The Senate must act on surveillance overhaul during the lame-duck session, said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Judiciary IP Subcommittee. “The most recent version of the USA Freedom Act, reintroduced in the Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy, [D-Vt.,] contains bipartisan reform measures supported by a historic alliance of stakeholders; including the White House, liberal Democrats, conservative Republicans, the intelligence community and privacy advocates,” said Nadler in a Monday letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He urged the Senate “to pass the USA Freedom Act once Congress reconvenes on Nov. 12 and to send it back to the House for a final vote of approval.”
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., wants the FCC to begin proceedings to ban the use of the NFL football team name Redskins from broadcast TV and radio. “The FCC cannot stand by, particularly after there has been an official finding that our hometown team name is derogatory,” Norton said in a statement Monday. “As football hits its high point during this month when we also commemorate Native American Heritage Month, we should also move forward with the process necessary to get this racial slur off the air.” The FCC “after appropriate hearings, should use its precedent in deciding whether the use of the derogatory name by broadcast television and radio stations can continue,” said her news release. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said the team name offends him and that the FCC will assess a petition challenging a radio station’s license over the use of the name (see 1410070054).
The FCC is moving “as expeditiously as possible” to allow for more Wi-Fi use in the upper 5 GHz band, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler reassured Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., along with Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Anna Eshoo, D, Darrell Issa, R, and Doris Matsui, D, all of California, in a letter the agency released last week. They all back the Wi-Fi Innovation Act, calling for shared spectrum use in that band. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers “is actively reviewing two leading proposals submitted by the Wi-Fi industry to address interference issues within the upper 5 GHz band,” Wheeler said. "Commission staff has encouraged and monitored the group's progress. At the same time, the Commission continues to work collaboratively with other federal stakeholders, including NTIA, the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to encourage the development of viable solutions to protect incumbent users from harmful interference, while maximizing the potential shared use of this spectrum.”
Ritter Communications’ recent lobbying on Local Choice is due to its own retransmission consent negotiations and struggles, Vice President-External Affairs John Strode told us. In late October, Ritter, a member of NTCA with customers in Arkansas and Tennessee, released a video praising the broadcast a la carte proposal, stalled in the Senate, and began asking customers to talk to lawmakers (see 1410290058). “Even though Local Choice was removed” from the Senate Commerce Committee’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization proposal this fall, “we believe that it should be a part of the proposed Communications Act rewrite that will begin in the next Congress,” Strode said. “We are trying to put this info in front of our customers and get them involved in communicating to members of Congress that they like Local Choice and want to see it move forward. We are in the middle of retransmission consent negotiations and expect that our costs will go up significantly as a result. This video then also helps tell our customers why that increase is happening.” He called the retrans consent system “broken.” Broadcasters strongly opposed Local Choice following its introduction this fall.
Comcast backs “open Internet protections similar to those” that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., outlined in legislation proposing a ban on paid prioritization deals, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen told Leahy in a letter. Leahy had asked that Comcast and other major ISPs pledge to forgo paid prioritization deals (see 1410230041). Cohen responded in a letter dated Oct. 24 that Leahy’s office released to us Thursday. Cohen reiterated his confidence that the FCC will have new net neutrality rules in place before 2018, when its net neutrality obligations enacted as a condition of Comcast's NBCUniversal acquisition will expire. The FCC should craft “stable” rules using Communications Act Section 706, Cohen said, saying reclassifying broadband under Title II would be “risky and unnecessary.” Cohen dismissed the idea of an ISP pledge. Net neutrality rules “will only be meaningful if they offer all consumers of all companies the same protections,” Cohen said. “Voluntary pledges by individual ISPs are not an adequate substitute for industry-wide rules -- whether promulgated by the FCC or enacted by Congress.”
