The Congressional Research Service outlined tech issues facing this Congress, in a 41-page report last week. “Science and technology (S&T) have a pervasive influence over a wide range of issues confronting the nation,” CRS said, citing broadband and IoT. CRS eyed the telecom implications of the Agriculture Department’s two years to implement a food labeling law, which will be studied within a year of implementation of the new rules: “Concerns have been raised that such digital methods of disclosure,” via a smartphone QR code, “could have differential impacts on those without cell phones (e.g., the elderly, low-income families) and those without access to high-speed broadband. The required study is to specifically address the availability of wireless or cellular networks, availability of landline telephones in stores, and particular factors that might affect small retailers and rural retailers as well as consumers.” CRS said net neutrality consensus “remains elusive.”

The Incentive Auction Task Force properly denied a Freedom of Information Act request from Free Access and Broadcast Telemedia, said commissioners in an order in Tuesday's Daily Digest. Though incentive auction simulations created by the FCC “involve factual data, showing the input and output from the auction model, release of the information would reveal the core deliberations of IATF,” the order said. Releasing the auction simulations would harm the “deliberative process,” the agency said.

The Competitive Carriers Association warned that amounts proposed for the Mobility Fund II are inadequate. Replies were due last week on oppositions to various reconsideration petitions on the February FCC order launching the MF-II (see 1702230042). U.S. Cellular recently released a study on how much funding would be necessary to build and maintain a 4G LTE network in rural areas, CCA said. “Annual maintenance capital costs ... would be approximately $1.05 billion, while annual operational expenses ... would be approximately $1.08 billion, in total approximately five times the amount budgeted for MF II,” CCA commented in docket 10-90. “Absent contrary evidence, such a fact-driven study should be relied upon by the FCC to determine an appropriate budget.” CCA asked the FCC to rethink a requirement that MF-II fund applicants secure a letter of credit before authorization of support. The requirement could limit the number of companies that apply, CCA said. It's "critically important that this USF support reaches areas in-need, especially unserved and underserved locations, and the FCC must implement a framework that encourages robust participation in the program through clear, cost-efficient goals,” President Steve Berry said in a news release. T-Mobile defended its arguments to reconsider MF-II order speed and latency thresholds. The carrier said it “demonstrated that the speed requirements adopted in the Mobility Fund Order exceed the actual median data speeds consistently provided.” Only the Rural Wireless Association opposed its calls for change, T-Mobile said. RWA said it was right to urge the FCC to utilize a 5 Mbps download threshold to determine an area’s eligibility for MF-II support, instead of 10 Mbps: The lower number "conflicts with the Commission’s statutory mandate to ensure that rural areas have access to services that are reasonably comparable to those available in urban areas.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau extended comment deadlines on a wireless infrastructure NPRM and notice of inquiry to June 15 for comments, July 17 for replies. CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association and the Wireless Infrastructure Association sought the change, which aligns deadlines with those for a corresponding wireline rulemaking. Industry officials at the WIA conference last week said they hoped the FCC would provide additional time. “Petitioners contend that a number of factors support their request, including that ‘both proceedings share a common objective to address and remove federal, state, and local regulatory barriers that impede the deployment of network infrastructure needed to provide high-speed broadband nationwide,’” said the bureau. “Petitioners assert that ‘many issues that the Commission raises in the items affect both wireless and wireline providers.’” Initial comments were due June 9, replies July 10. The groups noted the wireline and wireless inquiries were adopted the same day, but deadlines differed because the inquiries had different publication dates in the Federal Register. Industry officials said last week they expect the FCC to approve rules in the fall speeding up siting, with action likely first on the wireless side (see 1705230057). Groups, meanwhile, asked the FCC to extend deadlines in the wireline infrastructure deployment proceedings by 30 days. "Owing to the exceptional complexity of the issues at play here, the substantial length of the proceedings whose reversal is proposed, and the broad substantive array of issues at hand, an exception to the Commission’s ordinary policy regarding requests for extension of time is warranted," said a filing Friday in docket 17-84 by Public Knowledge, The Greenlining Institute, National Association of the Deaf, Center for Rural Strategies, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, United Church of Christ and others.

Correction: Kathy Kiely is National Press Club Journalism Institute Freedom Fellow (see 1705250014).

