The House Communications Subcommittee scheduled a net neutrality hearing for Feb. 25 at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn, the day before FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will hold a vote on his net neutrality order. "The closer we get to the FCC rubber stamping President [Barack] Obama's Internet grab, the more disturbing it becomes,” said subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in a statement. “Consumers, innovators, and job creators all stand to lose from this misguided approach. What’s more, this plan sends the wrong signal around the globe that freedom and openness on the Internet are best determined by governments -- a far cry from decades of bipartisan commitment to light-touch regulation.” Witnesses weren’t announced.
The Los Angeles Times editorial board scoffed at the GOP investigations ongoing in both chambers about White House influence of net neutrality deliberations at the FCC. “Not to meddle in congressional affairs, but they're wasting their time,” the editorial said. “Over the years, presidents have regularly offered these agencies their views on proposed rules and policies. In fact, since the Clinton administration, agencies have been required to submit proposed rules to the White House to give the administration a chance to weigh in.”
A Congressional Research Service report said the net neutrality debate is “more nuanced” this Congress than in the past. The report, dated Feb. 5, traces the history of proposed broadband regulation legislation, including the bills introduced and considered in the current Congress, such as the GOP draft net neutrality bill. Telecom policy specialist Angele Gilroy wrote the 23-page report. “Regardless of the outcome” of the FCC’s Feb. 26 vote on net neutrality, “it is anticipated that the issue of access to broadband networks will be of continued interest to policy makers,” CRS said. The report also delves into usage-based billing and the National Broadband Plan. “The move by some network broadband operators towards the use of metered or usage-based billing has caused considerable controversy,” CRS said.
Keep the government away from telecom, said House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, in a resolution he introduced Friday. H.Res-113 aims to express “the sense of the House of Representatives that in order to continue aggressive growth in the Nation's telecommunications and technology industries, the United States Government should ‘Get Out of the Way and Stay Out of the Way,’” its title said. The resolution itself is under 350 words and resolves that the government should promote “investment through deregulation and free-market competition”; help make “additional spectrum available for commercial usage through unencumbered auctions, reallocation of Federal spectrum, and efficient spectrum sharing”; create a federal plan to transmit “high-quality, real-time voice, data, graphics, and video at increasingly higher speeds” to all people, “especially in rural and underserved areas”; make sure privacy is protected “without compromising marketplace efficiencies”; and help facilitate information sharing about cyberthreats. The resolution text emphasized the 96 million wireline broadband connections in the U.S. as well as the importance of wireless auctions in ensuring more than 197 million wireless broadband connections. It mentions the public-private partnerships that Connected Nation has sought to facilitate. The resolution says “deregulatory policies and free-market competition consistently yield a higher rate of economic growth, a greater standard of living for all Americans, and an enhanced capacity for the United States to be competitive in the global marketplace.” The resolution has no co-sponsors and was referred to the Commerce Committee. Latta has introduced the resolution before and it “represents his broad, strategic vision for the telecommunications industry,” Latta’s spokeswoman told us.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Susan Crawford, a former Obama administration adviser and now a Harvard Law School visiting professor, rebuffed the idea of net neutrality legislation Tuesday. They hosted a Twitter Q&A together for an hour, using the hashtag #AskEdSusan. “Congress gave @FCC tools to protect an open Internet,” Markey told one questioner who asked about legislation. “Actually, we *have* a legislative solution for #NetNeutrality -- and it’s the current statute!” Crawford said, calling it “very durable.” They both back reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, as FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s circulating order would do. Markey commended President Barack Obama for backing reclassification, when asked about White House influence. The U.S. “needs more competition & municipal broadband,” Markey said in one tweet. “Telco/cable lobby fighting entire *idea* of oversight,” Crawford argued. “Totally logical from their perspective.” Markey has been posting countdowns to the FCC vote on Feb. 26 on his Twitter account. “No Internet fast & slow lanes created by broadband barons,” Markey tweeted in one update. “8 days until Internet Freedom Day.”
