Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., may try to resurrect her concerns about pay-TV industry billing practices in hearings of the Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee, she told us at the Capitol this week. McCaskill is ranking member of that subcommittee and a Commerce Committee member. She aggressively focused on those issues in the last Congress, proposing and withdrawing legislation in the form of an amendment to Commerce’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill and nearly holding a hearing on the issues in December (see 1412030047). That hearing would have been held when she was still chairwoman of Commerce’s Consumer Protection Subcommittee, when Democrats held the majority in the Senate. “I’ve got to visit with my [Commerce Committee] chair before I know,” she said of next steps with any legislation and attention to those pay-TV issues. She said Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., seems “fixated” on net neutrality at the moment. Industry lobbyists doubted Thune would give McCaskill the platform she seeks to attack pay-TV industry practices that she would have had last Congress if the hearing she wanted were held. “I haven’t had a chance to sit down with my chair on PSI to see if we can work out maybe some hearings on some of the subjects I did in Commerce that I think would also fit within the jurisdiction of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations,” McCaskill told us. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, chairs PSI.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., formally introduced the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-734) Wednesday. Its two co-sponsors are Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The Communications Subcommittee unanimously cleared a version of the bill at a markup Wednesday. Walden had circulated it as a discussion draft early in the week (see 1502040036). Scalise and Eshoo had introduced a manager's amendment specifying the bill would not modify the FCC's authority over broadband, which the subcommittee approved.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., intends to reintroduce one, or all, of his three pieces of wireless-focused legislation, likely in early March, with wireless hearings possible, he told us at the Capitol Thursday. He began working with the current Commerce Committee leadership on them as far back as September (see 1409220044). Rubio introduced two of the three bills last year: the Wi-Fi Innovation Act (S-2505) with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., pressing for FCC examination of the upper 5 GHz band, and the Wireless Innovation Act (S-2473), focused on reallocating of at least 200 MHz of government-held spectrum for private use, without any co-sponsors. Rubio prepared to issue a third bill -- on removing regulatory siting barriers for carriers -- in December with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., but he told us then a procedural detail stalled that introduction (see 1412110036). That stall involved a question of “the committee they wanted to send it to, that’s one of the other issues, but I think we might have that resolved,” Rubio said Thursday. “I think they could all be done simultaneously, but I’m not sure yet. … Our goal is to make them bipartisan. That’s one of the things that’s holding us up still. But we’ll get there.” Rubio is working with Commerce to see if they could be introduced with “a time frame to get some hearings on the general issue but we haven’t worked that out yet,” he said. He pointed to congressional recess in February when predicting the legislative release will “probably have to be in early March.”
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced the Innovation Act Thursday, alongside several House members. HR-9 “contains commonsense reforms and makes the patent litigation process more transparent,” said Goodlatte in a statement. It said the bill is identical to HR-3309, which the House passed in 2013. It would require “plaintiffs to disclose who the owner of a patent is before litigation” and to “explain why they are suing a company in their court pleadings,” it said. CEA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, NAB, NCTA, Public Knowledge, TechNet, Software & Information Industry Association and Verizon released statements in support of the bill. The bill would weaken and devalue "the patents of all inventors working throughout America’s innovation economy,” said Adam Mossoff, senior scholar of the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at George Mason University, in a statement. “It broadly revises the entire American patent system by creating unprecedented hurdles for all owners of patented innovation who seek redress in court against infringers of their property rights.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wants federal regulators to approve Comcast’s proposed buy of Time Warner Cable, he told the FCC and Justice Department in a Wednesday three-page letter. The deal "does not raise sufficient competitive concerns to warrant blocking,” Hatch said, urging “appropriate” conditions if necessary. He also pushed regulators not to impose any net neutrality obligations. “I urge the Commission and the Department of Justice to abide their statutory mandates and to not turn the merger review process into an opportunity to impose a controversial, unwise, and ultimately unnecessary regulatory agenda upon merging parties.” Hatch also penned a Forbes op-ed Thursday blasting Communications Act Title II rules for broadband. “The administration’s Internet power grab also completely ignores the fact that existing consumer protection laws provide all the tools necessary to ensure that the Internet remains free and open to all,” Hatch said. “Antitrust laws empower courts and the Federal Trade Commission to block business activities that harm consumers, including activities that restrict consumer choice.”
