Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sparred Tuesday about the pace the chamber will take in considering the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, filed as a substitute amendment to shell bill HR-3684. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is leading efforts to amend the infrastructure package’s $65 billion broadband title to address anti-digital redlining and consumer protection provisions some Republicans consider a potential back door to rate regulation (see 2108020061). Senate Democrats and Republicans are working to set up “additional votes” on amendments to the measure, but the chamber needs to “work efficiently to set up those votes,” Schumer told reporters. The “longer it takes to finish” consideration of HR-3684, “the longer we’ll be here” since the Senate “will complete both” the infrastructure bill and a separate resolution to set up a supplemental budget reconciliation package “before we leave for the August recess.” McConnell told reporters he favors “trying to get an outcome” on HR-3684, but the “best way to pass this infrastructure bill is to not try to file cloture today” and speed the process. “This is an extremely important bipartisan bill” and “to try to truncate” the amendments process “on something of this magnitude, I think is a mistake,” he said. If Schumer attempts to file cloture Tuesday to end amendments consideration, McConnell will urge Republicans to filibuster. Senators voted 95-1 Monday in favor of an amendment from Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., to attach language from the Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act (S-163 and see 2102020072). Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, touted on the Senate floor her work with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to reach a deal on the package’s broadband language. She hoped the Senate will vote on an amendment from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would “give more flexibility to states to invest in broadband using some of the” money they received from previous COVID-19 aid bills. Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; and Angus King, I-Maine, cited the infrastructure package’s inclusion of $42.5 billion for an NTIA-administered Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants program, mirroring a proposal in their S-2071.
Nearly two-thirds of experts who experienced ransomware threats in the past year witnessed “partnerships” among bad actors, reported VMware Monday. It canvassed 123 “incident response professionals” globally in May and June, finding defenders are “looking for new ways to fight back,” it said. Victims now experience “destructive/integrity attacks” more than half the time, said VMware. “Cybercriminals are achieving this through emerging techniques, like the manipulation of time stamps, or Chronos attacks,” which nearly 60% of respondents have witnessed, it said. “Catalyzed by the shift to remote work, 32% of respondents also experienced adversaries leveraging business communication platforms to move around a given environment and launch sophisticated attacks.”
Akamai acknowledges the “unacceptable situation” two recent service disruptions in as many months caused customers “and our need to restore” their confidence, blogged CEO Tom Leighton. “Many of our customers experienced interruptions in service, and for that I sincerely apologize,” he said. “Any downtime is unacceptable, and all of us at Akamai deeply regret the impact.” Neither disruption was caused by a cyberattack, Akamai said. “We have conducted a thorough review and root cause analysis of both incidents,” Leighton wrote Friday. Though the “direct causes of the incidents were different, our platform maintenance processes played a contributing role in both cases,” he said. “The safety mechanisms we had put in place to prevent problems associated with updates to these services did not perform in the manner necessary to prevent a disruption.” Akamai is performing “a full audit of all tools, systems, and processes associated with updates for all of our services,” he said: Until the audit is complete, “there will be additional manual supervision of all updates.”
Comments are due Aug. 19 on National Institute of Standards and Technology development of AI risk management guidance, said the agency Thursday. Responses to NIST’s request will help the agency draft a guidance document “for voluntary use intended to help technology developers, users and evaluators improve the trustworthiness of AI systems.” NIST plans a September workshop to help develop a project outline.
Teladoc had 3.5 million-plus telehealth visits in Q2, up 28% from a year earlier, the first full quarter of the pandemic, said CEO Jason Gorevic on a call Tuesday. It’s on track to surpass 13.5 million in 2021, he said. “Consumers are turning to our services for a broader array of conditions,” said Gorevic. More than 80% of member visits in Q2 “were related to noninfectious diseases,” compared with 50% in the “pre-pandemic period,” he said. “Demand for our mental health services remains especially robust as consumers and providers recognize the benefits of the virtual modality for mental health care.”