Department of Homeland Security funding beyond Feb. 27 remains in question, as the House and Senate departed the Capitol in the past two days for more than a week of recess. Once both chambers reconvene Feb. 23, lawmakers will have five days to act to avert a DHS shutdown. The House passed HR-240 to fund the department for the rest of FY 2015, but the legislation has measures to scale back President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. Democrats in the Senate have blocked attempts to move that bill through the chamber, and Obama has threatened to veto the bill. The Senate is scheduled to vote to open debate on the bill again Feb. 23. Congress left DHS out of an FY 2015 appropriations package that passed in December over Republican resistance to the immigration action. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently said DHS funding is now up to the House, although House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the onus remains on the Senate. Thursday, McConnell again pressed Senate Democrats to open debate on the House legislation. “I’ve already offered a fair and open debate to them several times now,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “It’s a debate that would allow for amendments from both parties. That means amendments from Democrats, too.” President Barack Obama Friday sought DHs funding (see 1502130048).
The FCC plans, with leadership from its Office of Native Affairs and Policy, “to build upon its ongoing consultative relationship with the Tribal Nations who own and operate rate-of-return carriers,” Chairman Tom Wheeler told Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in a Jan. 23 letter, released last week. “In 2015, the Commission plans to continue to engage and consult with Tribal Nations, [the National Tribal Telecommunications Association], and others in Indian Country on long-term reform of rate-of-return support.”
More spending on E-rate is necessary, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, agreeing with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. “Closing this connectivity gap requires raising the E-rate spending cap,” Wheeler said in a Jan. 23 letter to Booker, which the agency released Thursday. “Our December Modernization Order makes more funding available for schools and libraries to purchase broadband connectivity capable of delivering speeds up to 1 Gbps over the next five years. We have looked long-term to forecast the funding needs going forward and based the new $3.9 billion spending cap on those forecasts.” He echoed that message in letters to Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, both Minnesota Democrats, the same day, plus one to Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis. “As you note, the increase may over time require Americans to contribute approximately 16 cents a month for a telephone line -- annually about the cost of a cup of coffee at Dunkin' Dunkin [sic] Donuts,” Wheeler wrote.
David Quinalty, GOP tech and telecom policy director for the Senate Commerce Committee, spoke to tech stakeholders in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Friday and gave a speech similar to one Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., gave at Lincoln Labs’ Reboot Congress event last week (see 1502120059). In what was often the same language as Thune, Quinalty described the problems with Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband and the need for Thune’s net neutrality legislation. “Finding a legislative solution,” he said at the Trendigital summit, “is a top priority for the senator.” He joked initially that the BlackBerry is “not quite dead” on Capitol Hill and is the device of choice for Thune and “the majority of my colleagues.” Quinalty also warned of “numerous proposals” floated at the FTC and elsewhere that pose a danger in the realm of online privacy. He spoke favorably on data breach notification legislation. “This is something that Senator Thune is working on right now,” Quinalty said. He, like Thune, warned about forthcoming White House privacy legislation. He also stressed Thune’s role on the Finance Committee and his commitment to overhauling the tax code, which he said will help these businesses.
Privacy "is an American issue,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in an interview with the nonprofit FreedomWorks on why his Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), co-sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, should be passed. Privacy needs to be protected, Leahy said when asked why ECPA reform was needed. When an email was sent in 1986, the email lasted only for a few weeks due to a shortage of memory, he said. Now with the technological advances such as the cloud, emails last forever, Leahy said. “Law enforcement shouldn’t be able to just take something because it has been sitting there for weeks.” Law enforcement “shouldn’t be able to just walk into the cloud and take something,” just like how they can’t walk into your house and take something without a warrant, he said. There's overwhelming support from the public to pass this legislation, Lee said. “Most of our colleagues understand this resonates with voters,” he said. “What keeps us ultimately safe is our privacy,” Leahy said. If we “give up our privacy, we change as a country,” he said. The right of privacy remains the same even though technology changes, he said.