The Congressional Diversifying Technology Caucus will launch Monday at 4 p.m. in Room 200 Capitol Visitor Center, said a news release from Engine, a tech industry advocacy group, Friday. The caucus will work to "increase representation of women, minorities, and veterans in the tech sector, and the ability of these groups to access the good jobs that this industry creates,” it said. The caucus’ co-chairs will be announced at the event.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., insisted his draft net neutrality bill’s language wasn't intended to include any loopholes to allow for paid prioritization, despite protests from committee Democrats. Democrats in both chambers worry about the draft bill’s provision on specialized services, but Thune said during the final hour of his Commerce Committee hearing (see 1501210049) Wednesday evening that the language is drawn from FCC 2010 rules, White House statements and the proposal last year from former House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif. “I put out a draft, you’re all shooting at it, that’s fine,” Thune said. Several other Democrats, including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Maria Cantwell of Washington and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, attacked the draft. Cantwell dismissed the specialized services exemption as “big enough to drive a truck through.” The Pacific Northwest is “not going to be quiet about this issue,” Cantwell said, tying it to commerce and worrying about the chilling effects. Booker defended Communications Act Title II reclassification by the FCC as the one path forward. The draft ”eviscerates a lot of the key elements that are put in place” in Section 202 of Title II, Booker said, grilling Multicultural, Media, Telecom & Internet Council Vice President Nicol Turner-Lee for her objections to Title II. The idea that legislation will lead to flexibility seems “counterintuitive” and “counterfactual,” Blumenthal said, concerned the draft would hurt FCC authority to address disparities and to stop anticompetitive behavior. Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman told Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, that the draft could be modified to the point of acceptability -- it’s “a matter of getting past all the titles and the characterizations and getting at the functions,” Kimmelman said. “This is your one shot at the apple. I don’t see Congress coming back to this.” Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., issued a statement Thursday blasting “utility-style regulations” and saying he plans to work with Thune and their House counterparts “to put forward a proposal that ensures that consumers continue to have access to high-speed Internet services and innovation unimpeded by disproportionate government intervention.” The hearing's "proceedings yielded optimism that there are members on both sides of the aisle who see and support a role for Congress to set a workable long term policy to protect an open Internet," Thune said in a statement Thursday.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced the Community Broadband Act Thursday. A Booker news release said Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., are backing the bill. The legislation would forbid any state statute or regulation “from barring any public provider from providing advanced telecommunications capability or any comparable service to public or private entities and it would provide antidiscrimination safeguards in the event that any public provider regulates competing private providers,” in language provided by Booker's spokeswoman. “This Act aims to promote and protect local communities, enabling them to enhance economic development, improve access to education and health care services, and stabilize prices, allowing them to more successfully compete in local markets.” Markey issued a statement praising the bill while also urging the FCC to act. Booker mentioned his support for municipal broadband during a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on net neutrality. He said a GOP draft bill would limit Telecom Act Section 706. Many suspect the FCC would need 706 authority to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband. “This legislation takes the ability to fight Goliath out,” Booker said of the GOP net neutrality draft bill. He continually framed major industry ISPs as “Goliaths” and praised municipalities that move to provide their own Internet. Republicans, in control of both chambers on Capitol Hill, are not seen to favor municipal broadband. The House passed legislation last Congress that would prevent FCC pre-emption of state laws on this front, but that provision never advanced through the Senate. The Coalition for Local Internet Choice praised Booker for “his affirmation of local Internet choice and his support for the authority of local governments to work on next generation broadband networks with their private partners and local communities.” Free Press, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Public Knowledge also back the bill. Booker posted the seven-page bill online. It includes a section encouraging public-private partnerships. If any municipal project “fails due to bankruptcy or is terminated by a public provider, no Federal funds may be provided to the public provider specifically to assist the public provider in reviving or renewing that project,” with some exemptions for major disasters, the text said.
Net neutrality activists barraged Congress with more than 14,000 calls Wednesday, Fight for the Future said. Callers told lawmakers’ offices to support Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband and reject the current legislation that GOP lawmakers are planning to introduce. They pegged the calls to two net neutrality hearings that were happening that day (see 1501210049)). “As soon as we put the word out about the hearings in Congress, we were instantly inundated with traffic from thousands of people calling their lawmakers to say that net neutrality is not a partisan issue, and Congress should stay out of the way of real net neutrality protections through full Title II reclassification,” said Fight for the Future Campaign Director Evan Greer in a statement. The campaign was affiliated with Battle for the Net, a movement supported by Fight for the Future, Demand Progress and Free Press and others.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., will chair the Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee, and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., will be ranking member, the committee said Thursday. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will now chair the Antitrust Subcommittee, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., its new ranking member. Two new GOP senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and David Perdue of Georgia, will sit on both subcommittees.