Robin Colwell, chief of staff to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, will take over as House Commerce Committee chief counsel on telecom matters. That role has been filled by David Redl, who the Trump administration nominated to lead NTIA (see 1705160081). Redl “will remain on staff until confirmed,” a committee news release said Friday. Colwell is a former aide to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and former counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee’s Tourism, Competitiveness and Innovation Subcommittee. Also joining as a senior professional staffer is Timothy Kurth, who advised then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., on tech and telecom issues. House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., issued a joint statement lauding the new hires' “breadth of knowledge on communications policy” poised to help Commerce’s work toward “boosting broadband deployment, Next Generation 911 reauthorization, spectrum allocation and availability, and FCC oversight.” O’Rielly also issued a statement praising Colwell: “While she maintains sound conservative principles, she is able and willing to reach a deal when appropriate.” The committee also lost Deputy Chief Counsel Grace Koh earlier this year, now special assistant to the president for tech, telecom and cybersecurity policy. Kelsey Guyselman, Gene Fullano, Lauren McCarty and Giulia Giannangeli will retain their current committee roles, the committee said Friday. “It never hurts to populate the agencies with your own people,” Walden told reporters earlier this month of the career changes for Redl and Koh, saying "the hard part" is replacing them.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission executive director resigned after he couldn’t agree with the agency on a resolution to conflict-of-interest questions, the state telecom regulator said. Government watchdogs decried possible conflict of interest after Nebraska’s attorney general found no violations by PSC Executive Director Jeff Pursley, who consults on the side for telecom companies (see 1705170037). “The Commission and Dir. Pursley agreed that he would sever his ties with his part-time employer,” a PSC spokeswoman emailed us. “However, they could not come to an agreement on when that would occur and Director Pursley chose to resign.” The resignation is effective June 12; Pursley’s duties will be absorbed by staff until a new executive director is hired, the commission said in a Thursday news release. “Jeff is a man of many of talents,” said Chairman Tim Schram, praising Pursley’s USF experience.

ITTA and USTelecom asked the FCC to ease business data service regulations for some rural telcos by allowing them to opt into recently adopted relief for price-cap carriers. "Rate-of-return carriers that receive universal service fund ('USF') support based on theoretical cost models (termed 'model-based rate-of-return carriers) must comply with legacy regulation only for their BDS offerings," said a petition for rulemaking Thursday. "Costs of such rate-of-return regulations for these carriers now outweigh the benefits of the regulation." The petition "requests that model-based rate-of-return carriers be permitted to opt into existing price cap regulation for their provision of BDS, subject to certain conditions. ... Continued compliance with rate-[of]-return-based rate regulation, including tariffing, tariff review plans, cost studies, and associated requirements, entails significant costs that are difficult for model-based rate-of-return carriers to recover in the competitive marketplace."

Fourteen people who said comments were submitted to the FCC fraudulently under their names in support of a rollback of Communications Act Title II regulation of broadband service are demanding the agency investigate. In a letter to Chairman Ajit Pai and Chief Information Officer David Bray released Thursday by Fight for the Future, the 14 said the agency should remove the fraudulent comments from the docket, publicly disclose any information it has about whoever is behind what it says are more than 450,000 fake comments and notify others whose names and addressed were used fraudulently. "While it may be convenient for you to ignore this, given that it was done in an attempt to support your position, it cannot be the case that the FCC moves forward on such a major public debate without properly investigating this known attack," the letter said. The FCC didn't comment.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the U.S. government's October Internet Assigned Numbers Authority oversight transition (see 1609300065 and 1610030042) failed to stop China, Russia and other countries from increasing government involvement in internet governance. O'Rielly said in April the U.S. needs to continue to play a leading role in fostering multistakeholder internet governance, saying the IANA handoff was a failed “appeasement strategy” amid policy moves and statements from the ITU, China and Russia (see 1704210062). O'Rielly again noted his concerns about China and the ITU in a new opinion piece in the New Hampshire Union Leader, saying the U.S.' “fancy strategy didn't appease anyone” already opposed to multistakeholderism. O'Rielly also cited April ITU study meetings in which Russia and several African countries sought to define OTT content providers, which he called a “veiled attempt to expand ITU jurisdiction to the internet, as well as to get its grips into popular consumer uses, such as Netflix, Skype, and WhatsApp.” The U.S. “should learn from the ICANN aftermath and redouble our efforts to quash continuous and systemic assaults on the internet by foreign governments, using all appropriate means,” O'Rielly said.