A group of Democratic senators unveiled two bills Thursday that would change the operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which has oversight over surveillance programs operated under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FISA Court Reform Act and the FISA Judge Selection Reform Act -- introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Tom Udall of New Mexico -- would create an adversarial role within FISC proceedings and expand the number and geographic diversity of FISC judges. The bills introduce “simple and straightforward” changes to FISC, which has a “vast invisible power,” Blumenthal said during a press conference Thursday. The court’s secrecy is “contrary to the principles of accountability and transparency that underlie democratic institutions,” he said.

Dish Network refused Raycom’s offer of a temporary extension of their retransmission consent agreement that would have temporarily prevented a blackout, said Raycom Senior Vice President Jeff Rosser in an interview Thursday. Starting at just past midnight Thursday morning -- the end of the previous retrans agreement -- Raycom stopped allowing Dish to carry its broadcasts. Dish blamed Raycom for the blackout. “Unfortunately, the broadcaster has not been willing to pursue an agreement that would have avoided this disruption of service to our customers and Raycom viewers,” said Dish in a news release Thursday. Dish didn’t comment on the proposed extension.

Tom Wheeler, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next chairman of the FCC, has been breakfasting and lunching and otherwise meeting with numerous industry executives in recent months as he puts together a team to run the commission. Wheeler is widely expected to bring with him longtime telecom lawyer and former State Department official Phil Verveer, most likely as his general counsel. But filling other slots could prove more difficult, especially given the Obama administration’s tough ethics rules, industry and FCC officials said.

Many members of Congress and technologists agree the patent system needs reform, lawmakers said during a Thursday hearing by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. In addition to concerns about patent assertion entities, subcommittee members heard from technologists about the need for a strong system of copyright exceptions and limitations. “The copyright and technology sectors are two very important components of our economy that have a unique symbiotic relationship,” Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said. “They are both also responsible for significant amounts of American innovation that is the envy of the world.”

Carriers large and small met with acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and staff at the agency Wednesday to discuss a possible industry solution, short of regulation, commission officials confirmed. Meanwhile, U.S. Cellular made the case that the FCC is well within its authority to mandate handset interoperability in the 700 MHz band, in a letter to the agency by two top Democrats. Clyburn has long made 700 MHz interoperability a top focus.

Comcast’s focus on providing customers with the fastest Internet speeds is behind the company’s growth, said CEO Brian Roberts on its Q2 call Wednesday. Comcast’s combined subscribers increased by 189,000 in Q2 to 50.5 million, a 37 percent increase in net additions compared to 2012’s Q2. That was spurred by broadband customers and an increase in voice subscribers, Comcast said. Revenue from broadband also increased by 8 percent to $2.586 billion, which along with increases in business services and video led to a 5.8 percent increase in revenue from Comcast’s cable division to $10.5 billion. “The more the consumer desires speed, the better it is for our company,” said Roberts.

Commissioner Julie Brill supports having the FTC use its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act to study the business practices of patent assertion entities and examine how such PAE practices affect competition and consumer interests, she said Wednesday. Section 6(b) of the FTC Act gives the agency the authority to do a full investigation of an industry’s business practices, including issuing subpoenas, and report their findings to Congress and the public. Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in June that the commission should initiate a 6(b) study of PAEs, but didn’t say she would formally ask the commission to vote to start one (CD June 21 p16). Brill told us after an American Constitution Society event that Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen has also said she supports conducting a 6(b) study. Ohlhausen and fellow Commissioner Joshua Wright did not respond to a request for comment.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn circulated among her fellow commissioners a rulemaking notice on outage reporting that’s expected to be controversial, said agency and public safety officials. CTIA has been at the commission in recent weeks asking that the FCC instead release a notice of inquiry, as a preliminary step before an NPRM. The association also complained that keeping track of the number of towers taken out in a disaster is the wrong metric to measure.

The House Judiciary Committee voted to approve legislation that would let consumers circumvent firmware on their cellphones to use those phones on another network. The committee approved a manager’s amendment Wednesday to the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (HR-1123) that would permit third-party individuals to assist consumers in unlocking their phones. Several Democrats, including Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina and Jerrold Nadler of New York, sparred at the markup over an eventually successful amendment introduced the evening before by Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., that would let family members of cellphone users unlock that phone as well. The final bill, with the manager’s amendment and the Chaffetz-Lofgren amendment, will now proceed to the floor. Its language takes a slightly more narrow approach than other legislative attempts to permit cellphone users to unlock their phones.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., pushed panelists for information on how often phone metadata has been critical to national security investigations, during a Wednesday committee hearing on oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) system that issue the orders authorizing surveillance. Senators and witnesses debated the merits of instituting a system within FISC that would allow judges to hear arguments against new surveillance programs, rather than the current system, under which judges hear only the government’s arguments in favor of surveillance.