The Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee wants to “fully fund” what it considers two key agencies, it said Tuesday -- the FCC and FTC. It recommended far more money for the FCC in FY 2015 than what the House has begun to suggest. The Senate subcommittee cleared an appropriations bill at a meeting Tuesday morning, recommending $375 million for the FCC in FY 2015 “to ensure that the telecommunications networks are reliable and robust” and $293 million for FTC “to detect and eliminate consumer fraud and promote consumer privacy,” as Subcommittee Chairman Tom Udall, D-N.M., said at the meeting. The FCC had requested $375.38 million for FY 2015 and in FY 2014 received $339.84 million. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee had cleared a bill last week that recommends $322.75 million for the FCC. The House bill would slate $293 million for the FTC, $5 million less than FY 2014’s enacted level and at the White House budget request, with no difference from the Senate subcommittee version. The full House Appropriations Committee will consider that bill Wednesday at 10 a.m. in 2359 Rayburn and this week has released a bill text (http://1.usa.gov/1jLsiWq) and accompanying report (http://1.usa.gov/ViQA4T).

Appropriations bills for the FCC and FTC FY15 budgets will receive scrutiny in both the Senate and House this week. Both agencies fall under the review of the Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee in each chamber. The Senate panel will review its appropriations bill for the first time Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in 124 Dirksen. The House subcommittee cleared its appropriations bill last week (CD June 19 p15), and the full House Appropriations Committee will consider that bill Wednesday at 10 a.m. in 2359 Rayburn. That House subcommittee budget would give the FCC $53 million less than the agency’s request: $323 million, $17 million less than FY14’s enacted level. It would allocate $293 million for the FTC, $5 million less than FY14’s enacted level and at the White House budget request.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will soon review a bipartisan compromise on cellphone unlocking, its leaders said in a news release Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1lLU8aB). Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, forged the deal and added the modified Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act to the agenda for the committee’s Thursday executive session. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., had led an effort in the House, which passed a cellphone unlocking bill (HR-1123) earlier this year. “Consumers should be able to use their existing cell phones when they move their service to a new wireless provider,” Leahy said in a statement, citing work “for months with Ranking Member Grassley, Chairman Goodlatte and House members, consumer advocates and wireless providers” on “common sense legislation that puts consumers first by allowing them to ‘unlock’ their cell phones.” Leahy posted the four-page amendment to S-517 online (http://1.usa.gov/1q1NyyF). “While there are larger ongoing debates about Section 1201 of the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act], as well as other aspects of phone unlocking, those issues are not addressed by this bill,” a Leahy fact sheet about the legislation said (http://1.usa.gov/1nYrB0g). Judiciary’s Thursday session, which will also address the committee’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act bill, is at 9:30 a.m. in 226 Dirksen. CTIA thanked Leahy for trying to “alleviate consumer confusion” and is “pleased this bill achieves that objective without imposing any obligations on carriers,” said Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter in a statement. The Competitive Carriers Association and Public Knowledge also praised the release of the modified bill. “Not only does the Leahy/Grassley bill restore the right to unlock phones, but it includes provisions that allow for third party help in unlocking a device, as we saw in the House-passed version of this bill,” said Public Knowledge Vice President-Government Relations Chris Lewis.

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., “has been the epitome of a leader during his time in the Congress,” the American Television Alliance said, congratulating Scalise on his ascension to GOP whip Thursday (CD June 20 p11), replacing Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who was elected majority leader. “We have seen up close how he puts policy knowledge and political skill to use for the benefit of functioning markets that help consumers.” ATVA mentioned how Scalise introduced the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act (HR-3720), “a comprehensive video reform bill that repeals many outdated laws that currently govern the video marketplace” and that has the backing of ATVA. The group’s members include the American Cable Association, DirecTV, Dish, the New America Foundation, NTCA, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom. It has aggressively lobbied Congress to revamp retransmission consent rules this year as part of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, an effort that broadcasters have consistently opposed. Scalise is a member of the Communications Subcommittee and had campaigned against a clean STELA bill.

Privacy advocates Friday lauded the House’s Thursday passage of an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations bill (HR-4870) to prohibit the NSA from using funds to conduct warrantless searches of information collected under Section 702 of the Patriot Act. Section 702 authorizes various types of Internet surveillance efforts, including gathering electronic communications from ISPs and Internet traffic information from backbone providers (CD March 20 p4). The amendment from Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., resolves issues the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361) “fails to address,” said Harley Geiger, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT). The bipartisan 293-123 vote to support the amendment shows “clearly there is political will” to go beyond HR-3361, said Geiger. The USA Freedom Act passed the House in late May (CD May 23 p9). “The Massie/Lofgren amendment would also forbid the NSA from using its funds to induce companies to introduce new security vulnerabilities in technology products and services in order to facilitate surveillance,” said Greg Nojeim, CDT’s senior counsel and director of the Freedom, Security and Technology Project. “These are significant and sorely-needed reforms that enhance privacy and user trust in American technology,” he said. Demand Progress Executive Director David Segal said HR-3361 was “rewritten in secret at the last minute,” and the passage of this amendment shows “the American people will not accept half-measures or superficial reforms. The Senate, which is considering its own version of the USA Freedom Act, “should ensure” its version “protects our constitutional rights,” Segal said. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also supported the amendment’s passage in a Thursday night statement (http://bit.ly/1lSyqfj).

