Comptel, ITTA and NTCA want the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a video marketplace hearing, they told Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., in a letter dated Monday. “Congress has tackled many pressing issues in recent months, but access to and the high cost of video content continue to be important aspects of our broader national policy debate over how best to drive broadband deployment and adoption,” the groups told Thune. “Network operators’ ability to deliver video and broadband services, however, is hampered by outdated laws and rules that make the business case increasingly difficult, especially for smaller and new entrant video providers. For example, the retransmission consent regime is more than twenty years old and reflects an era with very different marketplace realities.” Industry lobbyists have long heard rumors of a possible Senate Commerce Committee video policy hearing, initially a possibility rumored for June and then potentially on deck for July. Thune has outlined a desire to tackle video policy later this year but dismissed the idea that any hearing was imminent when asked June 11. “On video?” Thune told us then of such a hearing. “No, no.”
House members will consider the Senate’s version of the Department of Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Act (HR-615) Tuesday under suspension of the rules, typically reserved for less controversial legislation. The Senate unanimously approved the House measure last week (see 1506120037). The latest text as approved by the Senate was posted. It includes a section mandating a report “for achieving and maintaining interoperable communications among the components of the Department, including for daily operations, planned events, and emergencies, with corresponding milestone.” The House approved an earlier version of the bill. The House's legislative business Tuesday begins at 2 p.m. and votes are postponed until 6:30 p.m.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements “are essential for establishing modern rules for digital trade -- trade that will be an increasingly important driver of high wage American jobs and economic growth, and they cannot proceed" without trade promotion authority. So said the Software & Information Industry Association in letters Monday to the 14 Democratic senators who voted for TPA in May, urging them to do so again. TPA “formalizes the U.S. negotiating position that our trading partners must not impede digital trade in goods and services,” SIIA said. The software industry, which SIIA said contributes $425 billion to the U.S. economy and directly employs 2.5 million workers, “relies heavily on the free flow of data across international borders,” it said. “We urge you to maintain your support for the President’s ability to finalize negotiations and buttress American leadership in trade.” The House passed a stand-alone trade TPA bill Thursday, sending it back to the Senate, where final approval would deliver TPA to President Barack Obama for his signature (see 1506180059).
The Senate Commerce Committee may hold or have wanted to hold a hearing the week of July 6 on reallocation of government spectrum, officials familiar with the issue told us Monday. The potential focus would likely be on such reallocation and spectrum efficiency, they said of the ongoing discussions for possible scheduling. Two officials pointed to July 8 as one likely date if the hearing goes forward, although one industry lobbyist told us late Monday that the hearing was postponed. No hearing has been announced, and a committee spokesman declined comment. David Quinalty, GOP telecom policy director for the committee, recently said Commerce will tackle spectrum policy issues in earnest in the second half of this year (see 1506180043). Several Commerce Committee Republicans recently backed the Wireless Innovation Act (S-1618) introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Thursday (see 1506180045), which was lauded by several wireless industry interests. The bill would require NTIA to reallocate 200 MHz of spectrum below 5 GHz. “This important bill reflects the undeniable reality that we’re living in the middle of a mobile revolution,” said Verizon Senior Vice President Peter Davidson in a blog post Monday. “The Wireless Innovation Act is a good start to many of the necessary reforms to ensure that enough spectrum will be cleared and repurposed to meet soaring consumers’ ... demand for wireless services.”
The Senate Commerce Committee will mark up legislation on positive train control (PTC) implementation, broadcaster joint sales agreements (JSAs) and Internet governance at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in 253 Russell. The measures include the Railroad Reform, Enhancement and Efficiency Act (S-1626), a recently introduced bill addressing PTC (see 1506180056); S-1182, a bill from Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., to grandfather in JSAs, which the FCC limited last year (see 1505070034); and S-1551, the Senate version of the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act on Internet governance (see 1506220053).
