President Joe Biden said Wednesday that “debate is welcome” and “compromise is inevitable” on how to pay for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure spending proposal, which includes $100 billion for broadband (see 2103310064). Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Monday he would support increasing the corporate tax rate to 25% from the current 21% level but opposes a larger hike (see 2104050037). “I am willing to listen” to calls to seek a smaller increase than the proposed 28% level (see 2104010062), “but we have got to pay for this,” Biden said. “There are many other ways we can do this, but I am willing to negotiate that.” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters she also believes "there is room for compromise" on the tax increase proposal. The Treasury Department cited the proposed corporate tax rate increase Wednesday, among others. Biden said good infrastructure includes “having reliable high-speed internet in every home.” Ask “folks in rural America, where more than 35% of people lack a reliable high-speed internet” connection, “whether investing in internet access will lead to better jobs, markets for farmers, better opportunities for their kids,” he said. The administration “won’t be open to doing nothing.” University of Florida professor Mark Jamison criticized Biden’s broadband proposal in a Tuesday opinion piece for The Hill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday that Republicans would be willing to back a “much more modest” infrastructure plan if it doesn’t seek to increase the corporate tax rate to pay for it. The rate was cut in 2017 from 35% to 21%.
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal, which includes $100 billion for broadband (see 2103310064), got attention during a Thursday meeting between administration officials and six community broadband groups, participants told us. ACA Connects, the Competitive Carriers Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, NTCA, Rural Wireless Association and the Wireless ISP Association participated in the meeting, a WISPA spokesperson confirmed. The groups didn’t object to the general plan the White House released Wednesday, but they want to hear more details, the spokesperson said. The meeting was cordial and had been set before the proposal’s release as a “get to know you” introduction of the industry groups. It appears the Biden administration is “still working out the details” and is in a fact-finding mode aimed at making the plan better, said a lobbyist. The White House appeared interested in how to improve the federal government’s collection of broadband coverage data and “boost competition and affordability,” the lobbyist said. Administration officials didn’t appear to have specific proposals on minimum broadband speed requirements. CCA “was pleased to participate in the discussion,” a spokesperson said. The White House and other participating groups didn’t comment. Biden said Thursday he’s designating five Cabinet-level officials to “take special responsibility” to sell his infrastructure plan to the public, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The Fiber Broadband Association praised the proposal Thursday, while the Wireless Infrastructure Association praised its proposed funding for registered apprenticeships. ACA, CTA and TechNet gave mixed assessments based on what they know so far.
Trade policy on China should prioritize technology issues and set “benchmarks" for a "phased rollback" of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs, the Information Technology Industry Council wrote new U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai Tuesday. It encouraged Tai to "move swiftly" on the commitment she made at her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing to install "a transparent, predictable, and rapid process for tariff exclusions.” Reforming the tariff exclusions process would be "very high on my radar" if confirmed, Tai told the committee (see 2102250043). Noting USTR has investigated the digital services taxes policies of several U.S. trade partners, the group asked the agency “to discourage further proliferation of such measures.” USTR didn't comment Wednesday, and ITI didn't answer our queries about whether it got a response from the agency. The Chinese tariffs are “there to be punitive,” rather than to stop China’s allegedly unfair trade practices, ITI CEO Jason Oxman told us in January (see 2011090043).
The Biden administration should partner with democratic countries to combat China’s tech strategy, a bipartisan group of ex-national security officials wrote Tuesday. They urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to consider provisions in the Democracy Technology Partnership Act from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va.; Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Ben Sasse, R-Neb.; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Todd Young, R-Ind. “The bill offers an important idea: creating a diplomatic mechanism to execute a national security strategy, which places technology competition and international partnerships at its center,” the group wrote. Signers included: ex-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter; ex-Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper; ex-Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig; ex-Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael Hayden; ex-National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley; former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy; and former Department of State Policy Planning Director Anne-Marie Slaughter.