NCTA released a blog post Thursday outlining why it thinks Congress must repeal the set-top box integration ban, a longtime lobbying priority the association has pursued throughout the last year. A provision repealing the ban is part of the Satellite Television Extensional and Localism Act reauthorization legislation the House approved in July as well as in the Senate Commerce Committee proposal -- “good news,” according to NCTA. The provision is the source of a fight between Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and the Commerce leaders who included it, with intense lobbyist speculation for how that battle may play out in the lame-duck session. STELA expires Dec. 31, and lawmakers hope to reauthorize the law before then. “While progress on this legislation is currently on hold because of the Congressional recess, we will continue to urge Congress to sunset this outdated FCC rule,” NCTA said. The group said it costs consumers more than $1 billion “in unnecessary costs” and wastes energy. NCTA would back “supporting CableCARDs to decrypt video signals in retail devices and in the 50 million leased devices already in service” if need be, it said. Cable operators have included more than 50 million CableCARDs as part of their set-top boxes since 2007, it said, giving rise to the blog post’s title -- “50 Million Reasons to End the Integration Ban.” NCTA said “this rule isn’t protecting third party device makers, it’s really just a burden on cable providers and customers.” TiVo has disputed NCTA's lobbying stance and argues there should be a successor standard in place before the repeal of the integration ban.
The FCC plans to deliver its Communications Act Section 257 triennial review to Congress “in the near term,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., in a letter released Thursday. “I recognize the concern you raise regarding timely reports and current data,” Wheeler said. “Since becoming Chairman, I have made it a priority to review and improve FCC processes, including our efforts to meet our statutory reporting obligations.” The agency is “actively working” on that review, Wheeler said. That section of the act refers to agency’s “mandate to identify and eliminate market-entry barriers for small businesses and entrepreneurs,” as Wheeler phrased it in the letter. Wheeler referred to his recent testimony before the House Small Business Committee and the efforts the agency has taken to address diversity issues in the media and wireless spaces. The commission's last 257 triennial report, the 2009 report, was issued in March 2011.
The FCC is “looking closely” at hybrid approaches to net neutrality legal authority, combining Communications Act Section 706 and Title II, Chairman Tom Wheeler told Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and other lawmakers in a response released Thursday. “All options remain on the table, including Title II.” As part of the net neutrality roundtables, “we have heard views of experts on all sides of the issue, along with real-time input from the public,” Wheeler said. “A cross-Commission staff team is hard at work reviewing the many comments filed over the last four months.” Wyden is a strong backer of Title II reclassification.
The White House lent campaign help to Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., in his re-election bid for the 17th Congressional District seat. “Barack and I are counting on you to support Mike Honda and the Democratic ticket this November 4,” first lady Michelle Obama said in a call to voters that the Honda campaign released Thursday. “In an election this close, your vote is more important than ever before. We can’t risk having more out-of-touch folks coming to Congress just because a handful of Democratic voters stayed home.” Honda, a veteran lawmaker on the Appropriations Committee, is facing a fellow Democratic candidate next week -- Ro Khanna, an attorney who was deputy assistant secretary of commerce during Obama’s first term. Khanna has attracted the backing of many tech heavyweights in the Silicon Valley district that Honda has long represented. In their one debate, Khanna attacked Honda for not reaching across the aisle to Republicans and said he would (see 1410080037). Honda and Khanna align on many tech and telecom policy issues, such as backing strong net neutrality rules and urging overhaul of government surveillance policies. Earlier this month, the Honda campaign slammed Khanna for attacking Honda’s liberalism.
AT&T warned Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service would not give regulators the tools to ban paid prioritization, as some net neutrality advocates have recommended. Leahy has not specifically called for Title II reclassification but has long targeted paid prioritization deals and introduced legislation that would ban them. If the FCC reclassifies, “any attempt to ban paid prioritization would run headlong into decades of Title II precedent that make clear that generally available differentiated service options, including paid prioritization, are allowed,” wrote Tim McKone, AT&T executive vice president-federal relations, in a response dated Thursday. “Thus the Commission would be unable to prevent any Internet service provider that did decide to offer paid prioritization from doing so.” AT&T “has no plans to offer such capabilities to third parties,” McKone assured Leahy, referring to the possibility of entering “into arrangements with third parties to prioritize traffic over a consumer’s last mile broadband Internet connection without the knowledge and direction of the end user.” AT&T said that not all prioritization deals pose risks to consumers. Leahy had requested earlier this month that AT&T and other major ISPs pledge to forgo paid prioritization deals (see 1410230041).