President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign cited “rural broadband investment” in a Tuesday tweet as among ways “farmers benefit” from administration policies. Trump signed off in December on a federal appropriations minibus (HR-1865) (see 1912190068), including $555 million for the Rural Utilities Service's ReConnect rural broadband program and $87 million for distance learning, telemedicine and broadband. Some 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls have proposals for broadband funding, courting rural voters (see 1909040061).
President Donald Trump signed the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151) Monday, drawing praise from bill sponsors House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., among others. The compromise S-151, which passed the House and Senate in December (see 1912190068), combines provisions from the original Senate-passed version of the bill and the House-passed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375). The measure allows the FCC to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call when the caller intentionally flouts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. “This historic legislation will provide American consumers with even greater protection against annoying unsolicited robocalls,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. “American families deserve control over their communications, and this legislation will update our laws and regulations to stiffen penalties, increase transparency, and enhance government collaboration to stop unwanted solicitation.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai lauded “the additional tools and flexibility that this law affords us. Specifically, I am glad that the agency now has a longer statute of limitations during which we can pursue scammers and I welcome the removal of a previously-required warning we had to give to unlawful robocallers before imposing tough penalties." The Traced Act “will put Americans back in control of their phones,” Pallone said. “These calls are not just annoying -- they also are scams targeted at consumers.” The bill puts the federal government “one step closer to closing the books on illegal robocalls,” said House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, in a news release. “But we are well aware that the bad actors will do all they can to get to consumers, so Congress will need to stay vigilant to protect the American people from illegal calls and scams.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said "as Americans ring in the New Year, we now know that our phones will soon ring a lot less with annoying robocalls" because Trump signed the Traced Act into law.
2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls touched only lightly on tech and telecom this time (see 1911210046) during Thursday's debate. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang raised the specter of China’s advancements. Yang said “our kids are addicted to smartphones or drugs.” He raised concerns about China's having a significant edge over the U.S. in artificial intelligence because of Chinese government investment. China “banned face masks in Hong Kong” because the government has “AI technology that now is using facial recognition to identify protesters … and detain them later,” Yang said. “This is the rivalry that we have to win where China is concerned. They're in the process of leapfrogging us in AI because they have more data than we do and their government is subsidizing it to the tune of tens of billions of dollars." The U.S. must “build an international coalition to set technology standards and then you can bring the Chinese to the table,” Yang said. Buttigieg said the U.S. should “acknowledge” China’s “use of technology for the perfection of dictatorship.” That “is going to require a stronger than ever response from the U.S. in defense of democracy, but when folks out there standing up for democracy hear not a peep from” President Donald Trump, “what message is that sending to the Chinese Communist Party?” Buttigieg asked. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., again berated Amazon. The tech giant “unites my three brothers,” who despite their conflicting political views “are furious that Amazon reported $10 billion in profits and paid zero in taxes,” Warren said. The company didn't comment Friday.
Federal employees will have a day off Dec. 24 with exceptions “for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need,” said President Donald Trump in an executive order Tuesday.
The House passed both FY 2020 federal appropriations “minibus” bills (HR-1158 and HR-1865) Tuesday, taking another step toward averting a government shutdown and funding the FCC, FTC and other agencies through June 30. The Senate must vote before the bills head to President Donald Trump. The House voted 280-138 to pass HR-1158, which allocates $339 million to the FCC and its Office of General Counsel and $331 million to the FTC. The FCC figure is on par with Congress' allocation to the commission in the FY 2019 spending bill but up from the $335.6 million the administration proposed for FY 2020 (see 1903180063). The FTC figure is exactly halfway between the House-proposed funding level of $349.7 million and the Senate Appropriations Committee-cleared level of $312.3 million. HR-1158 also allocates $40.4 million for NTIA, $1.03 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and $3.45 billion for the Patent and Trademark Office. The NTIA funding figure is $2 million below what House and Senate appropriators originally allocated, while the PTO figure is on par with what lawmakers originally envisioned. The House voted 297-120 for HR-1865, which includes Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization language (see 1912160061) drawn from the House Commerce Committee’s Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035) and a modified version of the House Judiciary Committee-cleared Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act (HR-5140). HR-1865 also allocates $465 million to CPB beginning in FY 2022 and $659.5 million to the Rural Utilities Service. The CPB figure is $20 million above what it received in annual funding over the past 10 years but $30 million below the amount the House originally allocated, as sought by America’s Public Television Stations (see 1903190033). “While we have appreciated steady funding through 10 years of budgetary austerity, we have been under increasing pressure to do more with less in recent years,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler. “Technology, viewer habits and our public service missions have changed dramatically during this time, and this increase in funding to $465 million will enable local public television stations to educate more children, protect more lives and property, and equip more well-informed citizens.”
