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.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced long-awaited legislation designed to ease wireless siting on federally owned land and free up spectrum for commercial use. The Wireless Innovation Act (S-1618) combines elements of a spectrum reallocation bill that Rubio introduced with no co-sponsors last Congress and another rumored bill on wireless siting that Rubio was preparing to introduce in December -- with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., as co-sponsor -- but didn’t. This 46-page bill unveiled Thursday has Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., as co-sponsors. “The Wireless Innovation Act promotes the deployment of wireless infrastructure on federally owned properties to increase wireless coverage and capacity, so Americans can access 21st century technologies and so the infrastructure is there to support the Internet of Things,” Rubio said in a statement. “This policy would also provide transparency on the use and value of federal spectrum and informs the public on how federal entities use a scarce resource.” NTIA would have to reallocate 200 MHz of spectrum below 5 GHz, the bill said. The Office of Management and Budget would have a bigger role in reviewing spectrum to help free it up. The bill would aid in streamlining wireless siting by forming “a standard fee and master application to grant real property interests,” a Rubio news release said. CEA, the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA and PCIA praised the bill. CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter lauded it as “forward-looking.” PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein, speaking at a Federalist Society panel Thursday, praised it as “so well put together” and "so potentially bipartisan.” No Democrats were listed as backing the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., named the FCC among many problems he sees emanating from the administration. “This is a very adversarial regulatory environment,” McConnell said at a Federalist Society event Thursday, rattling off several elements of the administration that he said are guilty of overreach. “This is the reason we’re bumping along with a 2 percent growth rate.” He described his broader strategies of responding to the administration’s regulatory overreach, not specifically dwelling on telecom but considering strategies that Republicans have employed in response to the GOP-opposed net neutrality order the FCC approved in February. President Barack Obama initially pursued his agenda on the legislative side with a Democratic Congress, but “he was undeterred in pursuing his objectives on the regulatory side” after losing the House in 2010, McConnell said. He listed several tools for fighting regulation -- authorization, appropriations, congressional pressure and oversight, the Congressional Review Act and “of course, the courts.” He lauded virtues of the various tools, praising the use of appropriations riders. “Shame can be a powerful weapon indeed,” McConnell said. “An administration is going to think twice about testing the limits of power if it thinks it might have to deal with Chuck Grassley later.” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairs the Judiciary Committee.
The House Commerce Trade Subcommittee plans a hearing on vehicle-to-vehicle communication 10 a.m. June 25 in 2123 Rayburn. Committee leaders have been working with the auto companies on spectrum in the upper 5 GHz band given automotive interests hold this spectrum, which other stakeholders want to use for unlicensed Wi-Fi (see 1505270044). Witnesses weren’t announced.
The chairmen of the Senate and House Homeland Security committees raised concerns Wednesday about contradictory Department of Homeland Security and FCC guidance on the use of the Wireless Intrusion Detection Systems (WIDS) and Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems (WIPS) to protect wireless networks against cyberattacks, saying in letters to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson that the “conflicting information” hampers federal cybersecurity efforts. The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued an enforcement advisory Jan. 27 suggesting that a wireless local area network (WLAN) operator “violates federal law when using WIDS/WIPS to ‘block’ a wireless network access point that is being used to launch a cybersecurity attack against the operator’s network or its customers,” said Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, in the letters. The DHS National Cyber Security Division had issued WLAN guidance in 2011 that emphasized the importance of WIDS/WIPS and said their deployment “is critical to the WLAN security and operation, and therefore is required” by the guidance. Johnson and McCaul sought information on the extent to which the FCC coordinated with DHS and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in developing its Jan. 27 enforcement advisory. The chairmen also asked Wheeler and Johnson to indicate how consistent their WIDS/WIPS guidance is with other federal cybersecurity initiatives and the uses of WIDS/WIPS. DHS and the FCC must submit their responses by 5 p.m. July 2. The FCC is reviewing the letter, a spokeswoman said.
