The Senate approved the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (S-253) Wednesday by unanimous consent. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is the bill's backer. It cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in February, picking up Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, as co-sponsor then (see 1502260010). Senate Commerce released a 78-page report on the legislation in May. The legislation would "consolidate several reports of the [FCC] into a single biennial report on the state of the communications marketplace," as the report said. The House approved companion legislation 411-0 in February. "A centralized and consolidated report from the FCC will ensure Members are provided key information every Congress on competition in voice, video, and data delivery, while also eliminating outdated reports," Heller said in a statement Thursday. "We simply cannot move on a broad telecommunications rewrite without a clear picture of where the market is working and where potential failures exist, which this report will provide." Schatz issued a statement saying the legislation "shows that with every Member’s active involvement" and the Commerce Committee leadership in place now, "the Committee can find other opportunities to reach consensus on a range of important issues before it this Congress."
Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., want Commerce Committee leadership to mark up their Wi-Fi Innovation Act (S-424) or find another solution to the spectrum situation that the legislation targets. They sent a letter Wednesday to Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., urging them to “seek a path forward and find answers to whether spectrum in the 5 GHz band can be safely shared.” They pointed to some of the voluntary efforts underway. The legislation would compel such testing of the 5 GHz band. “Since our bill was introduced, the auto and technology sectors have started working together to voluntarily test to determine if spectrum sharing is possible and we believe this is a meaningful step in the right direction,” said Booker and Rubio, both members of Commerce. “With additional oversight and leadership from Congress, we are confident that a reasonable and safe solution can be found.” The upper 5 GHz spectrum is the most controversial and is used by auto companies for intelligent transportation technology. Some stakeholders have warned that legislation is hardly necessary and may be harmful, given the collaboration already underway within industry and between House members and the relevant government agencies (see 1505270044).
House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy, R-Pa., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess, R-Texas, wrote letters to Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla Tuesday. The lawmakers had questions about digital certificates, which are used to ensure the confidentiality and security of sensitive information transmitted through Internet transactions. A certificate authority’s (CA) “unfettered authority to issue certificates is heightened when the CA is owned and operated by a government,” the lawmakers said. “Because digital certificates are used to ensure the security and confidentiality of private communications like e-mail and social media, such services can be targets for actors who wish to inhibit political freedoms such as free expression,” they said. The lawmakers asked the companies for their views on the “significance of this potential weakness as it relates to CAs owned by governments and whether there are changes that could be implemented to protect the integrity and trustworthiness of digital certificates,” and for a response to four specific questions by June 23. The lawmakers asked: whether restricting CAs run by governments to just issuing certificates for their own properties would improve security and stability of the certificate ecosystem; whether it’s technically feasible to restrict government CAs to their own properties; potential negative effects of such a restriction; and if other policies or technologies would improve the security and stability of the certificate ecosystem.
The House Oversight Committee plans a hearing Tuesday at 10 a.m. on the Office of Personnel Management data breach (see 1506080061), a spokeswoman for committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told us.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., proposed attaching language from his Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act reauthorization (S-1376) Tuesday with the backing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “We can no longer simply watch Americans’ personal information continue to be compromised,” Burr said in a statement. “This bill is long needed and will help us combat threats to our country and our economy.” McConnell separately cited the Office of Personnel Management data breach as a reason for proposing attachment of S-754’s language to the NDAA reauthorization. Senate intelligence Vice Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, who co-sponsored S-754 with Burr, said in a statement that she declined to join Burr in offering the amendment and “it’s a mistake.” The move brought swift condemnation from S-754 critics. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement that if McConnell “insists on attaching the flawed CISA bill to unrelated legislation, I will be fighting to ensure the Senate has a full debate and a chance to offer amendments to add vital protections for American privacy and address the threats to our cybersecurity.” Monument Policy Group lobbyist Andrew Howell told us it’s feasible that the Senate could approve the S-754 amendment. An industry lobbyist said advocates of two House-passed cyber information sharing bills -- the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731) and the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560) -- could move to attach language from those two bills to the NDAA reauthorization during conference. The House passed its version of NDAA reauthorization (HR-1735) May 15.
