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.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, wants the FCC to make four officials in the Wireline Bureau Competition Policy Division available for transcribed interviews before March 27, he told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Thursday. These interviews would be “to advance the Committee’s investigation” into whether “the White House improperly influenced the development of the draft Open Internet Order,” Chaffetz said. The FCC approved that order at its Feb. 26 meeting and released it Thursday (see 1503120053). Chaffetz wants to hear from the FCC’s Kristine Fargotstein, Melissa Kirkel, Thomas Parisi and Carol Simpson, he said. He also tallied ways the agency has not complied with his requests so far in the investigation. Wheeler declined to testify at a hearing prior to the Feb. 26 vote and “declined to make the relevant staff” heading the Wireline and Wireless bureaus available to brief Chaffetz’s office, Chaffetz observed. “The Commission offered to make ... both bureau chiefs available to discuss the Open Internet Order, but committee staff rejected the briefing," an FCC spokeswoman told us when asked about the Chaffetz letter. Chaffetz also mentioned two letters he sent requesting preservation orders “because the Commission was unwilling to provide them to my staff voluntarily.” Wheeler will testify before Chaffetz at an oversight hearing 10 a.m. Tuesday in 2154 Rayburn.
Lawmakers from the House Commerce Trade Subcommittee unveiled data security draft legislation Thursday called the Data Security and Breach Notification Act. They plan to debate the 25-page draft bill at a hearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday in 2123 Rayburn, with FTC representatives and “affected stakeholders” on deck to testify. House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., wrote the draft legislation. “The legislation would replace the current patchwork of laws with a single, national standard for protection and notification,” Blackburn said in a statement. Welch judged the draft “far from perfect” but an “important step,” he said, hopeful for what he called “practical improvements.” Trade Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess, R-Texas, wants to “broker a deal in a timely manner,” he said. Blackburn and Welch also posted a summary of the draft bill.
The House Judiciary Committee secured FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioner Ajit Pai and FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright as witnesses for its antitrust-focused net neutrality hearing, a committee notice said Wednesday. The hearing will take place March 25 at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn. Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., originally had planned the hearing for next week on the same day that the House Oversight Committee had scheduled a hearing with Wheeler. “Many experts agree that the FCC’s recent approval of net neutrality rules, placing burdensome regulations on the provision of Internet service, will result in consumers having fewer choices while paying higher prices,” Goodlatte said in a statement. “The Internet doesn’t need an inflexible ‘one-size-fits-all’ government mandate to ensure net neutrality. The key to an open and free Internet lies in strong enforcement of our nation’s antitrust laws.” Several prominent Judiciary Committee Democrats told us they worry the hearing could be a partisan attack on the FCC (see 1503050047). They do not believe legislation is necessary, while Goodlatte wants Congress to act. Wright, a Republican, testified before House Judiciary on net neutrality last year and has agreed with Goodlatte on an antitrust approach.
The Marketplace Fairness Act was reintroduced in the Senate Tuesday by the same sponsors as last year’s Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act (S-2609): Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said a joint news release. Enzi introduced the MFA in 2013, which later passed the Senate 69-27. The bill would let states tax remote sellers with annual revenue exceeding $1 million. The bill is "identical" to its 2013 counterpart, with the exception of an amendment that would require states to delay the enactment of MFA for 180 days after its approval, plus an exemption for the"first Holiday shopping season" after passage, said an Enzi spokesman. He didn't clarify which season. MFA critics have said the bill has been a thorn in the side of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which would permanently bar Internet access taxes (see 1409230083). House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., reintroduced the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (HR-235) Jan. 11 (see 1501090042). MFA was a “bad bill in the last Congress and it’s still a bad bill now,” R Street Institute Executive Director Andrew Moylan said in a news release Wednesday. “By wiping away geographic limits to state tax authority, the legislation would impose serious burdens on Internet retail and undermine basic tax policy principles.” Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Angus King, I-Maine, also signed on as MFA co-sponsors, the joint release said.
