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.
“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.”
Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., is preparing a Congressional Review Act resolution to attempt to dismantle the FCC’s Feb. 26 net neutrality order. The White House would likely veto such a resolution -- and passage of such resolutions is rare. “My Resolution of Disapproval would be the most direct route to combat the FCC’s new rules, overriding them by an expedited legislative process,” Collins told us in a statement Tuesday. “My bill would require only a simple Senate majority to pass. No filibuster could stop it from reaching the president’s desk. And I’d like to hear [President Barack Obama] explain why century-old telephone regulations are necessary for our modern Internet -- and why rural districts like mine might never see broadband investment, money that will instead go to pay compliance costs and bureaucrats’ salaries.” Collins is a member of the Judiciary Committee and is one of the 21 Republicans, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who recently said they “plan to support and urge” passage of such a resolution targeting net neutrality.
A draft version of FCC reauthorization legislation would cap the USF at $9 billion a year and freeze FCC funding at its current level for the next four years. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., circulated the draft Tuesday, including it in the GOP memo for an FCC oversight hearing Thursday with all five commissioners. The reauthorization bill would let the agency adjust its fee schedule and would remove the FCC chairman’s ability to hire or fire its inspector general. “With this reauthorization, we are charting the course to make the necessary reforms to an agency that is ill equipped for the innovation era,” Walden said in a statement. “This bill addresses the commission’s disproportionate FY 2016 budget request, the runaway growth in the Universal Service Fund, and ensures that the FCC’s Inspector General can conduct oversight of the commission without fear of reprisal from a chairman.” The FCC requested $388 million for FY 2016, more than $50 million more than current funding. The GOP memo pointed to net neutrality, customer proprietary network information enforcement action, pre-emption of state municipal broadband restrictions, unfinished dockets, use of delegated authority and transparency as core areas that GOP lawmakers worry about. The memo cited “concerns” with recent testimony from FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins -- “Mr. Wilkins was unable to provide details on the planned closures and staff re-organization of the field offices. Recent reports from the field indicate that the Commission is planning significant structural changes to its Enforcement Bureau. The Committee is concerned that transparency problems extend further into the budget request.” Wilkins testified that the FCC needs more money for “unavoidable costs” in moving its headquarters and for IT upgrades (see 1503040032). The FCC would receive $339.8 million each year through FY 2020, the draft text said. Walden’s hearing will be Thursday at 11 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The FCC declined comment.
Thirteen House members and two senators signed on to the Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 17) (S. Con. Res. 4), said an NAB news release Tuesday. The NAB-backed resolution opposes any new taxes or royalties for terrestrial broadcasters (see 1502250032). Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and John Boozman, R-Ark., were the new Senate co-sponsors; S. Con. Res. 4 has seven co-sponsors total. Reps. John Culberson, R-Texas; Pete Olson, R-Texas; Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.; and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., were among the most recent of the House’s 133 co-sponsors.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said he expects to release a draft this week of his version of Department of Homeland Security-centric cybersecurity information sharing legislation and hopes to mark up the bill within the next two weeks. “We are in a pre-9/11 moment when it comes to cybersecurity,” he said Tuesday during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event, comparing jurisdictional barriers that prevented the U.S. from “connecting the dots” in advance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the lack of liability protections to encourage information sharing. McCaul said his bill would echo some aspects of the information sharing legislative proposal the White House released in January, which would also focus private sector-to-government information sharing at DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), but also includes what he said are more “robust” liability protections than the White House offered. McCaul’s bill would provide legal “safe harbors” for government-to-industry and company-to-company information sharing in addition to the protections the White House proposed for industry-to-government information sharing. McCaul said he supports also providing liability protections to companies that share with the NSA -- the main goal of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-234) and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act -- but maintained that DHS should be the primary hub for private sector information sharing. The Senate Intelligence Committee was expected to release the text Tuesday of the latest iteration of CISA, which it approved 14-1 Thursday. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to mark up a bill similar to CISA, which McCaul said would be more difficult to pass than his bill. McCaul said he remains concerned that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks about controversial NSA surveillance programs will continue to impede progress on information sharing legislation in this Congress, even though his bill would require information shared via DHS to be “thoroughly scrubbed” of personally identifiable information not directly linked with cyber risks.