Patent protection was among issues raised at Wednesday's confirmation hearing for Michelle Lee as Patent and Trademark Office director and for Daniel Marti for White House intellectual property enforcement coordinator. This was the Senate Judiciary Committee's second hearing for the two nominees, who were questioned a few weeks ago in the last Congress and again this week to allow new legislators to ask nominees questions (see 1412100031). Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Coons, D-Del., said most politicians agree it is important that inventors can profit from their inventions and that trade secrets be protected. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked Lee how the PTO is adjusting following a 2014 Supreme Court ruling on infringement lawsuits. Lee said she was unable to respond because the agency is still examining the rulings.
Google, at $16.83 million, spent more on its federal lobbying efforts than any other tech or communications company in 2014, Consumer Watchdog said in a news release Wednesday. Google’s 2014 lobbying spending was a company record, it said. Amazon ($4.74 million), Apple ($4.11 million), Comcast ($16.8 million) and Facebook ($9.34 million) each set company lobbying expenditure records in 2014, said CW. “It’s important to understand just how much money these companies are throwing around in Washington,” said John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project director, in the release. “Policymaking is now all about big bucks, not big ideas.” AT&T’s $14.56 million in 2014 was a 9 percent decrease from the previous year, said the release. Verizon’s $11.22 million in 2014 was a 17 percent decrease from 2013. Sprint’s lobbying spending jumped by 9 percent in 2014, to $2.99 million. Cisco’s lobbying total of $2.35 million in 2014 was a 25 percent decrease from 2013. IBM 2014 spending dipped by 30 percent to $4.95 million compared with 2013. Intel spent $3.8 million in 2014, a 13 percent decrease from the previous year. Oracle’s $5.83 million in 2014 was 3 percent less than 2013. Yahoo’s spending increased by 6 percent in 2014 to $2.94 million.
Some backers of what they consider compromise net neutrality legislation found no solace in separate House and Senate net neutrality hearings Wednesday (see 1501210049). “Unfortunately, it looks to me like the Democrats have no intention of agreeing to any bill that is not excessively regulatory and intrusive,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May, saying he would be “concerned” if GOP lawmakers “alter their draft in ways that further restrict the ability of Internet providers to innovate and experiment with new business models, especially when there is no evidence of present consumer harm or market failure.” TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said it's “disappointing that Democrats seem unwilling even to discuss a legislative solution that could finally resolve the decade-long net neutrality debate” and called for regular order. “Only Congress can provide clarity, transparency and permanence," he said. "Whatever the FCC cooks up behind closed doors will only get mired in court when it finally sees the light of day -- and we’ll wind up right back where we started, with Congress having to decide what to do. Why wait until 2017?” But the current draft bill “does more harm than good,” said New America Foundation’s Joshua Stager and Sarah Morris, in an op-ed for The Hill. “Congress would better serve consumers and small businesses by allowing the FCC to move forward with light-touch net neutrality protections instructed by the robust regulatory record before it.” They said any fears over reclassification are “misplaced.”
House Judiciary IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., will retain that position in the 114th Congress, said a Nadler news release Wednesday. Nadler became ranking member in the 113th Congress. “I look forward to working ... on issues affecting patents and trademarks, information technology, and the internet,” he said. “I also expect to continue to play a major role in the Judiciary Committee’s copyright review,” Nadler said. “Our intellectual property laws are at the core of how we consume media, from watching TV and listening to music to enjoying a movie or sharing photos,” he said. “We will seek to strike the right balance between how artists, authors, musicians, photographers and other content creators are compensated for their work with the desire of technology companies to provide new and innovative ways for consumers to access this content.” Nadler’s proposed MusicBus legislation is expected to be introduced this year (see 1412050057 and 1410090097).
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., will chair the Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, said a Tuesday news release from Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss. The subcommittee oversees the budgets for the FCC and FTC and may get involved in net neutrality fights (see 1501090038). In 2011, Boozman touted his vote to nullify the agency’s 2010 net neutrality rules. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., will be the subcommittee’s ranking member.