An industry lobbyist confirmed that a draft version of FCC reauthorization legislation from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., is circulating among industry representatives. He verified reviewing a 14-page draft bill, fitting with what other lobbyists have heard may be coming. Thune told us last week that the development of a draft was underway and said it likely would be uncontroversial, if not final and ready to be released. A different industry lobbyist told us that this draft was leaked and that it was not expected to be released publicly until later in June at the earliest. The draft legislation would include such provisions as modifying the sunshine rules to allow FCC commissioners to talk more easily with one another and compel a GAO report “on the current regulatory fee assessments and adjustment process of the Federal Communications Commission,” as the draft text said. The FCC would have to create a pending item database, according to the draft, which also includes language on the agency’s notice of apparent liability process and on when the agency may impose a forfeiture penalty. The draft includes language that would reauthorize the FCC for FY 2016 and 2017 but doesn't include budget dollar figures with the reauthorization draft. It also has a section that would require the FCC to include, in dealing with items that may be economically significant, “identification and analysis of the specific market failure, actual consumer harm, burden of existing regulation, or failure of public institutions that warrants the proposed or adopted rule or amendment” and “a reasoned determination that the benefits of the proposed or adopted rule or amendment justify the costs (recognizing that some benefits and costs are difficult to quantify), taking into account alternative forms of regulation and the need to tailor regulation to impose the least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives.” The FCC hasn't been reauthorized since 1990.
Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told the FCC to address “the lack of specific performance metrics and basic eligibility of the 12 million current beneficiaries” of the Lifeline program before expanding the program to encompass broadband service. They sent a letter to the FCC Tuesday recommending overhauls of Lifeline, including capping the program and cutting down “financial incentives to commit fraud with a modest co-pay.” They said they're “concerned” with “uncontrolled growth” of Lifeline and slammed the “irresponsible” allowance of escalating fees.
House Communications Subcommittee leaders said they agreed on a compromise version of the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-805) and planned to mark up the bill Wednesday. Subcommittee leaders said last month that they were negotiating compromise language for HR-805 (see 1505130061), which originally would have prohibited NTIA from approving ICANN's final Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition proposal until the GAO completes an ongoing study of the plan. The compromise language, contained in a manager’s amendment, would in part require NTIA to submit a report to Congress certifying that the IANA transition plans meet the U.S. goal of maintaining global Internet openness. The compromise HR-805 also would require NTIA to certify that changes to ICANN’s bylaws currently under review by the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability are fully implemented, and also would give Congress 30 legislative days to review NTIA’s report before the agency can relinquish its IANA oversight role. The compromise language means “we’ve reached a bipartisan agreement that gives Congress a proper oversight role without unnecessarily delaying or undermining the multistakeholder process,” Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., HR-805’s original sponsor, said in a Monday news release. “This transition is an important moment for the global Internet. We only have one chance to get it right and, by holding NTIA accountable to their own criteria and requirements, this legislation will help ensure we do.” The compromise HR-805 “renews our shared commitment to the success of the multistakeholder community and a global, open Internet,” said House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The markup is to begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
Thirteen senators from both parties urged Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “to take a holistic view of our successes and failures at incentivizing broadband deployment in high-cost, hard to serve areas,” in a letter dated Monday, citing Pritzker's and Vilsack’s roles as co-chairs of the Broadband Opportunity Council. The senators urged Vilsack and Pritzker to coordinate with the FCC and “request a detailed analysis of these initiatives and a list of best practices be included in your report to the President due no later than August 20, 2015,” the letter said, emphasizing the importance of public-private partnerships. The leading signers of the letter are Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., who sent a similar letter to Pritzker and Vilsack with fewer signatories in May. President Barack Obama, in creating the council March 23, said it would have to deliver a report "not later than 150 days" after that day that outlines "recommendations on actions that agencies can take to support broadband deployment and adoption. Such recommendations shall include a list of priority actions and rulemakings, as well as timelines to complete them."
Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., introduced the Prioritizing Online Threats Enforcement Act (HR-2602), which would compel the Department of Justice to enforce laws prohibiting online violence against women and to ensure protections for victims of severe online threats, said a Clark news release Wednesday. Clark’s legislation would also give the DOJ and FBI additional resources and create a “mandate to investigate and enforce the existing federal laws regarding threats,” it said. Of the some 2.5 million cyberstalking cases in the U.S. between 2010 and 2013, federal prosecutors pursued 10 cases, the release said. Clark’s bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which a staffer told us receives “thousands of bills” each Congress and “will review this legislation in time.”