Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., introduced a bill on robocalls Friday, fated to go nowhere this Congress since the House has already recessed. The legislation (S-3010) would “improve the enforcement of prohibitions on robocalls, including fraudulent robocalls,” according to its longer title. The bill’s text wasn't online and McCaskill hadn't issued a news release about it. The legislation has no co-sponsors and has been referred to the Commerce Committee. McCaskill is a member of Commerce, chairing the Consumer Protection Subcommittee and is a member of the Communications Subcommittee. The Senate will remain in session for initial days this week to finish a few business items in the 113th Congress.
Brinkmanship continued in the advancement of the omnibus government funding package, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (HR-83). The House passed the bicameral compromise Thursday 219-206. The vote wasn't along party lines, with 162 Republicans and 57 Democrats backing the bill and 67 Republicans and 139 Democrats opposing it. The White House reluctantly backed the package, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., opposed it. Congress had also advanced and the White House signed a short-term funding extension (HR-Res. 130) to keep the government funded through Saturday, since government funding ran out Thursday. The omnibus package includes several telecom riders, extending the Internet Tax Freedom Act by one year, temporarily forbidding NTIA from using its funds for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition and forcing the FCC to clarify the waiver process on broadcaster joint sales agreements, in addition to funding agencies including the FCC and FTC (see 1412100041). It would fund the FCC at $340 million in FY2015, the same amount as the previous year and less than requested by several million. “I hope we can complete work on this bill as early as later today, but that depends on everyone’s cooperation,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor Friday. Democratic and Republican senators criticized the package for reasons unrelated to telecom. The Senate hadn't approved the package by our deadline. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters at the Capitol Friday that he still expects the funding battles to resolve in the next day or so and that Congress will not be in session this week.
The response Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., received from ISPs on his request for pledges not to engage in Internet fast lanes is “disappointing,” he said in a statement Friday. Leahy had sent letters to AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon asking them to pledge not to form fast lanes (see 1410230041). “They all maintained that they do not currently plan to engage in paid prioritization; an assertion I welcome,” he said. “What they did not do was answer my call for a firm commitment that they will never engage in that behavior in the absence of clear rules prohibiting such deals.” Leahy has held hearings on net neutrality this year and called for strong protections. “It is not ‘demagoguery,’ as Verizon suggested in its response, when small business owners like Cabot Orton of the Vermont Country Store say that they simply want to see an Internet that continues to treat all businesses equally,” Leahy said. “It is not a ‘phantasm’ when independent content creators like actress Ruth Livier acknowledge that they would not have been able to start their websites if they had to pay for priority access to reach viewers online, or compete against players who did.”
Democrats will lose one member on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, according to a roster circulated among industry officials Friday. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, is not listed under Judiciary in that roster. Other Judiciary Democrats will remain. The committee has 10 Democrats now and will have nine. Among other changes in the next Congress, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., will become the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Aging, which occasionally has dealt with telecom issues. The top Democrat on that committee now is Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who will become ranking member of Commerce. Hirono became a senator last year.
The House and Senate passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (S-1353), the fifth cybersecurity bill to pass Congress last week. The bill, originally floated last year but passed Thursday in a pared-back form, codifies the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s authority to develop voluntary cybersecurity standards. NIST released the Version 1.0 Cybersecurity Framework in February and has since sought stakeholder input on how they're using the framework. Obama is likely to sign S-1353 along with four other cybersecurity bills that mostly focused on cybersecurity work within the Department of Homeland Security, an industry lobbyist told us. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson praised Congress Thursday for passing the four DHS-centric cybersecurity bills, which included the National Cybersecurity Protection Act (S-2519).
Pennsylvania’s two senators asked the FCC to act quickly to approve Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Comcast is based in Pennsylvania. “While we appreciate your commitment to a full, thorough review, we urge the Commission to act as quickly as possible,” Sens. Bob Casey, D, and Pat Toomey, R, said in a letter to the FCC Thursday. “We believe the merger between Comcast and Time Warner will produce extensive benefits to the public in terms of jobs and services for low-income households.” Comcast had informed the senators of many different benefits, they said.
Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., introduced the Closing the Digital Divide for Students Act (HR-5834) Thursday, promising improved broadband access for low-income students. “I’ve introduced this legislation to close the digital divide and ensure that students living in poverty have the tools they need to compete with their peers and work towards a brighter future,” Foster said in a statement. In the utility allowance for public housing, the costs of high-speed Internet should be included and not “exceed the lowest cost available in the area of such housing for such high-speed Internet service” and “include any costs for cable or satellite television service or for joint packages for Internet service together with cable or satellite television service,” said the bill text. Foster has one co-sponsor, Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., and the bill was referred to the House Financial Services Committee.
CEA hailed Senate passage of legislation (S-2791) exempting for four years external power supplies from energy conservation rules set by the Department of Energy in February. External power supplies will be exempt from DOE rules if they’re manufactured between Feb. 10, 2016, and Feb. 10, 2020, the text of S-2791 says. "We applaud the Senate’s passage of this important technical amendment, which recognizes the need for replacement chargers for products manufactured before the effective date of DOE’s latest regulation," said Doug Johnson, CEA vice president-technology policy, in a statement Friday. External power supplies "are used with a wide range of consumer electronics -- laptops and tablets, printers and routers, and cordless telephones -- and this bill will facilitate warranty and contract compliance by manufacturers, as well as manufacturer compliance with state parts retention laws," Johnson said.
The White House backs the passage of the government-funding omnibus package, known as the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (HR-83), it said Thursday. The White House does object to “the inclusion of ideological and special interest riders,” it also said, not naming any telecom or media items. This package would be responsible for funding the FCC, FTC, NTIA and other parts of the government, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, through FY2015 and includes several provisions affecting telecom and media policy (see 1412100041). The funding bill has received backlash for different reasons from Democrats and Republicans in both chambers, and the House hadn't approved it at our deadline. Funding for the government was to expire at midnight Thursday, with speculation rampant that Congress will need to pass a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government for the next few days as it advances the omnibus. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was lobbying to change the bill, circulating a letter to Democratic colleagues Thursday during a break in House activity saying “it is clear from this recess on the floor that the Republicans don’t have enough votes” and calling for pressure to modify certain banking and campaign finance provisions. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a statement saying he expected House passage of the package Thursday. Congress was initially expected to recess Thursday but will remain in session.
The Copyright Office should be made independent from the Library of Congress, said Dina LaPolt of LaPolt Law in an op-ed for The Hill Wednesday. LaPolt specializes in IP and entertainment law. She said the Patent and Trademark Office is compromising the Copyright’s Office review of copyright law, an area in which the PTO has “no particular expertise.” The Copyright Office, not the PTO, should advise President Barack Obama on copyright issues, said LaPolt.