The FCC needs to use a “light-touch Title II approach” to crafting net neutrality rules, applicable to wired and wireless services and banning paid prioritization deals, House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Wednesday, consistent with her past statements on the issue. The approach “should include but not be limited to the use of Section 202, which explicitly states that ‘any unjust or unreasonable discrimination’ is unlawful,” Eshoo told Wheeler, referring to the Communications Act (http://bit.ly/1x9bXSL). “This approach should seek comment on whether to retain the use of other consumer protection provisions contained within Title II, including the preservation of universal service, the protection of privacy and the assurance of access for people with disabilities.” She argued against the idea that Title II is a “relic of the past” or “heavy-handed” in its nature, pointing to forbearance authority: “The Commission has used this forbearance authority often -- removing many legal obligations from Title II services like wireless voice, for example, but never abandoning the core nondiscrimination protections that are at the heart of the Communications Act.” She pointed to recent settlements the FCC has reached with AT&T and Verizon over mobile cramming and privacy. “Unless the Commission reclassifies broadband under Title II, it will not be able to take actions like these to protect consumers and businesses when it comes to their use of broadband and other modern communications services,” Eshoo said. Industry officials have strongly opposed such arguments, saying Title II would be onerous and that forbearance is no easy or assured path for the companies involved in providing broadband service. They also argue against applying the same standards to wired and wireless services.

Net neutrality regulation is “a terrible idea,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in the tech agenda he outlined for Congress, according to a news release Wednesday. “The last thing we need is government telling ISPs how to carve up bandwidth. Keep the Internet free and it will continue to drive our economy forward,” Hatch said at the headquarters of Overstock.com in Salt Lake City, in prepared remarks (http://1.usa.gov/1CW92ij). “In addition to promoting broadband investment, Congress should support policies that encourage increased deployment and adoption of mobile online services and content, including increased access to licensed and unlicensed spectrum.” Hatch, chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force and a member of the Judiciary Committee, pressed Congress to address what he referred to as patent trolls through legislation, citing a need for “common-sense reforms to our patent laws -- including fee shifting, heightened pleading and discovery standards, and a mechanism to enable recovery of fees against shell companies.” There should be “a renewed focus to combat online piracy” and “responsible data stewardship,” Hatch said, backing a “long overdue” update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that would require a warrant for email searches. He backs a “streamlined” antitrust review process and tax overhaul, he said. Cybersecurity legislation should “provide proper incentives, like liability protection, to encourage the private sector to share cyber-threat information with the government,” he said. “Cybersecurity legislation must also strike the right balance between protecting our nation’s computing infrastructure and protecting individual privacy rights. ... A voluntary, non-regulatory approach is most likely to yield consensus legislation”

Broadcaster lobbying expense exploded this latest quarter compared with the same time last year. NAB spent $3.98 million in 2014’s Q3, according to its lobbying disclosure form posted this week. A year earlier, NAB had reported spending $3.26 million, more than half a million dollars less. NCTA spent less on lobbying in 2014’s third quarter than it had a year before -- $3.81 million this latest quarter compared with $4.44 million a year ago. Both NAB and NCTA employ a wide range of lobbying firms and target a variety of priorities on Capitol Hill, both legislatively and in asking lawmakers to act on other fronts. NAB in particular has spiked in its outlays this past year, spending as much as $5.28 million in 2014’s first quarter and $4.65 million in the second, both higher amounts than what it spent in those quarters a year earlier. Both the cable and broadcast industries have been highly engaged this year in the reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, which expires Dec. 31.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said he believes his National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR-3696) may be “the one bill that passes this Congress and gets signed into law” during the upcoming lame-duck session. McCaul gave the bill an 80 percent chance of success, saying during a Tuesday Bloomberg Government event that behind-the-scenes discussions on HR-3696 in the Senate have been positive. The bill passed the House in July (see 1407290027). McCaul said Tuesday that HR-3696 has gained “so much support not only from industry, but from privacy groups” because it deals solely with facilitating cybersecurity information sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector. McCaul said he wasn’t sure what would happen to the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and its Senate counterpart, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). Industry observers have said they're pessimistic that CISA (S-2588) can pass the Senate and be successfully conferenced with CISPA (HR-624) before the end of the 113th Congress (see 1407300030).