The Internet Freedom Act (HR-1212) has now attracted 43 GOP co-sponsors, a dozen more backers since House lawmakers broke for last week’s recess. House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., early this month introduced the bill, which would nullify the FCC’s net neutrality order and prevent it from reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. The latest co-sponsors include Reps. Billy Long of Missouri; Barbara Comstock of Virginia; Gus Bilirakis of Florida; Louie Gohmert of Texas; and Jeb Hensarling of Texas. The legislation doesn't have the backing of Commerce Committee leaders trying to forge bipartisan net neutrality legislation. Free Press blasted Blackburn's legislation and the draft legislation of Commerce Committee leaders. The Internet Freedom Act is one way Congress "could f*ck up net neutrality," Free Press said in a blog post Monday, also criticizing the other draft legislation being touted as a possible bipartisan compromise: "This bill is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s been around since last year and is being presented as compromise legislation. This fake Net Neutrality bill is riddled with loopholes and would legalize harmful discriminatory practices. It would also strip the FCC of its authority to adopt and enforce rules." Blackburn has another piece of legislation also gaining GOP backers -- the States’ Rights Municipal Broadband Act (HR-1106), which would prevent the FCC from executing the municipal broadband order it recently approved. That bill now has 11 co-sponsors.
A Congressional Research Report breaks down the implications of the FCC net neutrality order and the possible role Congress could play. “The use of one management tool, deep packet inspection (DPI), illustrates the complexity of the net neutrality debate,” CRS said. “DPI refers to a network management technique that enables network operators to inspect, in real time, both the header and the data field of the packets." The "crux" of net neutrality discussion may center in part on "how to develop a policy that permits some types of discrimination (i.e., ‘good’ discrimination) that may be beneficial to network operation and improve the user experience, while protecting against what would be considered ‘harmful’ or anticompetitive discrimination,” CRS said. The report included sections examining prioritization and usage-based billing in this context. It was dated March 9.
Free Press attacked Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Friday by flying a plane over Austin displaying a message asking him not to be “an enemy of the Internet.” Cruz has criticized the FCC net neutrality order and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, which Free Press strongly supports. The group was scheduled to have the plane fly over the state capitol Friday and Saturday. "Senator Cruz needs to decide: Is he on the side of monopoly-minded cable companies or will he stand with the millions of U.S. Internet users fighting for free speech online?" Free Press Action Fund Internet Campaign Director Candace Clement said in a statement. "The people of Texas know the answer. It's time for politicians like Cruz to cut their ties to Big Cable and support real Net Neutrality." A Free Press news release pointed out that “during his relatively short tenure in the Senate, Cruz has received more than $60,000 in campaign donations from the same phone and cable companies trying to kill Net Neutrality.” A Cruz spokeswoman didn’t comment, but Cruz was actively mentioning net neutrality via social media. “Two weeks after the #FCC passed their 313-page #NetNeutrality order, you can finally read it,” Cruz tweeted Thursday, citing the publication of the agency’s net neutrality order text. “#DontMessWithTheNet,” he added.
Some Democrats and the National Consumers League (NCL) are disappointed with the draft of the Data Security and Breach Notification Act released Thursday by Reps. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Peter Welch, D-Vt. (see 1503120065). “We have numerous concerns about the weakening of consumer protections overall, as well as the dilution of protections of customers of telecommunications and cable services," said Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Democrats, in a joint statement Thursday. Data breaches “create serious harm to consumers and businesses alike, and this bill does not provide solutions,” they said. The bill reduces consumer protections and pre-empts stronger existing state laws, said NCL Vice President Public Policy-Telecommunications and Fraud John Breyault. The bill doesn't include protections for information such as email addresses and "creates a disincentive for companies to notify affected consumers," Breyault said. Welch, who co-wrote the bipartisan legislation, called the draft “far from perfect” but an “important step.” Pallone and Schakowsky said they will “continue to work for legislation that provides the strongest possible safeguards and protections for American consumers.”