Commerce Committee members Reps. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., filed a House companion (HR-3970) Thursday to the Accelerating Rural Broadband Deployment Act (S-1113) first bowed in April (see 2104150057). The measure would give federal agencies the ability to approve a license of occupancy authorizing placement on a federal right of way of all equipment required to deploy broadband. It would require agencies to respond to applications within 60 days and explain denials. Rural residents “are itching for reliable broadband,” but “they are hamstrung by Washington, D.C., bureaucrats who are completely disconnected from the realities that millions of Americans face,” Curtis said. NCTA, NTCA and USTelecom back the measure, his office said.
Advocates of third-party independent device repairs hailed Thursday’s congressional introduction of what they called the first "broad" federal right-to-repair legislation. The Fair Repair Act, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., would require tech manufacturers to give device owners and independent repair shops access to parts, tools and information they need for fixes. “Electronics manufacturers have locked down our tech,” said iFixit. “Big tech companies shouldn’t get to dictate how we use the things we own or keep us from fixing our stuff.” Consumer Reports almost immediately endorsed the legislation, saying it “would ensure that consumers have real choices for fixing the devices they own,” saving them money and preventing waste from devices that need to be discarded if not fixed. IFixit isn't aware of any right-to-repair "movement" in the Senate, said Policy Lead Kerry Sheehan. Right-to-repair opponent CTA didn’t comment.
House Small Business Rural Development Subcommittee members eyed connectivity hurdles that small businesses face, during a Wednesday hearing. “Factors like low population densities, rugged terrain and fewer subscribers to spread deployment costs among have contributed to a lack of investment in broadband networks by private companies,” said Chairman Jared Golden, D-Maine. Ranking member Jim Hagedorn, R-Minn., backed Agriculture Committee GOP leaders’ Broadband for Rural America Act (HR-3369) and criticized President Joe Biden’s broadband infrastructure spending proposal (see 2103310064). HR-3369 would codify USDA’s ReConnect broadband program and set annual funding for its rural connectivity programs at $3.7 billion (see 2105210059). The administration’s plan “to prioritize investments in municipal broadband is concerning,” Hagedorn said. “I worry that, given over one-third of our country has" municipal broadband network "restrictions in place, this will lead to implementation issues and put rural America further behind.” If “broadband infrastructure is going to achieve its promise, we need to make sure federal funds flow to the solutions these communities want, including making it much easier to fund a community-owned network,” said ConnectMaine Authority Executive Director Peggy Schaffer. It’s “critical that the vast majority of future funding should go toward providing a minimum of” 100 Mbps symmetrical “and networks capable of scaling to a gigabit or more,” said Center on Rural Innovation Executive Director Matt Dunne. “To do otherwise is only setting ourselves up for a rural-urban divide five years from now even after a massive infrastructure investment.”
The Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday advanced nominees for Biden administration cyber posts. National cyber director nominee Chris Inglis and Jen Easterly, nominated to be director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (see 2104120059), advanced to the floor. USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter called them “battle tested and clear-eyed cyber professionals.”
The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans a Tuesday hearing on network resiliency. This will "examine ways in which the federal government can support deployment of resilient, redundant, and secure broadband and telecommunications infrastructure, and review the lessons learned from outage incidents," the Senate Commerce Committee said. "The hearing will focus on gaps revealed by these incidents and legislative proposals to improve network resiliency and reliability." Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Jonathan Adelstein and Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld will testify. Also on the witness list: Western Fire Chiefs Association CEO Jeff Johnson and Golden West Telecom CEO Denny Law. The partially virtual hearing begins 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell.
Federal agencies would be barred from using facial recognition technology and other biometric tech such as voice recognition, while grants to states and localities would be conditioned on similar moratoriums, under the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act introduced Tuesday by Democrats. Sponsoring the bill were Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “We do not have to forgo privacy and justice for safety,” Markey said. Pointing to indications of higher levels of facial recognition inaccuracy with racial minorities, he said the bill “is about rooting out systemic racism and stopping invasive technologies from becoming irreversibly imbedded in our society.” The legislation “is an important step to halt government use of face recognition technology,” ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Kate Ruane said “Giving law enforcement even more powerful surveillance technology empowers constant surveillance” and harms racial equity. Markey introduced similar legislation in 2020, which never left the Senate Judiciary Committee.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., filed a House version of the Secure Equipment Act (S-1790) Tuesday in a bid to bar the FCC from issuing new equipment licenses to Huawei and other companies the commission determines to be a national security risk. Commissioners earlier this month approved 4-0 an NPRM proposing a similar ban (see 2106090063). “For far too long, we’ve allowed manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE … to have access to American networks,” Scalise said. “China must be stopped from doing further damage to our telecommunications network.” Commissioner Brendan Carr said the measure “would close a glaring loophole that Huawei and other entities are exploiting today to place their insecure gear into our networks.” Also Tuesday, Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; Angus King, I-Maine; and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, refiled their Broadband Reform and Investment to Drive Growth in the Economy (Bridge) Act. First filed last year, it would allocate $40 billion for broadband deployments and affordability programs. “Our bipartisan bill puts states in the driver’s seat,” Bennet said. “It empowers communities to deploy their own networks to promote choice and competition. And it significantly raises the standard for any new broadband networks.”
House Science Committee member Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., led filing Monday of the National Science and Technology Strategy Act to institute a quadrennial review of U.S. science and tech issues. HR-3858 would direct the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science and Technology Council to lead the review and develop a four-year policy strategy. HR-3858 would require the White House to send an annual report to Congress on national research priorities and potential threats to U.S. leadership in the science and tech field. “This legislation would require the federal government to take a methodical, comprehensive approach to plan for and meet our research and development needs,” Ross said. Technology Subcommittee ranking member Michael Waltz of Florida is HR-3858’s main GOP sponsor. Science Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, and ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., are also co-sponsors. The committee is set Tuesday to mark up the National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225), a rival measure to the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). Johnson and Lucas have opposed S-1260 over its proposal to create a Technology Directorate within NSF (see 2104270045). The virtual markup begins at 10 a.m.
Amazon Associate General Counsel Ryan McCrate, Google Senior Director-Government Affairs and Public Policy Wilson White, Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain, University of Virginia Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture Research Fellow Matthew Crawford and Sonos General Counsel Eddie Lazarus will testify Tuesday to a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on home technologies, Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Friday.
The Senate voted 52-46 Thursday to invoke cloture on U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit judge nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, setting up a final Monday confirmation vote. Brown Jackson would replace now-Attorney General Merrick Garland if confirmed. The Judiciary Committee advanced Brown Jackson 13-9 last month (see 2105170072). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also set a Monday vote on Democratic FTC nominee Lina Khan (see 2106100069).