Four members of the Senate Commerce Committee asked its leaders for a hearing on the Internet of Things. “The proliferation of connected products is sparking a number of important policy questions related to consumer protection, security, privacy, technical standards, spectrum capacity, manufacturing, regulatory certainty, and public-sector applications, among many others,” said Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in a joint letter Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1ybBonU). “Now is the time to start building a robust public record through testimony and questions.” The letter is addressed to Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D. A hearing would be appropriate during the lame-duck session around the winter holidays, they suggest, citing “millions of Americans” who will be “shopping for new tech products during the upcoming holiday season.” Thune “would certainly welcome such a hearing and will work with the chairman to see what may be possible yet this year,” a GOP committee aide told us, saying the “level of interest is certainly understandable due to the growth in use of such technologies and builds on various conversations that Senator Thune has been having with fellow committee members.” Rockefeller’s office didn’t comment.

Comcast should pledge it won't enter into any paid prioritization deals, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. “In a May blog post, you wrote that Comcast does not intend to enter into paid prioritization agreements,” Leahy said in a Monday letter to Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen (http://1.usa.gov/1CM52R9). “I welcome that assertion, but I remain gravely concerned that if such agreements are permitted, market incentives may drive Comcast and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to change that position in the future.” Leahy has introduced legislation that would ban such prioritization deals and has advocated for strong net neutrality rules. Over the past several months, Comcast has said it doesn't create such deals or plan to form them. “As the antitrust regulators continue to evaluate Comcast’s proposed transaction with Time Warner Cable, and regardless of whether it is approved, I ask Comcast to pledge that it will not engage in paid prioritization,” Leahy said. “I also ask that Comcast pledge not to engage in any activity that prioritizes affiliated content or services over unaffiliated content or services, helping to ensure that vertical integration does not threaten competition online.” Comcast is reviewing the letter, a spokeswoman said.

The net neutrality proposal from House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is “weak," judged Steven Titch, a telecom policy analyst who’s an associate fellow at the R Street Institute and adviser to the Heartland Institute, in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner. Waxman had outlined the proposal in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler earlier this fall, provoking opposition from broadband providers (see 1410060075). The plan, which would rely on Communications Act Section 706 and Title II authority, “tries to jam new realities -- on-demand Web video, wireless Internet and changing consumer viewing habits -- into regulatory silos that are three decades old,” Titch said in the Friday piece (http://washex.am/1Dj7ZL8). “Rather than trying to redefine FCC scope through a sloppy cut-and-paste of outmoded law, Congress should revisit the Telecom Act in its entirety -- modernizing it to fit the Internet ecosystem of our time.”

Google is planning to roll out updated search technology to make infringing sites appear lower in its search results, said a company report released Friday (http://bit.ly/ZycKl2). “Google has a number of new advertising products which further promote authorized sources of content in Search results,” it said. Google said it received more than 224 million Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice and takedown requests for its search results in 2013. “I welcome Google’s announcement that it will improve its efforts to address the problem of rogue websites that are dedicated to profiting from stolen works,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1voF0Do). “All businesses in the Internet ecosystem have an important role to play in minimizing illegal activity,” he said. “I have met with Google on several occasions to encourage them to be more responsive to the role search engines play in directing consumers to these rogue websites,” Leahy said. “I will be tracking the results once they are implemented,” he said.

The House Commerce Committee touted its productivity with a new Web page devoted to what it calls, with the social media hashtag included, its #RecordofSuccess. “I am proud that every single one of our bills received Democratic votes in the House, and over two-dozen bills now on the Senate’s doorstep cleared the House with a veto-proof margin,” Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1FdktpF). The committee pressed the Senate, pointing to bills that either await a Senate vote or final passage into law, and flagged several telecom and media bills. The committee cited the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-2844), the FCC Process Reform Act (HR-3675), the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act (HR-4572), the Anti-Spoofing Act (HR-3670) and the E-Label Act (HR-5161), all of which passed in the House by voice vote or by a wide margin.

Colorado’s candidates for U.S. Senate emphasized opposition to government surveillance, in a debate in Denver Wednesday. When President Barack Obama “continues to give the green light to the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, I’ve stood up to President Obama,” said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., a longtime critic of the NSA policies and member of the Intelligence Committee. His opponent, Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said he appreciates Udall’s stance and believes they've worked together to combat these policies. Gardner backed the amendment last year of Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., which would have stripped the NSA of funding, and was a co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act legislation as introduced in the House, he said: “But I voted against it when it was brought to the floor because they watered it down and it didn’t go far enough.” A Communications Subcommittee member who has also been a loud critic of broadband stimulus grant recipient Eagle-Net, Gardner has taken the lead in the Colorado race, though the Rothenberg Political Report judges the race a pure toss-up.