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to Cuba, codify the administration’s policies on this front and “encourage financing and market reform by repealing outdated policies that prevent American businesses from investing in Cuba, including provisions that prevent financing, indirect financing, and assistance to Cuba from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 The bill also would strike what it considers outdated parts of law that stop multilateral organizations from investing, the release said.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.
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., announced the launch of the CBC Tech 2020 initiative Tuesday, which aims to increase the number of African-Americans in the tech sector at all levels, a news release said. “According to the Level Playing Field Institute, there will be an estimated 1.4 million new tech jobs by 2020, and 70 percent of those jobs will remain unfilled at the rate U.S. universities are producing qualified graduates for these roles,” Butterfield said. The CBC asked tech companies to adopt a Tech 2020 diversity and African-American inclusion plan that includes: making black inclusion a priority for board of directors and executive leadership; setting clear, public goals to measurably increase the number of African-Americans at all levels within the companies, with external contractors, and with affiliated venture capital investment; provide significant financial and human capital resources to achieve these goals, share best practices; and increase the use of African-American-owned vendors and require majority-owned vendors to meet specific diversity goals, said the CBC. Tech-focused nonprofits were asked to adopt an inclusion plan to: evaluate specific programs seeking to increase diversity; identify challenges that are unique to the African-American community that may stifle their inclusion in the tech sector; and to collaborate with nonprofits and the private sector to increase black diversity in the tech industry, it said. Educational institutions must join these efforts, Butterfield said, as well as the government. “Congress in particular is integral to this effort, so we call on our colleagues to join us in addressing this critical issue, particularly as it relates to building and strengthening the STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] pipeline, and fighting against cuts to STEM education in the No Child Left Behind Act,” Butterfield said. “The tech sector is committed to building a more inclusive 21st century economy, and that includes making our own workforce more inclusive," said Information Technology Industry Council CEO Dean Garfield in a news release Tuesday. The council is reviewing CBC's proposals and will work with the group to increase the presence of African-Americans in all levels of the tech sector, he said.
The Senate Commerce Committee hasn't dealt with any issue this year that hasn’t involved spectrum and wireless technology, said Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., during a Wireless Foundation awards reception Monday evening. “We’ve got to get more spectrum available if we’re going to do the types of things that will improve the quality of life of the people across this country -- whether it’s a light bulb or an appliance or a fitness machine. There are so many ways in which the technology continues to improve the life of people in this country." Consumers are going to need spectrum for everyday activities, Thune said. It’s important that future spectrum auctions are fair and clear, and companies have to abide by both the letter and the spirit of the law, he said. “It’s also important that it be an open competition that the free market decides, that the government isn’t there, putting its finger on the scale in one way or another.” Thune commended CTIA involvement with fighting the FCC net neutrality decision and making it “abundantly clear that that’s a wrong approach,” he said. The FCC is using a 1930s law to try to govern the Internet in the same way that the agency did landlines in the monopoly era, and “that’s a mistake,” Thune said. “I’m hopeful that at some point we’re going to encourage enough Democrats and Republicans not just on the Senate Commerce Committee, but in Congress in general that there’s a better way to do this.”
Three Democratic lawmakers pressed ISPs and the FCC to revamp practices surrounding consumer education on broadband performance, citing a recently released GAO report that was requested by some of the legislators (see 1505150044). “GAO points out that ISPs currently do not provide easy-to-understand data on broadband performance, and that the lack of a standardized format to disclose this data makes it difficult for consumers to compare between providers,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Monday. “We call on the FCC to work with ISPs to provide consumers with standardized, easy-to-read information about broadband performance, so that it is crystal clear what consumers are paying for when they buy Internet access. We ask the FCC to help consumers by providing them with accessible and useful information about broadband speeds and service.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider this week how much money will go toward each of its prospective appropriations bills for FY 2016. The committee will meet at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in 216 Hart. The allocations would include how much money is slated for the Financial Services appropriations, which would include the FCC and FTC budgets for next year. Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., has told us the determination of these allocations will be the first step in saying for sure what the FCC budget may look like next year and said it’s likely to be a tight budget year (see 1505120041). The House Appropriations Committee has determined its allocation for Financial Services appropriations bill, which includes cuts, and has yet to include any specific information about the FCC FY 2016 budget (see 1504220061).