More than 1,500 combined members of the Copyright Alliance and CreativeFuture sent separate but identical letters to Congress Monday, stating their commitment to strong copyright protections for content creators (see letters here and here). The groups said they recognize the Internet as a “powerful democratizing force for our world and for creative industries” and that “copyright promotes and protects free speech.” The groups urged “Congress to resist attempts to erode the right of creatives to determine when and how they share their works in the global marketplace.” Pro-fair use groups and law professors sent a letter to Congress Monday, saying, “Copyright overregulation merely enriches some at the expense of the very creators it claims to help” (see 1503090038).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., believes that legislative negotiation on net neutrality is largely on hold until the FCC releases the text of the order approved Feb. 26, he told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday. The senator said he is still engaged in conversations with committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who had talked with Thune about the possibility since last year. “My impression all along is the Democrats are going to be reluctant to do anything with us legislatively until they see the order and can react to it and determine what some of the impacts could be,” Thune said. “I think it’s clear that it’s going to be litigated; I think you’re going to see lawsuits filed right away, which could tie this thing up in court for a long time.” That litigation creates “compelling reason” for Democrats and Republicans to join forces on what has thus far been a draft bill backed only by Republicans, Thune said. He and his GOP counterparts in the House circulated a draft text in January that would codify net neutrality protections while limiting FCC authority. “My guess is that in order to get something to the floor along the lines of what we’re talking about, we’d have to have some expectation that we could actually pass the bill and perhaps actually even get it signed,” Thune said, considering his discussions with GOP leadership. “I think moving a legislative solution is going to have to be bipartisan.” He distanced himself from what he called “partisan ways” to approach net neutrality, such as the many members who want to file a Congressional Review Act resolution against the rules or use appropriations riders. Thune, in a separate interview Monday, confirmed that snow caused the postponement of several private net neutrality stakeholder sessions last week (see 1503090033). “Hopefully we’ll get back on schedule,” said Thune. He scoffed at the snow, which “never amounts to anything. Everyone was panicked on Wednesday,” Thune remarked. “It slowed things down, but we’ll get back at it.”
“Attempts to expand copyright law and increase regulatory control stifle the new creative revolution fueled by the Internet and constant advances in consumer electronics,” said a letter delivered to Congress Monday from several think tanks, advocacy groups and law professors. Think tank R Street Institute signed the letter, and Executive Director Andrew Moylan confirmed its contents and delivery. The letter’s signatories included the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet Association, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition and Public Knowledge, it said. “The free market will find a way to integrate technological innovation in order to compensate creators over time,” the letter said. “Copyright overregulation merely enriches some at the expense of the very creators it claims to help.”
Snowy weather derailed the schedule of private net neutrality stakeholder sessions that Capitol Hill Republicans planned to hold in Washington last week, multiple people familiar with the sessions told us. Top staffers for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., had planned to brief industry lobbyists on the draft net neutrality legislation that their bosses circulated in January and discuss its path forward as well as the FCC's net neutrality order (see 1502270050). They scheduled at least five sessions and at least two did happen as planned earlier in the week, one Senate staffer told us. Two of the meetings that happened included representatives from the tech companies and the competitive carriers, the staffer said. Meetings later in the week were postponed. These GOP lawmakers have said they want bipartisan negotiation and backing for the legislation -- which would codify net neutrality protections in exchange for limiting FCC authority -- but no Democrats have yet backed the draft bill. Democratic staffers were also invited to these sessions. Lawmakers called off much of the activity slated for Thursday and Friday last week due to the weather. Thune had said in February that he wanted to hold these private listening sessions as part of his commitment to advancing legislation following the FCC’s Feb. 26 net neutrality vote.
The Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act (S-668) was introduced by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Al Franken, D-Minn., said a joint news release Thursday. S-668 would “allow consumers to access and correct their information to help ensure maximum accuracy,” it said. “The bill also provides consumers with the right to stop data brokers from using, sharing, or selling their personal information for marketing purposes” and “empowers” the FTC to “enforce the law and promulgate rules within one year.” Data brokers "seem to believe that there is no such thing as privacy,” Markey said in the release. “This legislation ensures that data brokers cannot take advantage of the most valuable possessions that consumers have: their personal information.” Americans "have a fundamental right to privacy, including the right to determine whether information about their personal lives should be available for sale to the highest bidder,” said Franken.