Lawmakers must ensure that the commercial space industry can thrive and grow the nation’s economy in terms of communications, space launch, weather monitoring and other areas, said Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Space. Palazzo on Wednesday urged his colleagues during a subcommittee hearing on commercial space to ensure that export controls and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) are “rational and productive.” Agencies like the FCC and Federal Aviation Administration must provide stable, certain and competitive regulatory environments, he said.

The Do Not Track Working group closed calls for objections on its first two tracking preference expression (TPE) definitions -- “tracking” and “party” -- amid ongoing opposition from several group members. The World Wide Web Consortium-convened DNT working group also discussed for the first time on its weekly call a new Dec. 3 deadline for closing put seven outstanding questions Wednesday. Opponents of the deadline called it a burden, while proponents argued the issues have been resolved for months, according to emails sent to a public forum for the group.

A flurry of amendments on National Security Agency surveillance hit the defense authorization bill Wednesday. The Senate debated S-1197, the National Defense Authorization Act, Tuesday and Wednesday after a cloture vote Monday. Democratic leadership has said it wants the bill passed before Thanksgiving and discouraged the bill becoming bogged down with unrelated political issues. But a handful of amendments to challenge different aspects of surveillance are now hitched to the defense authorization bill -- as of Wednesday, over 300 amendments have been proposed, with at least five targeting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. None proposed ending bulk collection of phone metadata, as bigger overhauls before Congress do, but several press the government for more transparency and better reporting about surveillance practices.

While the IP transition could see action first, the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum remains one of the highest priorities for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a senior commission official said Wednesday. The auction remains the single issue on which Wheeler is spending the most time, the official said. Some industry observers feared a slight pivot on Wheeler’s part in recent days, highlighted by last Thursday’s blog post promising action in January on the transition (CD Nov 30 p1).

The IP transition may herald changes and an end to certain aspects of common carriage regulation, panelists said Wednesday at an event in Washington hosted by the Progressive Policy Institute. Platform competition now emerging may cause certain common carrier obligations to “melt away,” said Navigant Economics Managing Director Hal Singer. “Imposing these obligations when they're not necessary isn’t innocuous -- it’s very, very harmful.” A certain amount of competition must presage such melting away of obligations, he said, an area where the FCC could be of more help in producing data. Singer’s clients have included AT&T.

There are “no easy answers” concerning an agenda item planned for the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) that seeks ways to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband services, said FCC International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre Tuesday at an FCBA event. The conference Nov. 2-27, 2015, in Geneva will in part consider additional mobile service allocations and identify additional bands for International Mobile Telecommunications, the ITU standard for wireless communications, to facilitate development of terrestrial mobile broadband. “Every single band has a constituency,” De La Torre said. “There are incumbents in every single one."

Rules proposed by the FCC for radiofrequency emissions would require a “routine evaluation” of too many transmitter sites and slow the deployment of small cells, Verizon said in reply comments to the FCC in dockets ET 13-84 and ET 03-137. AT&T offered similar comments. But the Electromagnetic Radiation Policy Institute (EMRPI) said the FCC’s proposed rules don’t go far enough to protect the public from RF emissions.

The FCC will take up an order on the IP transition at its January meeting, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Tuesday. The IP transition is widely viewed as one of the top issues facing the new chairman. Wheeler said he’s essentially following the advice of other commissioners in moving forward at this point (http://fcc.us/1aEwswR). “With the Commission now at full force, it is time to act with dispatch,” Wheeler said.

"A large majority” of the nation’s broadcasters will sit out the TV incentive spectrum auction, NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan predicted Tuesday during a webinar sponsored by the Digital Policy Institute. Kaplan, a former FCC Wireless Bureau chief, also questioned why the FCC continues to push for a 2014 auction. Preston Padden, head of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, said the auction should be a success as long as the FCC gets the rules right.

Concerns over digital piracy took precedence at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on delivery models in the digital age. Committee members were told Tuesday that online piracy issues are fluid and stakeholders are continuing to figure out more efficient ways to ensure the protections of rights holders. The hearing also addressed the effectiveness of voluntary measures for consumers, such as the Copyright Alert System (CAS).