House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee Chairwoman Diana DeGette (D) and the other six members of Colorado’s House delegation urged the FCC Thursday to move forward with rules requiring carriers to allow customers to text to the 988 suicide prevention hotline (see 2108130058). “Young people and other at-risk populations are often most comfortable communicating via text,” the lawmakers said in a letter to acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “By allowing a text-to-988 option in addition to voice call, the Commission can lower the bar to entry and improve access to crisis counseling and mental health services.”
The House Education Committee proposes to more than $41 million for the Bureau of Indian Education to pay for “digital infrastructure to improve access to high-speed broadband sufficient for digital learning and related” BIE “digital infrastructure activities or programs” in its portion of the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package, it said Wednesday. The committee said it will begin marking up the measure at noon EDT Thursday. The House and Senate Commerce committees are grappling with what money to propose including for telecom priorities in reconciliation. Senate Commerce eyed up to $45 billion for broadband and next-generation 911 (see 2109020072). House Commerce is expected to mark up its reconciliation portion beginning Monday.
Senate Communications Subommittee Democratic Staff Director John Branscome is retiring, a panel spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Branscome’s “over 20 years of Federal service with the FCC, and then supporting” Senate Commerce Democratic leaders “evidences his devotion to public service and his contributions to national communications policy,” said Chair Maria Cantwell of Washington in a statement. Now-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson as Commerce ranking member in 2018 backed Branscome for the Democratic FCC seat now held by Geoffrey Starks (see 1802070047).
The White House urged Congress to include $78 million for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration to implement tech upgrades to 988 suicide prevention hotline call centers, in an expected short-term continuing resolution to fund the federal government past Sept. 30. A trio of Democratic senators and some state legislators in July criticized wireless industry lobbying to keep a lower lid on 988-related customer surcharges (see 2107230050). Absent the federal funding, 988 call centers “would be unable to support the significant increases in call, text, and chat volume that is expected” as carriers begin working to comply with a proposed July 16, 2022, deadline to allow texting to the hotline (see 2108130058), the White House Office of Management and Budget said Tuesday in its proposal for funding additional to the CR. Acting OMB Director Shalanda Young cited the proposed additional 988 money in a blog post as among its recommendations to Congress on “how to avoid severe disruptions to public services that could inadvertently arise from extending the previous year’s appropriations legislation without modifications.” The money is needed to ensure the suicide hotline “has the capacity to meet the additional need stemming from the establishment of” 988 as the number “that connects people directly” to call centers, Young said.
The House Armed Services Committee voted 57-2 Thursday to advance the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-4350) with an anti-Ligado amendment from Strategic Forces Subcommittee ranking member Mike Turner, R-Ohio. It directs DOD to brief the National Security Council on “potential harmful interference” to GPS posed by Ligado’s planned L-band operations. The amendment, part of an en bloc package, was the only one that targeted the company. House Armed Services cleared an en bloc package with an amendment from Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., that would authorize each secretary of a military department to establish a pilot program to evaluate the feasibility of deploying telecom infrastructure to expedite 5G on military installations. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Miss., withdrew an amendment to expand semiconductor production incentives established in the FY 2021 NDAA. House Armed Services earlier approved other telecom and tech-related amendments (see 2109010083).
The House should pass the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust legislative package, nearly 60 advocates wrote House leaders Thursday (see 2106240071). Public Citizen, the Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Open Markets Institute and Public Knowledge signed. “Monopoly power lowers wages, reduces innovation and entrepreneurship, exacerbates income and regional inequality, undermines the free press, and perpetuates toxic systems of racial, gender, and class dominance,” they wrote. “Big Tech monopolies are at the center of many of these problems.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., threatened 35 telecom and social media companies Tuesday night not to comply with a request from the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection to preserve records related to the attack, including those relating to some members of Congress. The companies receiving the Jan. 6 committee’s request include Apple, AT&T, Facebook, Google, T-Mobile, Twitter and Verizon. House Democratic leaders’ “attempts to strong-arm private companies to turn over individuals’ private data would put every American with a phone or computer in the crosshairs of a surveillance state run by Democrat politicians,” McCarthy said. “If these companies comply … they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate” in the U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., later said on Fox News that telecom companies that comply with the Jan 6 committee “will be shut down.” The Jan. 6 committee has “asked companies not to destroy records that may help answer questions for the American people,” a spokesperson for the committee emailed. “The committee’s efforts won’t be deterred by those who want to whitewash or cover up the events of January 6th, or obstruct our investigation.”
The House Armed Services Committee approved by voice vote Wednesday telecom-focused amendments to the proposed FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-4350), including one requiring DOD to ensure all component agencies use a “protective” domain name system. The committee hadn’t yet voted on advancing HR-4350. Other amendments would require the Pentagon to brief lawmakers on efforts to help allies secure national 5G networks and to back chip research. Armed Services set a deadline earlier than proposed for DOD to give congressional defense panels information on its plan for implementing the department’s October 2020 spectrum strategy and future iterations. DOD proposed using “dynamic and bidirectional sharing for facilitating access to commercial spectrum” (see 2010290061).
Congress should limit the scope of any cyber incident reporting legislation, CTA, the Internet Association, Information Technology Industry Council and 15 other industry groups wrote lawmakers Friday, before the House Cybersecurity Subcommittee’s Wednesday hearing on incident reporting. The Business Roundtable, BSA|The Software Alliance, ACT|The App Association, CompTIA, Software & Information Industry Association, TechNet and Telecommunications Industry Association also signed. Legislation should include reporting timelines no less than 72 hours, they wrote. Reporting should be limited to verified incidents and reporting obligations limited to victim organizations, they said. Hearing witnesses are: USTelecom Senior Vice President-Cybersecurity Robert Mayer, ITI Senior Vice President-Policy John Miller, Heather Hogsett, Bank Policy Institute senior vice president-technology and risk strategy for its technology policy division, FireEye Mandiant Vice President Ronald Bushar, and American Gas Association Managing Director-Security and Operations Kimberly Denbow.
Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., considers Apple’s proposed $100 million settlement to end a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Oakland involving small U.S. iOS app developers a “significant step forward, but does not rectify the full and vivid range of market abuses and practices still widespread across app markets.” The plaintiffs claimed Apple monopolized U.S. distribution services for iOS apps and in-app purchases that resulted in commission overcharges to app developers. The proposed settlement in case 4:19-cv-03074-YGR would use the $100 million to set up a Small Developer Assistance Fund, for developers whose annual proceeds totaled less than $1 million between June 4, 2015, and April 26, 2021, Hagens Berman, one of the firms representing plaintiffs, said. Developers can claim up to $30,000 from the fund. Apple also agreed to change its app store rules to allow developers to communicate with customers outside their apps about purchasing and pricing alternatives to Apple’s in-app purchase system, Hagens Berman said. A website to administer the $100 million won’t go live until the Oakland court approves the settlement. “Today’s move only adds to the momentum” for passing the Open App Markets Act (HR-5017/S-2710) “and further exposes rampant anticompetitive abuses in the app markets,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “The fox guarding the hen house status quo will remain until there are clear and enforceable rules for Apple and Google to play by.” Cowen’s Paul Gallant believes the settlement “won't derail the bipartisan interest in opening up app stores to different payment mechanisms.” He cited the Coalition for App Fairness’ criticisms of the proposal.