The House Judiciary Committee cleared the Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act (HR-1643) Wednesday on a voice vote. The bill would prevent multiple taxation of digital goods by setting sourcing rules for digital goods and services purchases, thereby implementing the Internet Tax Freedom Act’s ban on multiple taxes on e-commerce sales. HR-1643 would also bar discriminatory taxes on digital goods and services. “A bipartisan group of Judiciary Committee members have come together to level the playing field for the taxpayers,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., in a news release. “In today's growing digital economy it is critical that there be clear rules of the road to protect consumers from multiple taxation.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee released the full text of its version of the FY 2016 budget for the departments of Commerce and Justice and related federal agencies, which would allocate $8.5 billion to Commerce and recommends that NTIA get $38.2 million. Senate Appropriations cleared its version of the FY 2016 Commerce budget last week (see 1506120055), while the House passed its version of the budget (HR-2578) earlier this month (see 1506040052 and 1506020043). The Senate Appropriations version of the budget includes a rider that would require NTIA to inform Senate Appropriations and the Senate Commerce Committee a minimum of 45 days before it makes a final decision on ICANN’s Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition plan and an accompanying successor IANA contract. The rider also would require NTIA to continue providing Senate Appropriations with quarterly reports on the IANA transition process. Senate Appropriations said in an accompanying report Tuesday it “remains concerned that the Department of Commerce, through NTIA, has not been a strong advocate for American companies and consumers and urges greater participation and advocacy within [ICANN’s] Governmental Advisory Committee and any other mechanisms within ICANN in which NTIA is a participant.” Senate Appropriations said it supports FirstNet’s funding agreement with Commerce’s inspector general for FirstNet oversight and accountability and “continues to encourage FirstNet to consider using deployable technologies in locations and circumstances where they are more cost effective than alternative technologies.” Senate Appropriations’ Commerce budget doesn’t include any funding for new broadband grant awards but the committee “supports the continued monitoring of existing broadband grants for financial oversight and accountability purposes.” Senate Appropriations directed NTIA to continue assisting states and localities that have received broadband grants since “doing so would prevent undue burden on State and local governments working in good faith in the public interest and would maximize previous Federal investments in public safety infrastructure. The Committee intends to continue to explore further legislative action to assist the Administration in achieving these worthy goals.” Senate Appropriations also directed NTIA to continue evaluating options for repurposing spectrum for wireless broadband use and to give the committee quarterly updates on that work.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, released the text of the Remote Transactions Parity Act (HR-2775) Monday, encountering opposition from several opponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act (S-698) but also support from several major online retailers. HR-2775, which would give states additional limited freedom to charge sales taxes on out-of-state customers’ online purchases, mirrors some elements of S-698 but would exempt remote sellers with sales of less than $10 million during the first year after the law takes effect, with lower exemption thresholds in the second and third years. The bill also contains additional protections for remote sellers and certified software providers. HR-2775 would “modernize current law and strike the appropriate balance between sales tax parity and a state’s right to manage tax policy within its borders,” Chaffetz said in a news release that touted support from 15 other lawmakers, including House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich. Chaffetz’s introduction of HR-2775 was less than a week after the House passed the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (PITFA) (HR-235) on a voice vote. Some supporters of that bill, which would permanently extend the existing ITFA, remain concerned that consideration of its Senate equivalent (S-431) could become entangled with S-698 (see 1506090058). A pro-ITFA lobbyist told us HR-2775 could encounter trouble in the House Judiciary Committee since committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has already indicated concerns with the bill. Chaffetz touted support from major online retailers Amazon and Overstock, along with traditional retailer interests like the National Association of Retailers. Other e-commerce interests criticized HR-2775, with eBay saying HR-2775 is “bad legislation” and “would impose burdensome remote sales tax collection and remittance requirements on Internet-enabled small businesses.” NetChoice compared HR-2775 unfavorably with S-698, saying it’s “even worse than the original. A bill that claims to focus on collecting more online sales taxes with less burden on small businesses actually accomplishes none of its goals.” Americans for Tax Reform and other anti-tax advocates also strongly opposed HR-2775 Tuesday, with ATR saying in a blog post it opposes the bill because it “does not maintain the physical nexus standard and sets a precedent of taxation without representation.”
More than 60 groups slammed the House Financial Services FY 2016 appropriations bill and asked the leadership of the Appropriations Committee to eliminate the bill’s net neutrality riders. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee cleared the measure last week despite partisan objections, and a senior Senate appropriator told us he’s inclined to include some similar language (see 1506110046). The House Appropriations Committee is slated to mark up the measure Wednesday. The signers of the letter include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and Writers Guild of America, West. “We ask that you remove in their entirety Sections 628-630 of the Financial Services appropriations bill currently under consideration by your committee,” the groups said in the letter, dated Tuesday. “These sections would gut the Open Internet Order, leaving the American people and economy vulnerable to blocking, discrimination, and other unreasonable practices of gatekeeper broadband providers. These measures, buried in a spending bill that is 150 pages long, constitute a direct rebuke to the millions of people that asked for strong Net Neutrality rules.” The legislation would prevent the FCC from regulating broadband rates, stop any funding of net neutrality until resolution of court challenges and mandate posting of items 21 days before a commission vote. “The Committee has purposefully kept funding for the FCC flat since fiscal year 2012 in hopes that limited resources would encourage the agency to prioritize mission-critical work,” GOP appropriators said in a report on the bill released this week, justifying the steep cut of FCC funding to $315 million for FY 2016 -- about $25 million below what the FCC has received this year and more than $70 million below what the agency requested. “Instead, the FCC has prioritized politically polarizing rulemakings at the expense of the important work the Commission has to do. This is a misguided use of congressionally appropriated funding.” That report also included sections on positive train control, the broadcast TV incentive auction, the revised plan of the FCC to close some Enforcement Bureau field offices, video relay service, the quadrennial review of media ownership rules and the Do Not Call program. “The Committee is disappointed to see that the Commission appears to have few plans to develop additional data or research,” the report said of the FCC’s efforts on its media ownership quadrennial review progress. “The Committee believes that this information is vital to the Review, and expects the Commission develop, announce, and fund a research agenda within 90 days of enactment of this Act. This will ensure that the 2014 Quadrennial Review can be completed on time and consistent with legal obligations.”
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., want the FCC to establish “the necessary technical rules to support the nationwide availability of unlicensed spectrum within the 600 MHz band,” they said in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday. They pointed to the broader goals of Congress in passing the Spectrum Act. “We’re concerned that the FCC is now under pressure to undo this proposal.” The FCC should keep in mind congressional intent when amending Part 15 rules, they said.