Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., refiled their Modern Television Act Thursday. The bill, first filed in the last Congress, would repeal parts of the 1992 Cable Act, including retransmission rules (see 1907290053). “Until we modernize outdated video laws, blackouts will continue to happen while market prices surge,” Eshoo said. “Congress needs to finally modernize the outdated 1992 video laws that no longer fit today’s technology,” Scalise said. “Our bill brings back basic copyright protection laws, so that everyone gets paid for their products, and consumers get to choose whatever they want to buy, wherever they want to buy it, and watch whatever they want on any device they choose.” The American Television Alliance, AT&T and USTelecom praised the bill’s refiling. NAB opposed it.
Demand Progress, Fight for the Future and other backers of a return to FCC 2015 net neutrality rules urged President Joe Biden Thursday to appoint to the vacant commission seat previously held by ex-Chairman Ajit Pai someone lacking telecom industry ties. Senate Democrats are pressing Biden to quickly name a third Democrat to cement a majority (see 2102050064). “The Biden Administration has said getting people online during the pandemic is a top priority, and if that’s the case we need a real champ appointed to the FCC, ASAP -- someone who isn’t beholden to big telecom companies because they used to work for them,” said FFTF Campaigns Director Caitlin Seeley George. “The last thing we need is some Democratic version of” Pai. “While the Biden administration has yet to announce a candidate for the fifth commissioner position, some of the names being floated include candidates with ties to the telecom industry,” among them DLA Piper’s Smitty Smith, the groups said.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., introduced privacy legislation Wednesday, as expected (see 2101220048). The Transparency and Personal Data Control Act would establish a preemptive national law that gives the FTC targeted rulemaking authority and the ability to fine on first offenses.
House Administration Committee ranking member Rodney Davis, R-Ill., and Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, pressed Tuesday to ensure lawmakers and staff “have access” to Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network “on the House’s internal television system.” That system carries Fox and OANN, and “we ask for your commitment” both networks “remain available,” Davis and Jordan wrote House Administration Chair Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., asking she “direct the Architect of the Capitol and the House Recording Studio to make Newsmax available.” They framed this as a way to reject “cancel culture” and invoked letters that House Commerce Committee members Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, both D-Calif., sent last month to MVPDs asking them to justify carrying the three networks (see 2102220068). Eshoo and McNerney were effectively “pressuring” the providers,” Davis and Jordan said. “This attempt to cancel Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax is not just a radical attack on the First Amendment’s freedom of the press. It also blatantly ignores how left-wing news outlets regularly pushed false narratives about” former President Donald Trump and his administration. They want House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., to “convene a hearing to examine the dangers of cancel culture.” Newsmax praised the letter in a statement: “Free Speech, the free exchange of ideas, and First Amendment rights are foundational to our nation.” Administration and Judiciary didn’t comment.
Representatives from Microsoft, NAB and the News Media Alliance will testify at the House Antitrust Subcommittee’s hearing Friday at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn. Witnesses are Microsoft CEO Brad Smith, NAB Television Board Chair Emily Barr, News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern and NewsGuild-CWA President Jonathan Schleuss. Other witnesses are possible, the subcommittee said.
Democrats bowed two broadband bills Tuesday as the chamber headed toward an expected Wednesday vote on Senate-passed changes to the American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 budget reconciliation package. HR-1319 includes emergency broadband and CPB funding (see 2103080057). The House received the amended bill Tuesday and was readying a procedural vote that afternoon. Rep. Anna Eshoo of California and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey led refiling of the Community Broadband Act, which would guarantee municipalities and other local governments retain the right to build their own broadband networks in competition with ISPs. Eshoo originally filed the bill in 2016 after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down FCC pre-emption of state laws restricting municipal broadband networks (see 1609130059). The measure “will bridge the digital divide and help local governments enable connectivity, increase economic growth and create jobs,” Eshoo said. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine is a co-sponsor of the House version. Reps. Marc Veasey of Texas and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, meanwhile, filed the Enhanced Emergency Broadband Act, which would provide additional emergency broadband benefit money (see 2103040049).
Facebook must take responsibility for reportedly promoting violence and disinformation before and after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, House Democrats wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg Monday. House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey signed the letter with more than 20 other Democrats. Facebook allegedly “ran ads showing gun accessories and protective equipment next to content that amplified election misinformation,” they wrote. “Similar advertising was shown next to news about the Capitol siege after January 6. Targeting ads in this way is dangerous and has the potential to encourage acts of violence.” They asked Facebook what actions it’s taking to prevent this from happening again. The company didn’t comment.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others cited proposed funding for E-rate remote learning (see 2103040067) in the American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 budget reconciliation package during floor debate before delayed votes. HR-1319 “is urgently needed” to aid post-pandemic economic recovery, President Joe Biden told reporters before an economic briefing. The Senate was in the early stages Friday afternoon of voting on what’s expected to be a litany of amendments, likely pushing final passage until at least Saturday. The $7.17 billion in E-rate funding proposed in a substitute version is “so important” for “children who are at home” to receive adequate remote learning services, Cantwell said. “It is important that we get the dollars out the door. This will help us” recover. “One in four students lack access to internet at home” during the pandemic, making the E-rate money important, said Senate Education Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash. Some Republicans raised concerns about keeping this in HR-1319, making it possible the Senate would vote on amendments that could pare back the funding or create additional eligibility requirements for receiving it (see 2103030063).
Former President Donald Trump criticized Rivada Networks’ support for the U.S. government to make spectrum reserved for 5G available to carriers on wholesale, drawing pushback from the company. Trump’s Thursday criticism of Rivada came via a statement from his Save America PAC that hit back at company adviser and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove over a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in which he panned Trump’s Conservative Political Action Conference speech. Rove “has been losing for years, except for himself,” Trump said. He “came to the Oval Office lobbying for 5G for him and a group. After a lengthy discussion with Rove and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, I said no, they’re not qualified. Our Nation can do much better!” Rove registered in 2019 as a lobbyist for Rivada amid public attention focused on the company’s wholesale push (see 1904220024). Trump’s reelection campaign in August said his second-term agenda would include a push for building a “National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network,” which officials compared to Rivada’s proposal (see 2008270051). Rivada during the Trump administration “advocated for, and still" supports a request for proposals "to determine the best way to share DOD spectrum between military and commercial uses,” a spokesperson said. “An open and competitive RFP would have determined who was qualified or not, but the previous administration never issued one. Nor did [Trump] take any other steps to allocate or share most of the DOD-controlled mid-band spectrum. We are hopeful that the current administration can do much better.”
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., filed the Broadband Reserve Fund Act Thursday in a bid to allocate up to $65 billion in C-band proceeds for the FCC and NTIA to use on broadband and other connectivity priorities. Wicker and other lawmakers floated several proposals to allocate the C-band money last year (see 2007130054). Bidding closed in February at more than $81 billion (see 2102180041). The Broadband Reserve Fund Act would create a fund within the Treasury that the FCC and NTIA could access to pay for priorities. The bill asks Congress to enact further legislation “specifying” what the FCC and NTIA can use the money for. It suggests the money could go to broadband, “promoting spectrum efficiency,” remote learning, telecom supply chain security, digital equity and other priorities. The pandemic “has made internet access more vital than ever as Americans are relying on broadband services to work, learn, and connect with loved ones,” Wicker said. “This legislation would preserve valuable resources to expand broadband access in unserved areas, secure the nation’s communications supply chain, and promote the development of next-generation technologies.”