Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is open to Charter’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. “While seemingly déjà vu, this merger proposal deserves close, constructive consideration -- and support if it serves consumer interests,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “My hope is that this corporate combination will give consumers more choice and lower prices, which they desperately need and deserve. I'm reviewing the details, and hope for early discussions with responsible officials on all the ramifications, including what the merger would mean for Connecticut.” Blumenthal is a member of the Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, which could potentially convene a hearing on the deal, as it did with the failed Comcast/TWC proposal.
Four House Judiciary Committee leaders jointly raised concerns Friday about attempts in the Senate to seek a two-month extension of the USA Patriot Act instead of focusing debate on the House-passed USA Freedom Act (HR-2048). The Senate was expected to continue work into the weekend on its version of USA Freedom (S-1123) and the Patriot Act extension. USA Freedom “is a carefully crafted compromise that has been worked on for nearly two years and was passed overwhelmingly in the House,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and other committee leaders in a statement. The other leaders who signed onto the statement were House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. USA Freedom “has been fully vetted and has won the backing of the intelligence community, civil liberties groups, private industry” and has the White House’s backing, the House Judiciary leaders said. “The Senate should immediately pass this bipartisan bill instead of hastily and irresponsibly trying to scramble something together in the eleventh hour. The short-term extensions and other proposals being discussed in the Senate don’t have the support to pass in the House of Representatives. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled the bulk collection program as unlawful and extending it any further is unacceptable.”
The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing June 2 on improving the accountability and effectiveness of the FCC's Lifeline program. Witnesses are CTIA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergman; Florida Public Service Commissioner Ronald Brise; GAO’s Michael Clements, an acting director focused on physical infrastructure issues; National Hispanic Media Coalition General Counsel Jessica Gonzalez; and Free State Foundation President Randolph May. The hearing will look at FCC “progress in reforming Lifeline, a government program that subsidizes monthly telephone services for eligible low-income participants, and how to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the program,” said a news release from Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. “The hearing follows a recent report" from GAO, "which made several recommendations regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of the program,” the release noted. The hearing will be at 9:30 a.m. in 253 Russell.
Some government agencies need “to better control mobile device spending,” GAO recommended in a 96-page report released Thursday. It examined the practices of 15 agencies on this front and urged them to “take actions to improve their inventories and control processes and that OMB measure and report progress in achieving mobile cost savings.” The agencies, with the exception of the Department of Defense, agreed or didn’t comment, GAO said. GAO directed the report to the bipartisan leaders of the House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee. “Regarding monthly mobile service costs, according to reports to OMB that GAO reviewed, agencies paid a range of rates per line for various service combinations, from $21 for 200 voice minutes, unlimited data, and 200 text messages, to $122 for unlimited voice, data, and text messages,” GAO said. “Agencies also paid different rates for the same bundle of services.” The Commerce Department was one of the entities reviewed and called the report “fair and thorough” in its assessment.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asked seven carriers about the requests they received from law enforcement officials for customer information. “Mobile phone data can be an important tool in law enforcement efforts to protect Americans, but we cannot allow the pervasive collection of this information, especially of innocent Americans,” Markey said in a statement Thursday. “As mobile phones have become 21st century wallets, personal assistants, and navigation devices -- tracking each click we make and step we take -- we need to know what information is being shared with law enforcement. I look forward to receiving the responses from the wireless carriers and continuing this important investigation.” He sent letters to AT&T, C Spire, Cricket Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon.
The Senate Appropriations Committee isn't prepared to give much money to the Financial Services appropriations, which will include the FY 2016 FCC and FTC budget proposals. The committee approved allocations Thursday in a partisan 16-14 vote, prompting disagreement from Democrats. Financial Services would receive $20.56 billion under the GOP proposal. The House Appropriations Committee recently approved $20.25 billion in allocations for Financial Services (see 1504220061). ”This funding ceiling is just very, very spartan,” Appropriations Committee ranking member Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said. “It is our assessment that it does not contain enough resources to meet the needs of the American people.” Mikulski had proposed an alternative that committee Republicans rejected. No specific funding proposals for the FCC or FTC have been released.
CEA commends the Senate for its “bipartisan vote to begin debate” on Trade Promotion Authority legislation, President Gary Shapiro said Thursday in a statement. Access to global trade markets “is critical to our country’s economic future and highly important to the technology industry,” and so CEA will score the pending TPA vote as a "key vote" on its technology legislative scorecard, Shapiro said. The scorecard is CEA's numerical assessment of how much every member of Congress supports innovation, the association has said. “We now urge the Senate to proceed to a vote and pass TPA as quickly as possible.” Shapiro thinks the “odds are high” that TPA legislation will pass the Senate, he emailed us earlier this month (see 1505040040).
Senators introduced legislation to make it easier for telecom companies to do business with Cuba after a recent administration shift in policy. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., introduced the Cuba Digital and Telecom Advancement Act (S-1389) Tuesday with co-sponsors Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. “As we work to open up relations with Cuba, ensuring Cubans can access the Internet and cellular technology is the first step toward lasting change,” Udall said in a statement. “Americans are eager to do business with Cubans and share information efficiently, but Cuba lacks the 21st-century technology needed for companies operating in a global economy.” The legislation would let companies export consumer communications devices and telecom services to Cuba, codify the administration’s policies on this front and “encourage financing and market reform by repealing outdated policies that prevent American businesses from investing in Cuba, including provisions that prevent financing, indirect financing, and assistance to Cuba from the U.S. and other countries,” a Udall news release said. The bill also would strike what it considers outdated parts of law that stop multilateral organizations from investing, the release said. The bill was referred to the Foreign Relations Committee, where Udall is a member.
The Senate Commerce Committee passed the 2015 E-Warranty Act (S-1359) in a voice vote Wednesday during an executive session markup. The legislation introduced by ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., “streamlines warranty notice rules and provides explicit direction to manufacturers that they have the option to meet their warranty requirements on their company’s website,” said a news release introducing the legislation (see 1505150037). The senators said the legislation is needed since FTC rules aren't clear if posting a warranty online meets warranty notice requirements, the release said. No amendments were proposed or adopted during the markup. CEA applauded the bill and urged the Senate to take quick action to pass the legislation. The "common sense bill" would reduce "paper usage, helping the environment, cutting costs and providing consumers easy access to product warranties," and there should be "broad, bipartisan support" and "quick" Senate action on the legislation, said Veronica O’Connell, CEA vice president-government and political affairs, in a news release Wednesday.
“If the Senate rejects the USA Freedom Act, Section 215 -- and likely the NSA program that some in the Senate are trying to preserve -- will expire before we reconvene on the evening of June 1,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., and Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., in a joint statement Tuesday. If Section 215 expires, the “Senate will have blocked reform at great cost to the intelligence community,” they said. “The USA Freedom Act is the only option that does not lead down that path,” they said, as it ends bulk collection of data, increases transparency, prevents government overreach, and preserves key intelligence-gathering authorities by allowing the FBI to continue to use Section 215 and creating a targeted call detail records authority for the NSA. Congress must act before June 1 to reauthorize or amend Section 215 because three provisions of the Patriot Act, including 215, expire at midnight May 31, they said. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court order authorizing NSA’s bulk phone metadata program expires 5 p.m. June 1, they said. If the program sunsets, sweeping reforms and key authorities made to U.S. surveillance programs will be lost, and the sunset may be permanent, they said. The Senate had set a target of a Friday adjournment for the Memorial Day "state work period."