Chip group Semi and tech foundation Mitre Engenuity seek feedback from industry rank and file on challenges facing the sector as the U.S. prepares to provide funding and innovation incentives to help chipmakers better compete with China. The survey sponsors said they want to ensure government funding is “spent wisely” and “put to optimal use.” Information shared will be reported in “non-identifiable form.” The survey closes July 20.
Trial courts should expedite antitrust cases against Big Tech, there should be direct appeal to the Supreme Court, and state attorneys general should be empowered, House Judiciary Committee Republicans said Tuesday, releasing a Big Tech agenda. Republicans want a Communications Decency Act Section 230 “overhaul” and for antitrust cases to be consolidated under DOJ. They recommended content moderation decisions be listed on a public website.
Federal and state broadband legislation will be “effective” only if it simultaneously addresses “access, affordability and adoption” barriers, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative reported. Federal and state governments “should actively work to promote investment in areas that need it by allocating funds to build reliable broadband infrastructure, even if an existing provider may claim to serve the area,” the paper said. “Governments must take care when they intervene in markets -- but there is no real functioning market for most in broadband Internet access. ... The first step is recognizing that the standard for government intervention has to be based on enterprise and residential needs, not solely on whether the FCC has blindly announced an area is served because a company claimed it was.” Also Wednesday, President Joe Biden promoted the bipartisan infrastructure framework he endorsed last month (see 2106240070). “We’re not going to have 40 weeks of ‘This is infrastructure,’” he said during a speech in Crystal Lake, Illinois, alluding to failed infrastructure legislative efforts during Donald Trump’s administration. The deal got support from the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and some other Republicans have misgivings.
The FTC should continue pursuing its antitrust case against Facebook, party leaders of the Senate and House Antitrust Subcommittees wrote the agency Friday. Senate Antitrust Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote the letter with ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah; House Antitrust Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I.; and House Antitrust ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo. They cited U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's comments in his recent dismissal of the FTC’s complaint against the company (see 2106280057). “As the Judge himself noted, the federal antitrust agencies rarely bring antitrust cases against Big Tech -- an approach that has resulted in the overwhelming consolidation of power in the hands of a few digital platforms, including Facebook,” they wrote. The agency declined comment.
Bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday would direct a Department of Homeland Security study on “benefits and risks of allowing private entities to take actions to protect their operations in response to cyber-attacks.” Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., introduced the Study on Cyber-Attack Response Options Act. DHS would study amendments to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and submit a congressional report within 180 days of enactment.
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and 22 other officials from right-leaning groups Wednesday opposed the Broadband Reform and Investment to Drive Growth in the Economy Act, which is believed to form part of the basis for the $65 billion broadband component of a bipartisan infrastructure package President Joe Biden backed last week (see 2106290066). The Bridge Act, refiled in June, would allocate $40 billion for broadband deployments and affordability programs (see 2106150089). The bill “would increase the size and scope of the federal government for broadband deployment, while limiting the constitutionally delegated power of states,” the conservative groups said in a letter to the Senate. “Any lawmaker who values limited government and the free market should stand up against this proposal.”
The House Appropriations Committee voted 33-24 Tuesday to advance its FY 2022 funding bill for the FCC and FTC. The measure proposes giving the FCC $388 million and the FTC almost $390 million, mirroring what President Joe Biden proposed in late May (see 2105280055). A report on the legislation seeks further work on changes to USF contribution rules and wants additional study of how municipal broadband can expand connectivity access (see 2106290066). The committee approved an amendment to the bill from Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, that would bar funding for government cloud computing unless the cloud services don't store or transmit images depicting violations of child exploitation law.
Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Yvette Clarke, both of New York, led a letter with 26 other House Democrats urging the FCC to examine whether its past programs and policies caused harm to communities of color, “redress” those effects and “identify the affirmative steps the agency commits to taking to break down barriers to just media and telecommunication practices.” The lawmakers cited President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 executive order encouraging federal agencies to conduct such reviews. “Historic federal policies are a primary reason why structural inequities exist in our nation’s media and telecommunication systems today,” the Democrats wrote acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “FCC policies, license decisions and inaction have had the result of effectively excluding people of color from media ownership opportunities. Our nation’s first radio and TV licenses were awarded ... during an era of Jim Crow segregation. The previous administration's efforts to consolidate the media marketplace limited ownership opportunities for people of color and women.” The “lack of affordable broadband has left too many households of color unable to use the internet to take care of the health and well-being of their families, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the lawmakers said. Rosenworcel “is committed to ensuring that FCC policies are equitable, fair, and transparent,” a spokesperson emailed. “While the FCC is an independent agency, it has been working diligently under her leadership to follow” Biden’s EO. “More work remains to be done,” the spokesperson said. “We are committed to working with those who sent this letter to do so.” The “current media system is unjust and the FCC must begin the process of repair,” said Free Press Senior Director-Strategy and Engagement Joseph Torres. “That starts with a thorough investigation of the history of racism in the agency’s policymaking.”
The House planned to vote Monday evening on two alternative bills to the Senate’s Endless Frontier Act (see 2106150078), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., announced Friday. The National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225) and the Department of Energy Science for the Future Act (HR-3593) were scheduled for votes under suspension of the rules after 6:30 p.m.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and 171 other groups urged House and Senate leaders on Monday to “provide full funding to universally build networks that will deliver capacity that will meet local needs for decades and to ensure rigorous scrutiny of recipients of federal dollars so that the program achieves a proposed bill's future-proof goals.” President Joe Biden backed a bipartisan infrastructure spending package last week that includes $65 billion for broadband (see 2106240070). Biden attempted to preserve GOP support for the deal Saturday by walking back earlier statements that Republicans claimed (see 2106250066) constituted a threat to veto the package if Congress didn’t also pass an additional package of items favored by Democrats via the budget reconciliation process. “Our bipartisan agreement does not preclude Republicans from attempting to defeat” the additional reconciliation package, Biden said. Modern broadband “far above the 2015 FCC standard of 25/3 Mbps” minimum service speeds “is a necessity for all communities demanding modern services to help overcome the challenge of distance, attract new businesses, and provide young workers good paying jobs,” the groups wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and their GOP counterparts. “Any new federal program must fund broadband infrastructure capable of enabling businesses to meet the needs of consumers, empower businesses to relocate to any community, provide opportunities for teleworkers and students at the same level regardless of geography, enable anchor institutions to fully provide for their entire communities, and make possible precision agriculture capabilities for agriculture producers to improve efficiencies.” A “federal program by Congress that emphasizes delivering future-proof infrastructure can enable not just ubiquitous fiber wireline access, but also make possible ubiquitous wireless services that rely on fiber optics,” including “5G, next generation Wi-Fi, and their future iterations,” the groups said.