The House Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing on next steps for spectrum policy Thursday at 10:15 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn. “With demand for spectrum growing every day, members will discuss what the federal government is and can be doing to meet America’s spectrum needs,” a committee notice said. “The subcommittee will discuss the FCC’s first-of-its-kind Incentive Auction. The auction -- a result of bipartisan work on the committee -- stands to free up valuable spectrum for licensed and unlicensed uses. Members will also discuss their work to increase the efficiency of federal spectrum.” Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said last week she plans to reintroduce the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act with Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. (see 1503190048). House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., also introduced a bill (HR-1506) Thursday that would order the FCC to update its competitive bidding rules. Pallone’s bill had no co-sponsors and was referred to Commerce.
BSA/The Software Alliance (BSA) urged the leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to pass Trade Promotion Authority legislation, which would simplify the process for congressional approval of trade agreements. “Unfortunately, we are seeing a growing number of countries enacting measures that restrict cross-border data flows or require data processing to occur within the nation’s borders,” BSA said in a letter to the committees Friday. “We need trade agreements to address these market access restrictions on digital commerce directly,” it said. BSA members include Adobe, Apple, Dell and Microsoft.
Tech executives will lobby congressional lawmakers' offices on net neutrality Wednesday, said an emailed notice from a public affairs firm. They will discuss what they see as the “detriments” of reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service and lobby in favor of bipartisan legislation codifying net neutrality protections, it said. The executives will represent Actiontec Electronics, ETI Software Solutions, Procera Networks, the Prysmian Group, SNC Manufacturing, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Vermeer Manufacturing and Condux International.
Senate discussions on bipartisan net neutrality legislation will continue, but a senior Democrat has concerns. “I’m not sure there is common ground if the issues are as divided as they are,” said Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Wednesday during an FCC oversight hearing nearly four hours in length (see 1503180055). “And that saddens me because I think that reasonable people can usually come together and find a consensus.” The fate of any compromise legislation is “to be determined,” he said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., has circulated a draft bill and said he wants bipartisan negotiation. “I hope we can find that ‘Title X’ as you call it, that sweet spot,” Thune told Nelson. Thune also turned to the five FCC commissioners. “I would hope the commission could play a constructive role, not discourage us from legislating,” he said. “Can I just be supportive of those comments, sir?” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told Thune. “We will provide you whatever expertise that we can, including from different points of view.” On the contentious fighting over net neutrality, Nelson said: “We’re going to have to let this percolate a bit before we can actually have this consensus bill that you and I are talking about.” Thune told reporters the draft legislation lets the FCC retain “a lot of their authorities,” considering Democratic concerns about how the draft bill undercuts FCC powers. “It’s a limited authority that we grant them and doesn’t give them kind of the carte blanche authority that they have right now under [Communications Act] Title II and coupled with Section 706, which wasn’t talked about a lot today, but this is a very far-reaching move by the FCC," Thune said.
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., graded the net neutrality op-ed that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote earlier this week (see 1503180026) and gave him an F. “It is intentionally misleading, poorly researched, and littered with errors,” Takano said. “Marco, please don’t draft essays on your return flight from Iowa. See me in my office and I’ll walk you through Net Neutrality.” He posted a copy of Rubio’s op-ed and included many of his own corrections in red pen. Takano repeatedly slammed Rubio’s assertion that the net neutrality rules come from “unelected bureaucrats.” Rubio “VOTED to confirm all five current commissioners,” Takano wrote. In another margin, Takano asked Rubio to please disclose tens of thousands of dollars in donations from ISPs and telecom companies. He also questioned mixed metaphors and Rubio’s other characterizations, urging him to do more research. Takano, in signing the critique, notes he was a high school teacher from 1988 to 2012.
The House Intelligence Committee will soon release its own cybersecurity information sharing bill and hopes to get the bill “out of this committee soon,” said committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., during a hearing Thursday. The House Intelligence bill is likely to mirror the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754), which the Senate Intelligence Committee cleared 14-1 March 13. The committee released the post-markup text of the bill Tuesday, followed swiftly by vocal opposition to the revised bill from leading privacy groups. The revised version of S-754 includes several amendments that enhance the bill’s privacy protections. Still, the Center for Democracy & Technology is “troubled that the bill continues to authorize companies to share communications information directly with the National Security Agency, and to require that information shared with one federal agency be immediately shared throughout the government, including with the NSA," said senior counsel Greg Nojeim in a blog post Thursday.The balance between improving cybersecurity and protecting privacy was on the minds of House Intelligence members Thursday, with NSA and Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., asking, “How can we get rid of that concern?” FireEye Chief Security Strategist Richard Bejtlich said the sharing of IP address information is likely to be the most problematic type of information that could be included in cyberthreat information shared with the government. House Intelligence could improve the public’s trust in its bill by listing the specific types of data that it would allow to be shared, Bejtlich said.