The Biden-era FCC has a "seemingly endless list" of issues to be addressed, blogged former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday. The USF contribution factor has spiraled to "an unacceptable rate that now threatens the entire program," Wheeler said, and the FCC under then-President Donald Trump "failed to take any action." Wheeler criticized former Chairman Ajit Pai for waiting until his final days in office to suggest a solution and not acting sooner. A "logical solution," Wheeler said, "would have been to seek congressional help" or expand the contribution base to include broadband. The Trump-era FCC punted on further defining broadband service, he said. The FCC should consider reinstating net neutrality rules if it also wants to reinstate privacy protections for network users, he said, because "returning ISPs to common carrier status ... triggers their responsibility to protect the privacy of their subscribers." It should reconcile with calls to repeal Communications Decency Act Section 230 and the Trump FCC having spent the past few years "assiduously cutting the agency's authority" and "swiftly expanding that authority into previously untouched areas that probably infringe" on First Amendment protections, Wheeler said. The Supreme Court's Chevron doctrine will likely play a role in how the FCC practices administrative law amid speculation that justices appointed by Trump "may seek to overturn the Chevron precedent," Wheeler noted. The Biden FCC should decide whether to work closely with DOJ, as it did during the Obama administration, in reviewing transactions, Wheeler said, because "that cooperation became more of an exception than the rule" under Trump. It will also have to "catch up" on addressing the needs of deaf and hard of hearing individuals. To achieve anything, Biden must nominate a new commissioner and decide whether to reappoint acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, whose term expired in June 2020, Wheeler said. Pai declined to comment. The FCC didn't respond.
President Joe Biden will nominate Lina Khan to be an FTC commissioner, the White House announced Monday, as expected (see 2103170066). An associate professor at Columbia Law School, Khan previously was a staffer for the House Antitrust Subcommittee and FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra. Khan’s “creative energy, groundbreaking antitrust work, and passion for the FTC’s mission make her an excellent nominee,” said acting FTC Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. “I wish her a speedy confirmation.”
Tech and creative industries universally hailed Senate confirmation Wednesday of China and trade expert Katherine Tai as U.S. trade representative by a 98-0 vote. Tai inherits the USTR post as three rounds of tariffs on Chinese goods remain at 25%, over the concerns of tech and telecom stakeholders. Overhauling the tariff exclusions to give the process more “transparency and predictability” would be “very high on my radar,” Tai told her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing Feb. 25. The levies “disrupted a lot of people’s lives and livelihoods,” she said. BSA|The Software Alliance urges Tai to “promote digital trade policies that facilitate the responsible transfer of data across borders,” said CEO Victoria Espinel. During Tai’s time as lead trade counsel for House Ways and Means, she played “an instrumental role” in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, said TechNet: USMCA “included strong intellectual property protections and a landmark digital chapter that eliminated digital trade barriers and enhanced trade.” MPA CEO Charles Rivkin said Tai “fully appreciates that securing robust copyright protections overseas is fundamental to developing a worker-centric trade policy.” CTA (here), the Information Technology Industry Council (here), the Telecommunications Industry Association (here) and others also commented.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on how the Biden administration can help boost U.S. semiconductor industry competitiveness and capacity amid global chip shortages, says Monday’s Federal Register. The comments, due April 5 in docket BIS-2021-0011, will help shape Commerce’s policy recommendations to the White House on President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order to relieve bottlenecks in the semiconductor supply chain.
Demand Progress, Fight for the Future and other backers of a return to FCC 2015 net neutrality rules urged President Joe Biden Thursday to appoint to the vacant commission seat previously held by ex-Chairman Ajit Pai someone lacking telecom industry ties. Senate Democrats are pressing Biden to quickly name a third Democrat to cement a majority (see 2102050064). “The Biden Administration has said getting people online during the pandemic is a top priority, and if that’s the case we need a real champ appointed to the FCC, ASAP -- someone who isn’t beholden to big telecom companies because they used to work for them,” said FFTF Campaigns Director Caitlin Seeley George. “The last thing we need is some Democratic version of” Pai. “While the Biden administration has yet to announce a candidate for the fifth commissioner position, some of the names being floated include candidates with ties to the telecom industry,” among them DLA Piper’s Smitty Smith, the groups said.
Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu is joining the Biden administration as member of the National Economic Council and special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy, Wu and the White House confirmed Friday. This doesn’t mean President Joe Biden fully subscribes to Wu's support for breaking up big tech companies (see 1907160064), White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “His hiring is a reflection of the value of his expertise,” she said. “If administration policy was determined by every person that was hired, we'd have 400 different policies.” Wu was one of net neutrality’s earliest advocates and was considered a potential contender to be Biden’s pick for FTC chair (see 2101210067).