Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., took to the Senate floor to talk about the privacy concerns he raised with the FCC in a recent letter (see 1502240056). “We have major privacy questions,” Nelson said Wednesday, referring to his concerns about the StingRay devices that local police have used and the FCC certifies. “Employed for our national security, for our personal safety, which is the job of government, then it's a good thing. Employed, however, for other reasons of invading our constitutional right of privacy is another thing, and it's time for us to stand up for the individual citizen of this country and their right to privacy."
The House approved the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-734) in a 411-0 vote Tuesday. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., had requested a counting of the votes rather than advancing it under suspension of the rules. The bill “actually reduces the workload at the FCC and streamlines the reporting process that for years and years has been outdated,” said Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., in a statement. “This is an important, bipartisan reform that shows that Congress can work together to get the kinds of things done that actually make things simpler in the real world and make an agency like the FCC operate more efficiently and in a manner consistent with the innovative era in which we live.” The Senate Commerce Committee is marking up companion legislation Thursday at a 10 a.m. executive session.
The FCC provided a partial response Tuesday to the staff of Senate Homeland Security Committee, addressing a document request from Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a GOP Senate staffer told us. Johnson launched an investigation, as did other Capitol Hill Republicans (see 1502230064), this month into whether the White House unduly influenced the FCC net neutrality proceeding and demanded a record of the communications between the administration and the agency on that front, setting a deadline of Monday. The FCC didn't answer any of Johnson’s questions in the response, the Senate staffer said, saying Johnson staffers are now analyzing what they received. The FCC didn't immediately comment.
The House was prepared at our deadline Tuesday to sign off on the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-734). It’s “a reflection of what our Subcommittee can accomplish when we work together in a bipartisan manner,” House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo D-Calif., said in a written statement. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., praised the nature of the bill, speaking on the House floor. “This legislation consolidates eight separate reports” the FCC is required to make on the state of competition, Walden said, framing the legislation as a “small but significant step” in addressing flaws in the Communications Act. The House was about to approve the bill under suspension of the rules, reserved typically for noncontroversial legislation, but Walden requested the yays and nays. House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., praised the bill as a “model” for the committee. The bill had cleared the Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee easily, by voice vote. Eshoo said the bill won’t affect how the FCC uses any Telecom Act Section 706 authority or its ability to review retransmission consent fees. The Senate Commerce Committee plans to mark up a companion bill Thursday at a 10 a.m. executive session.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sees changes in how his department handles broadband this year, he testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee Tuesday. “In FY 2015 USDA will reopen the farm bill broadband program with new rules that align with the changes the Congress included in the 2014 Farm Bill and make approximately $50 million in loans available to help ensure every corner of this country has reliable, high-speed Internet access,” Vilsack said. Since 2009, USDA “extended new or improved broadband service for 1.4 million Americans,” Vilsack noted at one point.
The use of StingRay devices, also known as international mobile subscriber identity catchers, “raises a number of potential privacy and constitutional concerns,” Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said in a Tuesday letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “I am asking that the FCC report to me on its certification process for the StingRay and any other devices that have similar functionality.” The devices are used in police surveillance. Nelson wants to know what the agency knows “about the rationale behind the restrictions placed on the certification of the StingRay, and whether similar restrictions have been put in place for other devices,” and what the FCC asked about in terms of device oversight when certifying them. Nelson also asked for the results of a commission task force that has looked at the issue.
The House Communications Subcommittee scheduled an FCC reauthorization hearing for March 4, as expected (see 1502230069). Witnesses weren’t announced, nor was a time. “Our work is overdue to say the least. Joe Montana was king of the football world and Tom Brady was barely a teen the last time Congress authorized the FCC,” Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said in a statement. “Is the FCC best positioned to handle the challenges of the innovation era? Americans’ demand for state-of-the-art communications and technology platforms for interacting and conducting business continues to grow. This hearing is a part of our ongoing effort to modernize the federal government and ensure that the FCC has the tools to transparently and efficiently carry out its mission on behalf of the American people.” The agency has not been formally reauthorized since 1990.
Henry Waxman, the former top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, is now chairman of Waxman Strategies, a public affairs firm in Washington, D.C. Waxman, who represented parts of Los Angeles, retired when the last Congress adjourned after four decades in the chamber. “He advises clients on public policy and continues to focus on the issues he championed while in Congress, including health care, environment, energy, technology and telecommunications,” according to his profile on the firm’s website now. He's the foremost name on the firm’s website. Also at the firm is Michael Waxman, his son.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., reintroduced the Local Radio Freedom Act (S. Con. Res. 4) Tuesday, a Senate aide said. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., is also a lead sponsor of the resolution, she said. Reps. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, and Gene Green, D-Texas, were also expected to take the lead in reintroducing the House version of the resolution Tuesday, a radio industry official said. The resolutions would prohibit terrestrial radio stations from paying any new taxes or royalties, a House aide said. The number of the resolutions’ co-sponsors was expected to be around 75, the radio official said. Prohibiting terrestrial broadcasters from paying new royalties contradicts one suggestion in the Copyright Office’s recent music licensing study, which called for terrestrial stations to pay public performance royalties (see 1502050055).
The Internet Governance Coalition (IGC) supports NTIA’s criteria for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, plus the agency’s stipulation that the IANA functions not be handed over to an intergovernmental organization, said attorney David Gross of Wiley Rein in prepared testimony for Wednesday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the IANA transition, which was advanced to us Monday. Gross is testifying on behalf of the IGC, which includes Amazon, Cisco, Google and Verizon as members. The IGC believes a “thriving Internet depends on a governance structure that is open, transparent, and representative of all stakeholders,” said Gross. “By allowing for the careful transition of the IANA to a bottom-up multistakeholder entity, the United States has affirmed its commitment to the multistakeholder model,” he said. “If the principles NTIA identified for the transition are met -- which is a critical condition for this process to work -- the United States will also succeed in maintaining the freedom, openness, security, and stability of the network we have all enjoyed since its inception.” ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade and NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling are also testifying Wednesday.