NTIA acting Administrator Diane Rinaldo's exit, as Communications Daily earlier reported and about seven months after then-Administrator David Redl’s abrupt departure likely means more turmoil, industry observers said Monday. Rinaldo will apparently be replaced by Treasury Department acting Deputy Assistant Secretary-International Affairs Edward Hearst, lobbyists and observers said. It's unclear whether Hearst would be taking over as acting administrator or would be nominated to permanently take on the role. Industry officials said Rinaldo's departure was a surprise. Larry Strickling was administrator through almost the entire Obama administration, but there has been little stability under President Donald Trump. Rinaldo recused herself from spectrum deployment issues because her husband works as a lobbyist for T-Mobile. Rinaldo’s departure “strikes me as not good news” given spectrum policy disputes among the FCC, NTIA and other federal agencies, R Street Institute Tech Policy Manager Tom Struble told us. It’s perhaps “less jarring” than Redl’s sudden exit earlier this year because Rinaldo was “only the acting administrator” and because her recusals meant she couldn’t fully lead all the agency’s proceedings. American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow Shane Tews said Hearst is a “good choice." He “knows the ins and outs” of both the policy issues NTIA handles “and the politics” underlying them, Tews said. She expects Hearst or another successor to sign on as only an acting administrator given the limited time left before the 2020 election. “Nobody wants a nomination fight” so close to the campaign, especially given time that’s elapsed since Redl left, Tews said.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., is unconcerned former Vice President Joe Biden hasn’t said publicly whether he would support restoring FCC-rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules if elected president next year. Biden is among the few 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who hasn’t taken a clear position on the issue (see 1908260053). “I feel confident” that if Biden becomes president, “he would work with” Congress and the FCC to bring back some form of the 2015 rules, Doyle told C-SPAN’s The Communicators, posted online Friday and set to have been televised this past weekend. “People across America” regardless of their party affiliation “would like to see us do something” on net neutrality but “I don’t see it as a primary issue” in voters’ decisions. Doyle led the House-passed Save the Internet Act (HR-1644), which would undo FCC rescission of the rules and restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1904100062). Doyle doesn’t “spend too much time worrying about” what any of the current 17 Democratic candidates’ positions are on tech and telecom given the large size of the field. He similarly deflected questions about a proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to “instruct the FCC to regulate broadband internet rates” (see 1912060066) and broadband funding plans from Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that appear to eschew allocating money to for-profit ISPs. House Commerce Committee Democrats “don’t base our policy on what one or two people running for president might say,” Doyle said. “Our committee has always worked in a bipartisan fashion.” He emphasized House Commerce’s ability to reach consensus, noting the committee advanced by voice vote his Television Viewer Protection Act. HR-5035 would make permanent some parts of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (see 1911200048). That bill is part of the basis for a bicameral STELA deal expected to be attached to FY 2020 federal spending legislation Congress may vote on this week (see 1912110038).
It’s in “everyone’s interests” that 5G benefits be “clearly and consistently communicated,” said Opensignal Thursday. “Diverging 5G deployment and marketing strategies risk leading to 5G consumer confusion,” said the mobile analytics firm. It worries polarization could develop between carriers offering “very wide 5G reach but slower mobile network experience” and others “delivering on pockets of extremely fast high-capacity.” Confused consumers “may hold off adopting 5G ... and carriers may end up not seeing the returns on their 5G investments that they expect.” New streaming services “will force operators to rethink their mobile video strategies,” said Opensignal. Verizon's recent offer of a free year of Disney Plus to existing 4G and 5G unlimited-data customers typifies carrier aggressiveness, it said. Such new streaming services “will force operators to take a closer look at their network optimization practices and their caching systems to ensure consumers have a great mobile video experience at high resolutions,” the firm predicted. Smartphone owners in states that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 will have a "better mobile experience" than those that went for Donald Trump, said Opensignal. The average download speeds in blue states is 19 percent faster than those in red states.
Americans for Free Trade wants President Donald Trump to "suspend" imposing the 15 percent List 4B Section 301 tariffs Sunday if a “Phase One” trade deal isn’t reached with China, it wrote the White House Wednesday. It’s “incredibly important for the ongoing negotiations to be allowed to continue without the specter of new tariffs taking effect before a deal is signed,” it said. As Trump previously delayed implementing 4B “specifically to avoid harming American consumers over the holidays,” he should extend the delay “until a deal is reached,” it said. “We strongly support using the Phase One deal to include reciprocal elimination of existing tariffs,” said the group. “Such an action would send an important economic signal while providing immediate relief to job creators.” The group supports reaching a trade deal “that achieves meaningful change in our trading relationship with China and provides business certainty for the future.” The White House didn’t comment.
Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and 47 other senators urged the FCC Monday to prioritize “sustainable” broadband networks in its proceeding to set rules for the $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 1905010188). “Promote the deployment of networks that will be sustainable even as new advancements are made and are capable of delivering the best level of broadband access for the available USF budget for many years to come,” they asked FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Signers include 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said that "networks are built not for the mere sake of meeting deployment goals, but rather for the purpose of connecting as many Americans as possible to one another -- and the Commission’s program requirements should reflect this purpose by aiming higher.” The FCC has "received the letter" and is "reviewing" it, a spokesperson said.