The FCC is not relying on secret meetings to make decide on proposed industry acquisitions, Chairman Tom Wheeler told Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., in a letter Wednesday. Heller asked Wheeler about the ex parte exemptions and what those really mean in light of two major deals the agency is considering: Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV. “I fully endorse the core principles you describe,” Wheeler told Heller, referring to Heller’s statement in a letter that any major orders crafted in part on secret information can be undermined due to process concerns. Wheeler cited the court cases that give the agency “flexibility” in how it reviews such transactions. The FCC, “in accord with the Administrative Procedure Act and applicable precedent, uses only information that is placed on the record when it renders a decision on whether to allow a transaction to proceed, with or without conditions,” Wheeler said. While the agency can’t rely on information given in secret, those meetings “could be used, however, to help the Commission formulate appropriate questions to applicants or other parties,” questions that can be placed on the record, he said.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., wants to ensure TV blackouts don’t happen next year. He’s glad Time Warner Cable worked out a deal to telecast the Los Angeles Dodgers on KDOC-TV Anaheim, California, but is concerned about the broader issues, he said in a statement Monday. “We must act now to assure that the Dodgers are not blacked out for the 2015 season,” Sherman said (http://1.usa.gov/1shbcmZ). “I will continue to discuss this matter with [FCC Chairman] Tom Wheeler ... in the hopes that the FCC will use its authority to push all the parties into binding arbitration so that a panel of three neutral arbitrators can determine the price -- and let Dodgers fans see the 2015 season."

Center for Democracy & Technology President Nuala O'Connor prefers a more nuanced application of legal authority for net neutrality rules, involving some but not complete Title II grounding, she plans to tell Congress Wednesday. She and Robert McDowell, a former Republican FCC commissioner now at Wiley Rein, will testify on net neutrality Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. O'Connor has defended the need for net neutrality rules, while McDowell has questioned them. “I would like to discuss several proposals that draw upon, or are hybrids of, Title II and Section 706, and several implementation issues applicable to any approach,” O'Connor plans to say, according to written testimony. The real question is whether the “commercially reasonable” standard supports the concept of Internet openness, O'Connor’s testimony says. In it she proposes a potential modification of that standard to allow for rules crafted under Communications Act Section 706. She also discusses a “hybrid” authority that takes “some of the strengths of Title II and Section 706” and considers what it would mean to apply Title II reclassification to edge providers. But the FCC needs “clear rules now,” she argues. Other witnesses are Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Brad Burnham, actress Ruth Livier, and Jeff Eisenach, a visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy. The hearing will be at 10:30 a.m. in 216 Hart. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., also pressed for broader discussion of net neutrality outside of Washington and stronger rules in an op-ed for The Hill Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1m8GMGM). “To make sure they get this right, the FCC should leave Washington and go on the road to hear firsthand from consumers, small-business owners, entrepreneurs, educators and other citizens who will be directly impacted by the policies put in place for the Internet,” Leahy and Matsui said, emphasizing their work to hold events outside D.C. They had partnered to introduce legislation that would ban paid prioritization deals.

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., plans to outline why congressional oversight of the FCC is essential, in his opening statement to a 1 p.m. hearing Wednesday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is testifying, and Graves will speak of how small businesses drives the U.S. economy. Graves’ goal is that the U.S. develops the right regulatory goals, he will say at the hearing, pointing to the need to ensure a free and open Internet and build out broadband networks to unserved and rural areas as well as get the right spectrum to big and small companies.