Reps. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., and Tom Rooney, R-Fla., introduced the Allocation for Music Producers Act (HR-1457) with support from the Recording Academy and SoundExchange, said a joint news release Thursday. Unlike performers, who collect a 45 percent royalty when their songs are broadcast digitally, music producers don’t have statutory royalties for songs they help produce, it said. The AMP Act would grant producers the “statutory right to receive compensation for the recordings they produce through the letter of direction process,” it said. HR-1457 would also “establish a procedure for producers and engineers to seek permission from featured artists or their heirs to receive appropriate royalty payments for sound recordings older than 1995,” which was when the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act was passed, it said. “Our AMP Act will ensure that every music professional receives what he or she has earned,” Crowley said. “Our bipartisan bill makes sure that hardworking studio professionals receive the royalties they earned in a fair and streamlined manner,” said Rooney. “For years, SoundExchange has proactively supported artist requests to direct royalties to the producers and engineers who work with them, and we fully support adding this practice to ensure fair payment into law,” said CEO Michael Huppe. The Recording Academy’s Producers and Engineers Wing’s Steering Committee had “considerable input” on the bill’s development, said Daryl Friedman, Recording Academy chief advocacy & industry relations officer, in a separate blog post. “The AMP Act is also the natural progression of work already being done by SoundExchange, the independent digital performance rights agency, which has already been paying out producer shares voluntarily.”
“I am optimistic the Senate can pass meaningful [patent reform] legislation this year,” said Senate Judiciary member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a statement after a committee hearing on patent issues. “Effective legislation must include mandatory fee shifting and a mechanism to ensure recovery of those fees, even against judgment-proof shell companies.” Hatch said last month that it was time to reform the America Invents Act, which he introduced in 2005 with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., (see 1502120047). Patent reform legislation has been proposed, but Hatch said then that he will “oppose any bill that fails to prevent patent trolls from litigating-and-dashing.” "Patent trolls strategically set their royalty demands below litigation costs to entice companies to settle rather than run the risk of expensive and risky patent litigation,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in written remarks. “We recognize that abusive patent litigation practices are a corrosive assault on the nation’s patent system and must be forcefully countered,” said Michael Crum, Iowa State University vice president-economic development, in written testimony. But a “careful, fact-based cost/benefit evaluation of each of these proposals must be carried out, particularly given that the evidentiary basis for sweeping patent reform has been called sharply into question,” he said. “The patent landscape has shifted considerably since various patent reform proposals were first proposed, creating fundamental questions about the urgency of broad patent reform at this time.”
A bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday “to authorize a bipartisan majority of Commissioners of the [FCC] to hold nonpublic collaborative discussions,” the longer titles said for the House (HR-1396) and Senate (S-760) bills. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., introduced the House version, and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., the Senate one, with both versions having backers from another party. The House co-sponsors are Reps. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Mike Doyle, D-Pa. Heller’s Senate co-sponsor is Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. “Provided it is transparent, everyone agrees members of the FCC should be able to collaborate much more than current law provides. That is why bipartisan and bicameral support exists for this measure,” Heller said in a statement. “The legislation we are proposing achieves these purposes and allows for the FCC to operate more efficiently.” The legislation is the FCC Collaboration Act, according to five-page bill text provided by Heller’s office. The bill text said section 552b of Title 5 of the U.S. Code “has hindered the ability of the Commission to have a substantive exchange of ideas and hold collective deliberations on issues pending before the Commission.” FCC commissioners have had to rely on “inefficient” communications as a result, harming “collegiality and cooperation” and leaving regulatory proceedings pending, the bill text said. The legislation would give a bipartisan majority of FCC commissioners authority to hold a closed meeting if a vote or agency action isn’t taken then and if “each person present at the meeting is a Commissioner, an employee of the Commission, a member of a joint board or conference established under section 410, or a person on the staff of such a joint board or conference or of a member of such a joint board or conference,” the bill said. An attorney from the FCC Office of General Counsel also would have to be present. The FCC would have to disclose who attended such a meeting and summarize its contents within two business days after. House lawmakers touted the bill in a news release Wednesday. "Allowing for greater interaction among the commissioners would enable the FCC to more efficiently carry out its responsibilities and more effectively consider the costs and benefits of proposed regulations," Shimkus said in a statement. Doyle said the legislation "will help the FCC operate in a more efficient manner without sacrificing transparency." Eshoo said "the current ‘Sunshine’ rule restricts commissioners from collaborating freely and effectively." NARUC praised the bill. The legislation was referred to the Commerce committees in both chambers.
A House Democrat introduced net neutrality legislation that would codify net neutrality protections while avoiding Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband service. Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., reintroduced the Open Internet Act (HR-1409), which he also had introduced in the last Congress. The two-page legislation would amend Telecom Act Section 706 to provide authority for and restoration of FCC 2010 net neutrality rules, said text provided by Peters' spokesman. The agency approved new rules last month considered stronger than the 2010 rules and with Title II reclassification involved rather than simply under Section 706. Peters wrote FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler last summer to insist “regulating the internet as a utility can’t be the only option on the table,” warning of “overly burdensome” regulations. His bill has no co-sponsors and was referred to the Commerce Committee. He's not a member of Commerce but sits on Judiciary, which will hold a net neutrality hearing featuring Wheeler March 25.