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.
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.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he’s “encouraged” that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) are “developing a plan to regularly test emergency communications systems with local governments, but what I want to see from [WMATA] is a real sense of urgency when it comes to fixing problems with emergency communications.” Warner urged COG and WMATA last week to improve their coordination on public safety communications connectivity within WMATA’s Metrorail system in response to problems that first responders encountered with their radios while attempting a rescue Jan. 12 at the L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station (see 1501230066). COG and WMATA told Warner in a letter Friday that they're “working systematically to address any issues” found during testing of radio connectivity in the Metrorail system. The two entities said they’re also “working together to identify any other areas where improvements can be made in emergency communication and incorporate them into a set of planned formal agreement between public safety agencies and the transit agency.” COG, WMATA and area fire departments currently operate under a 2011 emergency procedures policy agreement. WMATA “must also establish that radio systems are working effectively across the region right now. If problems are detected, we should expect that that they will be addressed in a matter of hours, and not days or weeks,” Warner said Tuesday in a news release.
Legislation to let companies publicly estimate the number of surveillance orders they receive from agencies under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and national security letters was introduced by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. Known as the Surveillance Order Reporting Act, the legislation introduced Tuesday may “shed light on the breadth of overreaching government surveillance programs,” Lofgren and Chaffetz said in a joint news release. Companies' inability to disclose basic information about the requests they receive “impedes informed public debate, undermines user trust in Internet services, and has led to strained relationships between U.S. companies and international business partners,” the release said. Internet and telecom companies would be able to report an estimated number of surveillance orders received, orders complied with and, rounded to the nearest 100, the number of users and accounts information requested or provided on.
The House Communications Subcommittee will mark up the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act discussion draft at 10 a.m. Wednesday in 2123 Rayburn. “This bill is another important step in our efforts to cut red tape and modernize the FCC as we bring our laws firmly into the 21st century,” Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said in a statement. “A more efficient FCC will encourage further innovation, investment, and job creation, things that we can all get behind.” The 11-page discussion draft includes a section emphasizing that the bill will have no effect on FCC authority. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced a companion bill (S-253) last week, which still has no co-sponsors and has a 16-page bill text. The House passed the legislation in the last Congress but it never advanced in the Senate. “By eliminating outdated studies and consolidating the ones that remain into a biennial release, the Commission will be more efficient and can provide more useful information,” a GOP House majority staff memo said of the discussion draft. “The draft also proposes a “State of the Industry” report, focused on the challenges and opportunities in the marketplace, as well as the chairperson’s plan of action.” Spokespeople for House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., didn’t comment.
To further establish an open and transparent government, Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and House Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., on Monday introduced legislation to strengthen U.S. Freedom of Information Act laws. The 2015 FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act would make frequently released information and information that is of interest to the public available online, strengthen oversight and review of FOIA compliance, and place the burden on agencies to explain why information should not be made publicly available instead of requiring the public to justify the release. “There should be a presumption of openness in this country, and agencies should have to justify their actions when they want to withhold information from the American people,” Cummings said in a joint news release with Issa. To ease the FOIA process for the public, the bill also would create a single website where the public can submit a request for records. “Requests through the Freedom of Information Act remain the best tool for the American people to hold their government accountable,” Issa said. “In this information technology driven era, it should be easier, not harder for citizens to have simpler and broader access to government information.”
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, now backs the Community Broadband Act (S-240) that Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced last month. King is the third co-sponsor, following Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Ed Markey, D-Mass. This legislation would allow Congress to pre-empt state laws that restrict municipal broadband networks, which Republicans generally oppose. “From my experiences as mayor of Newark, I have seen firsthand that cities and localities are often in the best position to determine how to spend their taxpayer dollars to solve problems, provide services and innovate,” Booker said in an op-ed on NorthJersey.com last weekend. Booker also issued a statement Monday praising the FCC’s circulation of an item to pre-empt the state laws. “I’m pleased the FCC is standing up for the rights of municipalities over special interests that may not find it profitable to invest in low-income and rural areas,” Booker said. “This FCC action is an important step forward as American seeks to leverage its strengths in the digital age.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., favors Communications Act Title II-based net neutrality rules, he said Tuesday during a leadership news conference in response to a press question. He didn't elaborate on the support but has outlined desire for strong net neutrality protections in the past. Hill Republicans have strongly opposed the use of Title II and proposed legislation to avoid what they see as its disastrous effects for industry.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler shot down congressional Republicans’ request that he release the net neutrality order Thursday, the day he plans to circulate it. “What you have suggested in terms of releasing the preliminary discussion draft of the Order runs contrary to Commission procedure followed over the years by both Democratic and Republican Chairs,” Wheeler said in a Monday letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. “If decades of precedent are to be changed, then there must be an opportunity for thoughtful review in the lead up to any change.” He rebuffed their accusations that the agency has not been transparent, pointing to roundtables, comments and ex parte filings recounting meetings. “The Commission's Open Internet proceeding has been one of the most transparent and inclusive proceedings in recent memory,” Wheeler said. “We have received more than four million comments -- a record for any Commission proceeding -- on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released last spring.”
The Americans for Tax Reform pressed Congress to overhaul the Communications Act, criticizing what it sees as outdated elements of the Telecom Act. “The 1996 Act mentioned pay phones more than it mentioned the Internet!” said Americans for Tax Reform Digital Liberty Executive Director Katie McAuliffe in a statement Tuesday. She pointed to the upcoming 19th anniversary of the act and said the science fiction film Back to the Future II predicted the year 2015 better than the act did. “As 2015 is the setting of the prophetic film Back the Future II, we are bringing a DeLorean to the Hill on February 5!” McAuliffe said, citing an iconic car featured in that film.