President Donald Trump touted a proposed $50 billion investment in rural infrastructure projects as part of his administration's larger infrastructure legislative proposal (see 1802120001). He said during a meeting Wednesday with lawmakers that the funding would help encourage broadband deployments in rural areas that “have not been treated fairly.” Investing in rural infrastructure “is so important,” he said. State governors would control the rural funding program the administration envisions “because they know best the needs of their people,” Trump said. “So we want the states to be very much involved in the choice of where this money goes.” House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who attended, said he appreciated discussing “what should be a shared priority for us all: rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure.” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and House Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., were among the other lawmakers there. House Commerce is “ready to work with anyone and everyone to help deploy broadband internet to every corner of our country,” Walden said. “I hope this meeting was the first of many instances where Republicans and Democrats come together and work in good faith on this and many other important issues.” Congressional Democrats continued to oppose elements of the proposal, including the lack of dedicated broadband funding. “Any serious national infrastructure package needs real federal investment in rural broadband,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., in a Senate floor speech Tuesday. “Strategic federal investments are needed to fill in the gaps for states and local communities struggling to keep up with the internet demands of today, let alone getting ahead of the connectivity demands of tomorrow. This administration's infrastructure proposal would only create more gaps.”
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, urged President Donald Trump's administration to abandon any notion of proposing the U.S. build a national 5G network, amid fallout from a recently leaked National Security Council draft memo. The memo proposed 5G nationalization because of concerns China could otherwise build a network first (see 1801290034 and 1801300039). “The private sector is best equipped to build, deploy and secure 5G networks, and any proposals that consider nationalizing these networks will only have a chilling effect on private investment and result in a radical shift in the management of our nation’s” telecom networks, Cortez Masto and Cruz wrote National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster: It's “imperative to our national and economic security that 5G networks in the United States are safe and secure by utilizing dynamic network security to ensure maximum protection.” The lawmakers asked Cohn and McMaster to “provide us a more complete picture of what you are planning."
President Donald Trump again encouraged Congress to move forward on infrastructure legislation once his administration releases a long-anticipated legislative package in coming weeks. Trump's infrastructure message during a speech Thursday at Capitol Hill Republicans' retreat in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, echoed what he said during his Tuesday State of the Union. As during that speech (see 1801310071), Trump didn't specifically mention broadband. “We can rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and we will,” Trump told lawmakers: Congress should “streamline the horrible approval process,” bringing it down “ideally to one year. Two years is our goal, but one year is our real goal.” The overarching goal is to build new infrastructure projects “under budget and ahead of schedule,” Trump said. National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn separately told GOP lawmakers Thursday the plan would include federal funding for infrastructure projects in rural areas that would be under governors' control, an official told us. Broadband projects would be eligible for some of the funding set aside in a rural infrastructure program detailed in a set of Trump administration funding principles for the infrastructure package that leaked last week (see 1801220035). Cohn apparently said the administration is open to Congress exploring a range of options for paying for any federal funding included in final legislation. Appropriations Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz of Hawaii and 14 other Senate Democrats jointly urged Trump Thursday to include at least $40 billion in dedicated broadband funding. “In an increasingly interconnected world and global economy, we must include in our discussion of infrastructure not just roads, bridges and waterways, but also high-speed internet access,” they wrote to Trump.
The Telecommunications Industry Association praised President Donald Trump's "efforts to advance U.S. leadership in the information and communications technology sector and to spur investment in communications infrastructure." CEO Wesley Johnston cited "corporate tax reform, rolling back unnecessary internet regulation, recent executive orders on broadband deployment and the planned rollout of an infrastructure legislative package that incorporates broadband," in a letter to Trump ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union speech. TIA backs policies to "remove regulatory obstacles to broadband deployment, adopt market-based regulation, increase spectrum availability, ensure global voluntary approaches to cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection, provide market access for digital trade, foster the Internet of Things, and improve access to public safety communications."
President Donald Trump plans to nominate acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen as a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the White House announced Tuesday evening. Trump announced in October that he planned to nominate Paul Weiss antitrust lawyer Joseph Simons as FTC chairman, raising new questions about how long Ohlhausen would choose to remain (see 1710190001 and 1710190055). The White House has yet to formally submit nominations for Simons and two other intended nominees to the FTC -- former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Assistant Director Rohit Chopra and Noah Phillips, chief counsel to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas -- to the Senate. Ohlhausen said she will remain at the FTC until the Senate confirms her to the judgeship.
