unlikely to advance in Congress but can serve as a signal to the FCC, especially depending on how many backers it has.

"It would be irresponsible for us not to seize the common ground” on a patent revamp, said National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling. Speaking Wednesday at an event co-sponsored by CEA and New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, he said there are significant, bipartisan areas of consensus on how to revamp the patent system -- eliminating low-quality patents, reducing incentives for unjustified patent litigation and empowering end-users and victims of losses. And the topics of division -- fee shifting, when to stay a lawsuit or limit discovery, and the covered business method (CBM) program -- have areas for compromise. “The gulfs between the sides are not insurmountable,” he said.

Reaction to Wednesday’s European Commission policy proposal on Internet governance was generally favorable. The EC communication on Europe’s role in shaping the future of Internet governance (www.bit.ly/1dHeFDI) is an attempt to set out the EC position on what an appropriate Internet governance model should be, one EU official said at a background technical briefing. Among other things, it envisions a less U.S.-centered Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and a more robust multistakeholder model. ICANN is pleased that the EC stressed the need for a multistakeholder approach to Internet governance in its policy statement, said ICANN Vice President-Europe Nigel Hickson in a statement. European telecom operators praised the proposal, as did the Internet Society. There was skepticism, however, from one member of ICANN’s intellectual property community.

The North American Numbering Council (NANC) should make sure its ultimate recommendation on the local number portability administrator (LNPA) selection process (CD Feb 7 p9) responds directly to the concerns raised (http://bit.ly/1dhvFVm), said Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach Tuesday. She wrote the NANC chairman following calls from Neustar and Telcordia last week for the commission to “restore transparency.” It’s a rare public letter from the FCC, which has until now been mostly silent on the LNPA selection process. Veach declined to intervene directly in the selection process.

Senate Democrats have no plans to overhaul the Communications Act any time soon, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., told NARUC Tuesday during its meeting in Washington. NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Chris Nelson had asked Pryor where the Senate stood on any Communications Act update following Pryor’s remarks on his 2014 priorities. House Commerce Committee Republicans announced in December their intent to overhaul the landmark telecom law and recently received more than 100 comments from stakeholders on what an update should look like.

A plan for proposed changes to the rules governing joint service agreements (JSAs) by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s office has been shared only with the offices of his fellow Democratic commissioners, Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn, said several FCC officials. Republican commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Ajit Pai were “kept out of the loop,” one FCC official said. It’s not uncommon for a chairman’s office to work on items without giving a heads-up to commissioners of the opposing party, several former FCC officials said. It can breed animosity, one former eighth-floor official said. Such partisan inclusion in the drafting process was said to have happened under then-Chairman Julius Genachowski, as staff developed conditions to allow Comcast to buy control of NBCUniversal (CD Jan 18/11 p1).

Capitol Hill’s approach to preparing legislation aimed at curbing abusive patent litigation has shifted since attention moved to the Senate, with industry stakeholders telling us they've noticed the Senate Judiciary Committee has been “deliberative” in its examination of the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) and other bills. Senate Judiciary held a hearing on S-1720 soon after the House passed the Innovation Act (HR-3309) in December, but several members of the committee urged further hearings and more deliberative consideration of legislation on the Senate side (CD Dec 18 p11). Work since then has been at a slower pace and largely behind the scenes, which stakeholders on all sides of the debate said has been beneficial.

The IP transition may have some exciting possibilities, but some security concerns must be ironed out before companies are allowed to stop maintaining traditional copper phone lines, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson. Speaking at a NARUC panel Monday with other FCC bureau chiefs, Simpson said “we're putting all our eggs in one basket. So it better be a pretty good basket. … It’s got to work at times of stress.” The upcoming IP transition trial proposal sought by the FCC (CD Feb 11 p9, Jan 30 p1) are aimed in part at seeing what needs to be done, said Simpson. He said a concern is what happens when things break down. Currently, “When the power goes out, the phones still work,” he said: In an all-IP world, “that’s not so."

The FCC should begin making customers of non-wireline services, including broadband, contribute to the USF, some panelists said at NARUC’s winter committee meetings. But NCTA Vice President-State Government Affairs Rick Cimerman said taxing broadband is the wrong approach if a goal is to expand broadband.

Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to be very active as FCC head, seeking a multistakeholder process but taking action as the record and the public interest demands, he told a Silicon Flatirons conference Monday. The day before his 100th day as chairman, Wheeler lambasted the categories of the Communications Act -- such as common carriage, broadcasting, and cable -- which he said are facing a “growing obsolescence” as previously separate communications services converge.