The House Appropriations Committee plans to mark up legislation including a FY 2016 budget for the Commerce Department at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in 2359 Rayburn, the committee said in a notice. The Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee approved the appropriations bill Thursday. The GOP proposal would fund NTIA far less than it requested and includes a provision saying that the agency cannot use the funds “to relinquish the responsibility” of NTIA “with respect to Internet domain name system functions, including responsibility with respect to the authoritative root zone file and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions” (see 1505130047).
Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ed Markey, D-Mass., penned a joint op-ed in The Hill Friday encouraging passage of their Protect Student Privacy Act (see 1505130024). “We need to ensure that the enormous power of technology is harnessed to the benefit of students and not for any unknown means,” Hatch and Markey wrote. American schools increasingly outsource to private companies the work to retain and process educational records, they said. A study from Fordham Law School’s Center on Law and Information Policy found that student data shared with companies ranges from grades, test scores and attendance records, to whether a student has a disability, family relationships and Social Security numbers, without any privacy protections, they said. Parents are largely unaware schools send their child’s data to a private company for analysis, and parents who do know rarely have the ability to correct faulty information, Hatch and Leahy said. It’s time to update the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, they said. “We create safe zones around school playgrounds to protect children from outside dangers in the offline world,” and it is “just as important that we safeguard students’ personal information in the online world so that kids can grow up and learn in a secure environment where strangers cannot track, target or make judgments about them that could hurt their prospects for a bright, productive future,” they said.
Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., believes his Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to dismantle the FCC net neutrality order could help the efforts of Commerce Committee Republicans. “My resolution does nothing to affect them,” Collins said during an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set to have been telecast over the weekend, on the legislative hopes of Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and others. “In fact, it empowers them.” Collins stressed his belief that Congress should be the one acting on net neutrality, not the FCC. Collins is not a member of Commerce. “It’s simply a constitutional issue,” Collins said. “Let that be an issue for Congress.” The White House is seen as likely interested in vetoing such a CRA resolution, a rarely successful maneuver, but, Collins said, “Frankly, I believe we should be using more to rein in what we believe is agency law, that way we’re looking at it.” During the same episode, Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., outlined their thoughts on government surveillance. “I don’t like the Patriot Act,” Massie said, describing the USA Freedom Act passed by the House last week (see 1505140036) as a “thin veneer of reforms” surrounding its surveillance powers. “Are there enough reforms to warrant reauthorizing the Patriot Act? For me, the answer’s a clear 'no.'” Massie described his failed attempt to get an amendment to strengthen privacy protections considered during the Rules Committee process. “We have to make sure policies [are] in place to protect privacy, to make sure there’s appropriate security, and there’s even international implications in how data moves around," DelBene said of "woefully out of date" policies surrounding an era with so much data circulating and in the cloud. DelBene and Collins, members of the Judiciary Committee, mentioned how outdated they find copyright policy and Collins mentioned his Songwriter Equity Act and interest in music licensing.
Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Thursday night introduced legislation that would allow companies to post warranties online, a joint news release said. The E-Warranty Act of 2015 (S-1359) “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,” it said. The senators said the legislation is needed since the FTC’s rules are not clear if posting a warranty online meets warranty notice requirements, the release said. “The world is changing, and our technology is getting smaller, faster, and more efficient,” Fischer said. “Our laws must follow suit,” she said. “It’s just common sense to take advantage of new or improving online technologies to help consumers and businesses with their commerce,” Nelson said. Posting warranties online: provides relief to manufacturers and sellers; boosts consumer access to warranty information; advances common-sense environmental benefits; promotes U.S. global competitiveness in the IoT; modernizes government rules to reflect the digital age; and preserves robust consumer protections, the release said. The legislation has been referred to the Senate Commerce Committee, which will mark up the bill Wednesday, the release said.
The GAO recommended the FCC “take additional steps to evaluate its efforts to provide consumers with broadband performance information,” GAO said in a 42-page report released Friday. The FCC concurred. GAO recommendations suggested the agency should be “conducting or commissioning research on the effectiveness of its efforts and making the results publicly available” and “establishing performance goals and measures that allow FCC to monitor and report on these efforts.” GAO directed the report to House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. GAO found broadband performance information was limited for consumers despite many sources of information. “Currently, ISPs’ disclosures vary with respect to length, content, and where they are placed on ISPs’ websites,” GAO said. “In addition, according to public interest groups we spoke with, the complexity of this information and its lack of standardization across ISPs can make it difficult for consumers to find and use the information to compare broadband products and services.”