Listen to the public outcry on net neutrality, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter last week (http://1.usa.gov/1kQO3Dk). “While the Commission is accustomed to hearing from businesses who are concerned with proposed changes to telecommunications law, I cannot recall a time when ordinary Americans have been so engaged in a regulatory issue,” Schumer said of the tens of thousands of comments the FCC has received on net neutrality this year. This input “should underscore for the Commission how important this question is to Americans in their everyday lives,” Schumer said, telling the FCC “to give significant weight to the public input in your rulemaking process.”
Public Citizen said Google’s recently opened D.C. office at 25 Massachusetts Ave., NW, just blocks from the Capitol building, “symbolizes the company’s growing political activity and nontransparent expenditures.” Google led all tech companies, spending $3.82 million on lobbying in Q1 2014. Public Citizen said the company is third among all companies since 2012 in lobbying spending. It urged on Google to be more transparent about its lobbying efforts and reason for the new offices. “Google’s commitment to open information and its ‘Don’t Be Evil’ mantra suggest that increasing its transparency would align with its values,” said Sam Jewler, spokesman for Public Citizen’s U.S. Chamber Watch program. Google did not comment.
The House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee scheduled an oversight hearing of AT&T’s proposed buy of DirecTV for about $67 billion for June 24 at 10:30 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn. Witnesses will include AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and DirecTV CEO Michael White, with more to be announced closer to the hearing.
The “national security implications” of NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority were among the concerns asked of GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro in a letter (http://1.usa.gov/1kznNDv) from House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and House Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., among others Thursday. Walden and Blackburn are co-sponsors of the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act, which was passed as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act May 22 (CD May 23 p8). The amendment would delay the transition until a GAO study. The letter inquired about other “risks” potentially posed by the transition and whether “additional criteria” are necessary for the transition to occur, it said. Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Todd Rokita, R-Ind., also signed the letter, which was copied to four FCC commissioners and House Commerce Committee Democratic leadership.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 30-0 the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill for FY 2015 that would provide $51.2 billion in discretionary funds for the Commerce and Justice departments and science agencies (http://1.usa.gov/1oZSZxr). The spending level is $398 million less than the FY 2014 level and $1 billion more than requested by President Barack Obama; it is equal to the House level (HR-4660). The Senate bill would provide $8.6 billion for the Commerce Department. The final spending bill will be available on the Senate Appropriations Committee website Friday, said a committee spokesman.
Two House Republicans want the FCC to provide an update on its workload. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy, R-Pa., sent the FCC a letter Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1kCkR7F). It included several questions about the various items before the FCC and its backlog, with answers due June 18.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., backed the FCC’s proposal to eliminate the sports blackout rule. They urged the commission to act on the NPRM to end the rule within 60 days, they said in a June 2 letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler. The rule is “no longer supported by facts or logic, and blocks fans from enjoying their favorite teams,” they said. The senators said the rule unfairly harms consumers by insulating the NFL from market realities and “punishing fans in cities with large stadiums and declining populations.” The comment period on whether to do away with the rule ended this year (CD March 27 p14). The rule prevents multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games that are blacked out by sports leagues on TV stations in markets where the games have not sold out.
"Deep disappointment” about House passage of the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) amendment was expressed by human rights and civil society organizations, in a letter Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. (http://bit.ly/1kCKwxo). The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy and Technology and New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute were among signees of the letter, which was copied to the Senate Appropriations, Senate Armed Services and Senate Commerce Committees’ leadership, it said. The DOTCOM amendment, which would delay NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority until a GAO study, was passed by the House with the National Defense Authorization Act May 22 (CD May 23 p6). “We welcome NTIA’s announcement and support the guiding criteria that NTIA articulated for that transition,” said the letter, referring to NTIA’s stipulations for the transition (http://1.usa.gov/1d33FkM). “Efforts to interfere with or delay this transition process, or require the Congressional approval beyond the criteria suggested by NTIA, will neither achieve the goals of the [DOTCOM] bill nor reflect Congress’s previously stated position on Internet governance.” The letter urged the Senate to block the DOTCOM amendment.
Implementation of the House Commerce Committee version of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act would cost $1 million total over the 2015-2019 period, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report this week (http://1.usa.gov/1i1TFuG). STELA will expire at the end of the year unless Congress reauthorizes it, and the House Commerce Committee approved HR-4572, a five-year STELA extension, earlier this year. CBO notes the STELA bill version contains “private-sector mandates” for TV broadcasters and satellite companies: “Based on information from the FCC and industry sources, CBO estimates that the aggregate cost of complying with the mandates in the bill would fall below the annual threshold established in [the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act] for private-sector mandates ($152 million in 2014, adjusted annually for inflation).” It does not anticipate any other provisions in the STELA bill would be especially costly to industry or government.
A telco executive is slated to testify on surveillance Thursday. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s open hearing on surveillance overhaul will look at the version of the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361) that the House passed last month, committee leaders said Tuesday. Two panels of witnesses are planned -- first, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Stephanie O'Sullivan; second, former national security official Stewart Baker, Center for Democracy & Technology Senior Counsel Harley Geiger, Information Technology Industry Council CEO Dean Garfield and Verizon Assistant General Counsel Michael Woods. Garfield “will focus on how the technology sector has been impacted by the NSA revelations, and how enacting meaningful surveillance reform is a critical step forward in restoring public trust in the U.S. technology industry and the U.S. government,” ITI said in a media advisory Wednesday. The hearing is at 2:30 p.m. in 216 Hart.