Two House members accused the FCC Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC) of deviating from the statute in the satellite TV law that created it. Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas, and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, outlined concerns to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Thursday. “Some group participants and directives issued by your staff, unfortunately, are ignoring the qualifying statutory language regarding downloadable security in order to resurrect a previously discredited proposal referred to as AllVid,” the lawmakers wrote. “These proposals and staff directives go well beyond security issues, and in fact, seek to force providers to dismantle their video services and content for others’ commercial exploitation, harming the video marketplace and interfering with contracts and copyright law in the process.” The lawmakers dismissed this development as “an enormous distraction” and beyond statute. If the FCC allows such deviation from statute, that “would raise questions about your willingness to follow Congressional mandates,” they said. Green and Latta are the lawmakers responsible for the stand-alone legislation that ended the set-top box integration ban, eventually passed into law as part of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization and considered a key lobbying priority for the cable industry. The commission declined to comment, as did Cheryl Tritt, who chairs the FCC committee. “The limited scope of DSTAC and it’s [sic] purpose is clear, and the language that defines it has been agreed upon in both the House and the Senate unanimously," Latta said in a statement.
Senate Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., plans a hearing Tuesday on information technology spending and data security at the Office of Personnel Management. The hearing begins at 10:30 a.m. in 124 Dirksen. Witnesses will include OPM Director Katherine Archuleta, OPM Assistant Inspector General for Audits Michael Esser and Resilient Network Systems CEO Richard Spires. Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee plans a second hearing on the OPM data breach at 10 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn. And Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and ranking member Tom Carper, D-Del., scheduled a hearing Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in 342 Dirksen. A full witness list will be announced later. “The massive theft of millions of federal employees’ personal data, apparently by another nation, likely China, is unacceptable,” Johnson said in a news release. Carper called the breach “deeply troubling,” saying it will “have repercussions for not only our hard working public servants, past and present -- including many who put their lives on the line -- but also for our national security.” Federal agencies must act to bolster their defenses, Carper said.
The House on Friday added the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-805) to the schedule of bills it may consider this week under suspension of the rules. The office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., hadn’t scheduled a specific day for House consideration of HR-805 at our deadline. The House Commerce Committee approved a compromise version of HR-805 Wednesday (see 1506170048) that would require NTIA to submit a report to Congress certifying that ICANN’s Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition plan meets the U.S. goal of maintaining global Internet openness. The bill would give Congress 30 legislative days to review the report before NTIA can relinquish its IANA oversight role. HR-805 would also require NTIA to certify that ICANN has adopted proposed changes to its bylaws. House Commerce’s swift markup of HR-805 and the House’s plans to consider the bill under suspension are early indicators that the House is likely to easily pass HR-805, an industry lobbyist told us. House consideration of HR-805 would occur during an ICANN meeting in Buenos Aires at which further discussion about the IANA transition is set to dominate the proceedings (see 1506190061).
The offices of Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, jointly released Friday the text of letters the chairmen sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson seeking clarification of contradictory guidance from DHS and the FCC on the use of wireless intrusion detection systems (WIDS) and wireless intrusion prevention systems (WIPS) to protect wireless networks from cyberattacks. That “conflicting information” hampers federal cybersecurity efforts, the chairmen said in the letters, sent Wednesday and obtained Thursday (see 1506180061). A Jan. 27 FCC Enforcement Bureau advisory said a wireless local area network (WLAN) violates federal law if it uses WIDS/WIPS technology to block a wireless network access point that's being used to launch a cyberattack, while DHS WLAN guidance from 2011 says WIDS/WIPS technology is “critical to the WLAN security and operation, and therefore is required.” The Enforcement Bureau “is out of control,” Johnson said in a news release. He said the bureau “is not the expert bureau in policymaking at the FCC and the FCC is not the expert agency in cybersecurity. That is why it comes as no surprise that the FCC's so-called ‘guidance’ threatens the security of consumer data and is inconsistent with best practices outlined by other, more experienced agencies." DHS and the FCC are “saying vastly different things on how to secure wireless networks,” McCaul said in the news release. “The bottom line is that American companies need the ability to protect their customers, rather than bureaucratic confusion from the U.S. government that puts consumers at risk.” The FCC had said it was reviewing the letter. DHS didn't comment.
The House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee approved its draft agriculture appropriations bill for FY 2016 Thursday by voice vote. The draft bill, released last week, includes provisions on broadband funding. It would allocate $20.65 billion in discretionary funding, 1 percent lower than the funding in FY 2015 and $1.1 billion below the administration request for FY 2016, the appropriators said in a news release. It would give $24.1 million for broadband loans, in some instances focused on distance learning and telemedicine, said the draft’s text. In the measure produced a year ago, House appropriators had slated $34.9 million for the same section.