The House Rules Committee will consider a raft of telecom, privacy and cybersecurity-related amendments to a “minibus” FY 2020 budget bill Tuesday. HR-3055 includes funding for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the Agriculture Department. The minibus would allocate $42.4 million to NTIA, $751 million to the National Institute of Standards and Technology and $3.45 billion to the Patent and Trademark Office. House Rules’ hearing on the amendments is to begin at 5 p.m. in the Capitol Room H-313.
The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on First Amendment responsibilities of private operators of public access cable channels Monday isn't expected to have broader effects on public access channel operations generally or on the question of how far the public fora doctrine extends into cyberspace. Alliance for Community Media President Mike Wassenaar told us it has been urging public access channel members to have clear editorial policies and to work closely with producers to avoid litigation.
A proposal by Dish Network that it buy some T-Mobile/Sprint assets and launch its own fourth national wireless network likely faces an uphill climb, observers said Monday. The deal could help DOJ, which signaled it wants four networks regardless of whether it sues to block T-Mobile's buy of Sprint. It also would help Dish, which faces buildout deadlines on some of the massive amounts of spectrum it owns, and could have to forfeit licenses to the FCC.
An FCC order on kidvid could be on the agenda for commissioners' July 10 meeting but remains a moving target. An expected NPRM on equal employment opportunity enforcement (see 1904290176) has been voted on and will be released ahead of the meeting. That's what broadcast industry, child advocacy and FCC officials told us.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wants to avoid altering Communications Decency Act Section 230, he told us. Several key lawmakers are discussing the possibility of amending tech industry immunity from third-party content liability.
State lawmaker concerns about wireless health and environmental effects seem to be rising, while local governments continue to push for an FCC update of its more than 20-year-old RF exposure limits and policies. Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein agreed it’s time for the FCC to quickly update RF rules. Small-cells equipment that's popping up near homes probably is increasing concerns and lawmaker attention, said municipal officials and a public health advocate in interviews. Residents surprised by small cells also raised aesthetic concerns (see 1906070046).
High-profile resignations of city officials from the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee was detrimental to its work last time, said BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles in an interview. “It was an unnecessary distraction,” she said: “It’s very political, in a way.” Bowles predicted the current work also will provoke some controversy. Bowles, chairman of the board of wireless ISP Aristotle, was named chair in September 2017 (see 1709010046), replacing Quintillion CEO Elizabeth Pierce. Later, Pierce was charged with participating in an alleged multimillion-dollar investment fraud scheme (see 1804130055).
Amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to hold tech companies more accountable for false and harmful content is worth “serious consideration,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday. “If social media companies can’t exercise a proper standard of care when it comes to a whole variety of fraudulent or illicit content, then we have to think about whether that immunity still makes sense.”
Defining disaster, aligning responders and consolidating standards are early challenges for the FCC rechartered Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s working group on disaster response and recovery, members said at their first meeting Thursday. BDAC’s “next mission,” which also includes increasing broadband in low-income communities and infrastructure job skills and training, is “absolutely vital,” even if those issues are “not on the front page every day,” Chairman Ajit Pai told the group.
The full FCC clarified expectations for market modification petitions. An order released Thursday overturns the Media Bureau’s reasons for granting four market modification petitions filed by “orphan county” La Plata, Colorado. But it affirmed the bureau’s final decision granting them. This issue had attracted media and congressional notice.