Don’t wait for Congress to stop government bulk surveillance of phone records, Sens. Mark Udall, D-Colo., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told President Barack Obama in a letter Friday (http://bit.ly/1nT7ikA). They applauded Obama’s move to end government surveillance but worry the House-passed version of the amended USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, is now too weak, they said. Congressional action is needed, but Obama “need not wait to end the dragnet collection of millions of Americans’ phone records,” they said, calling it “an imperative that cannot wait.”

The Communications Act of 1934 is showing its age and needs an update, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., reiterated Thursday in a message on the House Commerce Committee website (http://1.usa.gov/1m4LPWm). President Franklin Roosevelt had signed the Communications Act 80 years ago as of Thursday, thus creating the FCC. “Now I won’t claim to know what was going on in the minds of lawmakers in 1934, but I think it’s safe to say the members of the 73rd Congress did not have daydreams of the Internet or the near-ubiquitous connectivity of today’s mobile wireless networks,” Walden declared, saying the act “falls woefully short in accounting for the many innovative technologies we enjoy today.” In December, he and other House Commerce Committee Republicans had launched an attempt to update the act, with hearings and white papers this year and legislation next year. “We have received tremendous public input on our #CommActUpdate and encourage that to continue as we release additional white papers on the detailed issues that weigh so heavily on today’s communications marketplace,” Walden said. The House Republicans have released three white papers exploring these issues so far. The latest, on competition policy, which the subcommittee only recently posted online (http://1.usa.gov/1psSfzA) has received 84 responses.

Three witnesses will spend Tuesday testifying at both oversight hearings on AT&T’s proposed acquisition of DirecTV. The House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee will hold the first at 10:30 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn, and the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee will hold the second at 2:30 p.m. in 226 Dirksen. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, DirecTV CEO Michael White and American Cable Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman are scheduled to testify at both. The House hearing will also include Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer. The Senate hearing will also include Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy Project Director Larry Downes, Writers Guild of America, West President Christopher Keyser and Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood.

Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced the Wi-Fi Innovation Act to much praise. S-2505, announced by Rubio earlier this month as part of his focus on spectrum, would require the FCC to test the feasibility of using the 5850-5925 GHz spectrum for unlicensed use, a Rubio news release said Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1pmiB4p). The FCC would have to “conduct testing that would provide more spectrum to the public and ultimately put the resource to better use, while recognizing the future needs and important work being done in intelligent transportation,” Rubio said. The legislation also “authorizes an important study of Wi-Fi deployment in low income communities and the barriers preventing deployment of wireless broadband in those neighborhoods,” Booker said. CEA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and CTIA back the legislation, they said Friday. The bill “will serve as clear action plan to properly allocate a finite and increasingly necessary public resource,” said NCTA Director-Digital Strategy John Solit in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1pmk5vD). Public Knowledge also lauded the bill. Senior Vice President Harold Feld called it “a road map for agencies to move forward that respects both the need for wireless capacity for safer ’smart cars’ and the need for more open spectrum for the internet of things,” according to a statement the group issued. “If passed, the bill would resolve an ugly traffic jam between the FCC and the Department of Transportation (DoT) that is needlessly delaying the next generation of Wi-Fi technology.” But the Intelligent Transportation Society of America was more cautious. It “supports the collaborative effort, which is already underway, to explore whether a technical solution exists that would allow Wi-Fi devices to operate in the 5.9 GHz band without interfering with these critical safety applications,” President Scott Belcher said. “But this process should be allowed to proceed without arbitrary deadlines, restrictive parameters or political pressure that could influence the outcome."

Privacy advocates outlined several concerns and recommendations about how the Senate should modify the House-passed version of the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361), in a letter sent to Senate leaders Wednesday. The groups “urge Congress to avoid any form of mandatory data retention regime, which would force U.S. telecom companies to retain and make available to the government data on their customers that they would not otherwise maintain,” said the letter (http://bit.ly/1lC70zX), signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Reddit and TechFreedom, among others. “Any such mandate, in addition to creating unnecessary economic burdens and data security risks, would represent an unacceptable threat to privacy and civil liberties and would face the strongest possible opposition from our community as well as the opposition of the Internet and telecommunications industries.” They will oppose the USA Freedom Act if it does not “definitively” end bulk collection of metadata, focusing on what many say is an overly broad definition of “specific selection term,” they said. The legislation should also have stronger transparency reporting provisions and make the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court more accountable, they said.