Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will bring the Cybersecurity Act, S-2105, to the floor after the Easter/Passover recess, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told us Tuesday. “It won’t happen now in this work session, I don’t believe. But when we come back after the break Senator Reid will take the bill to the floor and challenge us to deal with it,” he said.

The cybersecurity working group of the House Communications Subcommittee aims to finish its work by the end of the month or early April, multiple Capitol Hill officials said. The group has held several staff-level meetings this month with stakeholders from across the tech sector and, at minimum, plans to release recommendations for the subcommittee, Hill and telecom industry officials said. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., has said he formed the group to make recommendations on several cyberissues including Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), securing the supply chain and a voluntary code of conduct and best practices for network operators.

The FCC is expected to propose getting rid of ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) rules for the S-band, potentially allowing Dish Network to provide terrestrial-only services in the 2 GHz spectrum allocated for mobile satellite services, industry and agency officials said of a rulemaking notice likely to be approved Wednesday. The agency will propose buildout conditions and leave related questions about the 2 GHz spectrum and advanced wireless service (AWS) band plans within a notice of inquiry, they said. The NOI will consider the future of the proposed 2 GHz expansion band, at 1695-1710 MHz, primarily used by NOAA, FCC officials said.

Many low-power TV stations likely will be forced off-air by FCC actions meant to clear the way to auction full-power broadcast spectrum, LPTV executives and lawyers predicted. Fears are mounting about low-power stations losing channels altogether because there’s no space for them after the voluntary broadcast incentive auction the commission has 10 years to hold, or because they can’t afford to move to new spots on the TV dial, they said in interviews. Those concerns increased after President Barack Obama signed spectrum auction legislation Feb. 22 (CD Feb 24 p10) to pay for relocation costs for one class of low-power station that doesn’t protect most others from being moved against their will, executives said.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell understands rural carriers’ concerns about cost recovery when the new Universal Service Fund rules start phasing in July 1, he said Monday. “As this thing gets phased in, if there are fundamental systemic issues, we will take corrective action,” he said during a wide-ranging Q-and-A session with NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield at NTCA’s legislative and policy conference. That’s one of the benefits of the “iterative” nature of the Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, he said.

Republicans in the House and FCC took aim at Chairman Julius Genachowski for his proposal to require broadcasters to post political files online. At a budget hearing Monday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, the plan was criticized by Chairman Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Genachowski defended the FCC’s authority to make the change and highlighted the commission’s progress freeing up spectrum and deploying broadband.

Fetal exposure to radiofrequency energy from cellphones may be harmful, Yale researchers say in a new report, the first to draw such a link. Mice exposed in-utero showed symptoms of hyperactivity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), said the report by the Yale School of Medicine (http://xrl.us/bmyr3w).

The FCC isn’t disrupting an online video distributor (OVD) arbitration condition for OVDs to get programming from Comcast and its NBCUniversal when an Internet video company already has deals from other broadcast, cable or film content owners, a Media Bureau spokeswoman confirmed. Ex-bureau Chief Monica Desai, who met Thursday with current Chief Bill Lake and other bureau staffers, reported they told her that last week’s public notice (CD March 14 p14) on the Comcast/NBCUniversal deal condition won’t interrupt ongoing arbitration. Six of the biggest U.S. programmers and Desai’s client -- Project Concord Inc., which has sought arbitration -- had objected to the change Comcast and NBCUniversal sought.

The cable industry it will start deploying this year digital set-top boxes with a “light sleep” mode that will offer energy savings of 20 percent or more. The energy savings evaluation was made by CableLabs’ Energy Lab. As part of an energy conservation initiative announced in November (CD Nov 21 p6), the six largest cable companies, with 85 percent of U.S. cable subscribers, committed to deploying a “light sleep” mode for new set-tops beginning in September. Light sleep is a low-power condition that allows essential activities in the box to continue while energy use associated with other tasks, such as channel tuning and video display, is stopped when the box isn’t in use. Monday’s announcement by CableLabs follows efforts under way at the Department of Energy to set mandatory power use limits for set-tops.

The FCC should rethink the spectrum parts of the National Broadband Plan in light of the experience of the last two years, said Blair Levin, manager of the plan, and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell last week in separate interviews. Friday marked the two-year anniversary of the formal release of the plan, at the FCC’s March 2010 meeting.