"Several concerns” worry FCC Inspector General David Hunt, he plans to tell the House Communications Subcommittee Wednesday. “The FCC has refused to allow the IG to hire criminal investigators despite the authority granted to the IG in the IG Act of 1978, as amended,” Hunt said in his pre-filed written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/1s5qnpa). “Criminal investigators are a very much needed resource at this Office, to increase its ability to conduct criminal investigations without consuming the resources of DOJ and the FBI. Further, FCC management retains a right to approve all OIG hires, a requirement which appears to contravene the IG Act and impugn the independence of the OIG.” Hunt will also criticize the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s recently formed USF strike force, referring to concerns “that efforts might be duplicative and resources wasted.” FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins plans to testify on the agency’s attempts to overhaul its internal processes and other work, despite funding concerns. “Flat funding since 2009, despite the growth in our operational costs, has challenged the FCC’s ability to maintain current service levels,” Wilkins said in his written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/1ydmCAA). “In addition, sequestration created a gap in our budget that not only challenged the FCC’s ability to commit funds to basic programmatic needs, but also introduced budget uncertainties that made it difficult to pursue opportunities to invest in improved efficiency.” The hearing is at 10:15 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

Sens. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., will join several companies at the Capitol Wednesday to push for Title II reclassification of broadband. A news conference will include representatives from Etsy, Imgur, Kickstarter, Meetup and Vimeo, said a Markey media advisory Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1qcLqyl). The news conference “on net neutrality and the need to protect the openness of the Internet for future generations” will be at 12:30 p.m. in S-120 of the Capitol, it said.

Cathy Sandoval, a commissioner on the California Public Utilities Commission, will speak on net neutrality at the Sept. 24 forum convened by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif. Sandoval was one of two recent CPUC votes in favor of a staff report recommending the FCC reclassify broadband as a Title II telecom service (CD Sept 12 p4). Other speakers at the forum are to be FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel; Chris Kelly, founder of Kelly Investments and Facebook’s former chief privacy officer; Sacramento Public Library Director Rivkah Sass; KVIE Public Television Sacramento President David Lowe; and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, responsible for the Twilight film screenplays. The forum will start at 10 a.m. in Hearing Room 4202 of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, a Matsui news release said (http://1.usa.gov/1pgZI0K). Matsui requested public feedback at Matsui_PublicComments@mail.house.gov.

The witnesses at Wednesday’s House Judiciary IP subcommittee hearing on copyright protection and management systems will be Mark Richert, American Foundation for the Blind public policy director; Jonathan Zuck, Association for Competitive Technology-The App Association president; Christian Genetski, Entertainment Software Association general counsel; and Corynne McSherry, Electronic Frontier Foundation intellectual property director, said a committee release Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1uzxrYP). The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn.

Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced the Caller ID Scam Prevention Act (S-2787), Klobuchar said in a news release Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1uP8GqK). “Caller ID fraud is a growing problem that threatens the financial well-being of families and seniors,” and the bill would “take important steps to broaden our efforts in the fight against caller ID fraud and ensure our laws are as sophisticated as the criminals using this scheme,” Klobuchar said in a statement. The legislation would tackle criminal tactics by “prohibiting foreigners from falsifying caller ID numbers when calling U.S. consumers and expanding the law to include text messages” and by covering “new internet-based VoIP services that enable callers to make outgoing-only calls from computers and tablets to mobile and landline phones,” the news release said. The legislation has been referred to the Commerce Committee.

The House Small Business Committee is gearing up to pepper FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday with a deluge of questions on a wide range of telecom and media topics, according to the 14-page GOP memo released Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1qXbzoR). It includes detailed sections about FCC history, broadband deployment and the role of NTIA; the Rural Utilities Service and USF; net neutrality; spectrum availability; and media consolidation and proposed mergers. Small Business has an FCC oversight hearing scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. in 2360 Rayburn and Wheeler “will discuss among other issues, broadband deployment, Universal Service Fund (USF) reform efforts, net neutrality, wireless spectrum availability, and increasing media concentration through mergers,” the memo said. It emphasized the implications of ongoing FCC actions for small businesses. “Depending on how the FCC addresses various issues raised in the [net neutrality] NPRM, the ability of small business to utilize the Internet for their retail operations could be affected,” the memo said. “Alternatively, small telecommunications carriers that provide broadband service could find their networks over taxed with burgeoning demand and no way to manage their networks.”