President Donald Trump signed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through Feb. 8, as expected (see 1801220038). The House passed the measure 266-150 after an 81-18 Senate vote Monday. The federal government fully reopened Tuesday morning, which is "good news," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the Broadband Development Advisory Committee (see 1801230043). Another government closure would hurt device makers and tech companies, Hogan Lovells lawyers blogged. Michele Farquhar, Trey Hanbury and Ryan Thompson questioned what a “protracted shutdown” would mean for the technology, media and telecom industries and the billions of dollars of investment that depend on action by regulators. “How soon before Samsung and Apple face launch delays for products that need FCC approval to enter the market?” they asked Tuesday. “When will GoPro, Nintendo, Tile, Roku and other consumer electronics makers start to see product delays? ... Will a shutdown affect the nation’s bid in the global race for leadership in the deployment of advanced, fifth-generation wireless networks?” Device makers would likely feel the pinch first, they wrote. In the U.S., “virtually all electronic devices must receive FCC equipment certification prior to sale,” they noted.
John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barrack Obama, is questioning the direction of the office under President Donald Trump. Holdren emailed his response Tuesday to our questions from last week (see 1801180055). “Most of what OSTP has been doing, as best I can tell, has been about a few areas in technology with wholly obvious connections to the economy,” Holdren said. He listed spectrum, artificial intelligence, drones and self-driving cars. Holdren noted no positions requiring Senate confirmation are filled. “There are a few scientists among the 40-45 staff there now, but not many, and they’re not poking their heads above the trenches,” he said. “There has been little if any indication that anybody now at OSTP has been in a position to make the case to [Office of Management and Budget] or the West Wing that science is the foundation on which technological advances are built, as well as a major source of understanding about what technological advances are needed, for what purposes.” If OSTP hadn't been created by statute, the Harvard Kennedy School professor guesses Trump would “rename it the Office of Technology Policy.”
The Senate voted 65-34 Thursday to reauthorize Section 702 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority for six years, angering senators who sought more privacy protections in S-139 (see 1801160059 and 1801170057). Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who worked for months on separate legislation to add warrant requirements before searches of innocent Americans on the Section 702 database, called the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act “an end run around the Constitution” in floor speeches over the past two days. Bill proponent and Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the measure “is not perfect but it will provide our Intelligence Community with the legal authority to continue to collect vital foreign intelligence necessary to keep Americans and our allies safe.” BSA|The Software Alliance said the bill strikes “a careful balance between pressing national security requirements and individual privacy protections.” Robyn Greene, policy counsel and government affairs lead at New America's Open Technology Institute, called the measure a "disservice to the American people." American Civil Liberties Union Legislative Counsel Neema Singh Guliani also criticized passage, saying the "fight over this authority is far from over." Forty-three Republicans, 21 Democrats and one Independent voted yes.
The five co-chairmen of the Senate Broadband Caucus urged the Trump administration Wednesday to include “dedicated” stand-alone funding for broadband deployment in its anticipated infrastructure deployment legislative package. Grace Koh, National Economic Council technology, telecom and cybersecurity assistant, cautioned last month that the coming legislative proposal is unlikely to contain stand-alone broadband funding, saying broadband would be an "asset class" eligible for general infrastructure funding (see 1712070016). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday he expects the committee to hold a hearing on broadband issues “as soon as we have a proposal from the administration.” Congressional Republicans “expect to have that [proposal] at or around the time of” Trump's Jan. 30 State of the Union address, Thune said. Senate Commerce provided “a lot of ideas” to the administration and hopes the president’s proposal addresses broadband along with transportation infrastructure improvements, he said. “Our rural communities have connectivity needs that are not being met, limiting economic opportunity and growth," said Senate Broadband Caucus co-chairs John Boozman, R-Ark.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Angus King, I-Maine; and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in a letter to Trump. "Prioritizing direct funding support for broadband deployment in an infrastructure package will help close the digital divide and ensure our country maintains its global competitiveness." There's “strong bipartisan support for including broadband funding in an infrastructure package,” the senators said. “Boosting current investments in broadband deployment will provide new economic opportunities in communities that are struggling to compete.”
Amazon didn’t respond to questions Tuesday about White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Sunday social media callout of Alexa for enabling her toddler to order a toy via an Echo speaker. “Alexa, we have a problem if my 2 year old can order a Batman toy by yelling ‘Batman!’ over and over again into the Echo,” Sanders tweeted using the @PressSec handle. The comment evoked a predictable firestorm of tweets. Some Twitter users criticized Sanders for sending the tweet from her official White House Twitter account. At least one user provided step-by-step instructions for parental controls that either disable voice purchasing or require a passcode to confirm purchases.