The FTC lacks authority and resources to properly enforce against consumer protection and competition violations, the commission tells the House Commerce Committee in testimony prepared for Wednesday’s House Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing (see 2107210061). In a joint statement, the commission highlighted its weakened authority to obtain monetary relief, resulting from the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Management v. FTC (see 2106210054). The commission is “facing extremely severe resource constraints,” commissioners wrote, citing a heavy surge in global “mergers and acquisitions.” The pandemic also is causing more complaints about marketplace abuse, the commission said. It cited bipartisan support for some of the legislative proposals the committee is considering at the hearing. It cites the agency’s call for Congress to repeal the telecom common carrier exemption, which it said impedes enforcement against activity like illegal telemarketing. The commission notes broad support for enforcement against nonprofits and for rulemaking and civil penalty authorities, “although some Commissioners would support such measures in more limited ways.” Senate Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote Tuesday against several recent measures from FTC Chair Lina Khan. He raised concerns about the “diminished role” of minority commissioners and allowing public input only after commissioners voted on agenda items at recent public meetings. He criticized the FTC’s “refusal to grant early terminations of the waiting period for mergers that pose no threat to competition under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.” Restoring FTC’s authority to “force lawbreakers to return money to scammed consumers and disgorge ill-gotten gains" should be a key priority, says ex-FTC official David Vladeck, now a Georgetown law professor, in prepared remarks. He seeks adequate funding, saying the FTC has “barely” two-thirds of the personnel it had in the early 1980s.
An FCC webinar on the Emergency Connectivity Fund will be held Aug. 3 at 2 p.m. EDT, said a Wireline Bureau public notice Monday. The ECF initial application filing window closes Aug. 13 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
The FCC is rechartering the Technological Advisory Council for a two-year term and asked for nominations for membership by Aug. 20. The expected first meeting will be in October, the FCC said Friday. The group last met Jan. 14.
CTA President Gary Shapiro doesn’t lose sleep over "innovation taking over the world or robotics replacing human masses,” he told C-SPAN’s The Communicators, to be televised this weekend. “I worry every day that our government is going to choke off new avenues of innovation” through antitrust crackdowns on Big Tech, he said. “Look what we did during COVID. Look how the tech industry basically saved, in a sense, the white-collar environment for those lucky enough to work at home and fundamentally changed the world.” Shapiro can live with some of the six antitrust bills that cleared the House Judiciary Committee last month (see 2106230063), he said. “It’s reasonable to look at merger filing fees, as long as they’re not discouraging mergers,” he said. “The government should have a shot” to review transactions “on an objective basis, but it should be time-constrained so it’s not sitting around there for two or three years.” Other measures, including shifting the burden of proof on purchases or giving states more leeway in antitrust reviews, “I just don’t understand,” he said. “I think you’re going to see consumers so upset when they figure out that their politicians are trying to screw up the things they love. I mean, consumers love these services.” There’s “no question” that some things Huawei has done to become “a force around the world” involved intellectual property theft from American companies, which “I find pretty difficult to swallow,” he said. “We lost some revenue” due to Commerce Department export restrictions on Huawei, “but that’s life,” said Shapiro. “We follow the law.” Huawei didn't comment Thursday. CES will return to Las Vegas as a physical show in early January with “wider aisles” and “very strong participation,” said Shapiro. The show has signed on 1,000 exhibitors so far, he said. CES 2020, CTA’s last in-person Las Vegas show, drew 4,400 exhibitors. As “great” as CES 2021 was as a virtual show, Shapiro said, “we have all learned that it’s not the same as being there.”
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Todd Young, R-Ind., filed the Funding Affordable Internet with Reliable (Fair) Contributions Act Wednesday to explore requiring “Big Tech” companies to contribute to USF. It would direct the FCC to study “the feasibility of funding Universal Service Fund through contributions supplied by edge providers” like Google-owned YouTube and Netflix. The study should examine “the class of firms and services on which contributions could be assessed, including an inquiry into the specific sources of revenue potentially subject to contributions, such as digital advertising revenue and user fees” and USF contribution “equity issues.” The bill wants the FCC to examine equity of “alternative contributions systems” like federal appropriations and “whether a flat or progressive rate is most appropriate.” More “consumers are moving to internet-based services,” which “raises concerns about the sustainability of fees collected from consumers’ telephone bills,” Wicker said. “As online platforms continue to dominate the internet landscape, we should consider the feasibility of Big Tech contributing to the USF to ensure rural areas are not left behind as we work to close the digital divide.” Commissioner Brendan Carr, who proposed making edge providers pay into USF (see 2105240037), said “requiring Big Tech to contribute is more than fair.”