The Anthem health insurance company’s data breach “is another reminder that the cybersecurity threat to America’s infrastructure is the number one national security risk our country faces,” Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said in a statement Thursday. Anthem said the breach may have exposed data for up to 80 million of its policyholders, prompting concerns from members of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Data Security Subcommittee during a hearing on possible data breach notification legislation (see 1502050031). Coats, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he believes it’s “imperative that policymakers break down the barriers to information sharing that limit cyber defenses.” The Senate Intelligence Committee is one of several committees considering cybersecurity information sharing legislation. “Neither industry nor government alone can broadly improve our nation’s cybersecurity, and Congress must renew its commitment to address the wide range of issues posed by cyber threats through targeted legislation,” Coats said. "Our public and private networks remain all too ripe for exploitation, and securing those networks will remain a top priority" for the House Intelligence Committee, said ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a statement. He said Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., "and I are determined to make progress on this critical goal, so that we can protect our country, our economy, and citizens from any future attacks."
Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairman Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ex-Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman, scored 28 additional signatories for the net neutrality letter they sent FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday, as expected (see 1501290022). The House Democrats backed Communications Act Title II reclassification and said the net neutrality protections, applied to fixed and mobile, would help close the digital divide. Signatories included Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich.; John Lewis, D-Ga.; and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Another signatory is Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who also co-sponsors legislation (HR-279) from House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, to prevent the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a Title II service. A Rangel spokeswoman declined to comment on any contradiction in signing a letter backing the FCC’s Title II reclassification legislation while backing legislation preventing such reclassification. Rangel issued a statement Wednesday praising FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's net neutrality proposal, which will involve Title II (see 1502040055). Free Press commended the letter.
The House Communications Subcommittee unanimously approved the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act Wednesday with a manager’s amendment saying the legislation wouldn't affect the agency’s authority. Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., unveiled the 11-page discussion draft earlier this week. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., introduced the manager’s amendment specifying the limits of the legislation on agency authority. “First, our effort to consolidate reporting requirements, including the FCC’s ‘706’ Report does not in any way impact or alter the explicit grant of broadband authority that the court affirmed in the Verizon case last year,” Eshoo said at the markup. “Second, the amendment preserves the FCC’s obligation to examine how retransmission consent fees impact a consumer’s monthly bill.” The House unanimously passed the legislation in the last Congress but it never advanced in the Senate. Scalise said the amended language was not meant to “endorse” any FCC authority so much as to clarify that this bill would not weigh in on it. “As we did some reforms in the [Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization] bill, we wanted to make sure those didn’t get dropped out,” Scalise said of the amended language. “We ultimately will get this back on the House floor. … We do not need a report on the telegraph anymore.” Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced the Senate companion bill (S-253) last month.
NAB warned Congress against accepting the recommendations of pay-TV industry providers in any telecom rewrite. “The basic tier and buy through provisions buttress the policy goals ensuring that consumers have access to local programming, often times life-line programming,” NAB told House Commerce Committee lawmakers in late comments it submitted Tuesday night in response to a white paper. “Therefore, NAB urges the Committee to reject proposals by the pay-TV carriers to upend the basic tier making programming more expensive for viewers.” The white paper deadline was late last month. Its questions were pegged to the lawmakers’ broader ambition of overhauling the Communications Act. NAB said cross-ownership rules should not be retained, and advocated for repeal of “broadcast-only regulations.” NAB also cautioned Congress against revamping retransmission consent rules: “But the reality is the retransmission consent system provides strong incentives to complete retransmission negotiations in the marketplace before any disruption to the viewer occurs, and thus nearly all negotiations are completed on time.” TVFreedom, a broadcaster coalition including NAB, released its response Wednesday. “The argument that retransmission consent fees drive up consumer monthly bills presents a red herring,” TVFreedom told House lawmakers. “Legislation designed to support and advance free and local broadcast TV for the benefit of consumers and local markets is critical to the future of the U.S. video marketplace.” The broadcast exclusivity rules “enhance market efficiency by enabling TV stations that have negotiated exclusive programming rights in local markets to notify pay-TV providers of their contractual rights and to enforce those rights at the FCC,” the coalition said. The committee had not posted white paper responses by our deadline Wednesday.
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., will reintroduce the Innovation Act at a news conference Thursday at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn, said a committee news release Wednesday. The bill, which passed the House in 2013, is designed to reform the “ever increasing problem of abusive patent litigation,” it said. Goodlatte will be joined by House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. A spokesman for House Judiciary Committee member Tom Marino, R-Pa., told us last week the bill is expected to be "virtually the same" as the 2013 version (HR-3309) (see 1501300052).