The Senate gaveled out Thursday for a two-week Easter/Passover recess, meaning further floor action on FTC nominee Alvaro Bedoya and FCC nominee Gigi Sohn will be delayed until at least April 25, as expected (see 2204050064). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture Thursday on Bedoya but hadn't scheduled a vote at our deadline. The chamber voted 51-50 last week to discharge Bedoya from Senate Commerce Committee jurisdiction and must hold a similar vote on Sohn because the committee cast tied votes on both nominees last month (see 2203030070). Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us before the chamber voted to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court (see 2204070058) that she doubted further pre-recess action on either nominee was likely unless the chamber stayed in session past Thursday. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, continued to believe Sohn’s confirmation prospects are dimming amid chatter about potential Democratic holdouts on the nominee (see 2203300069). “That’s why Schumer's not bringing her to the floor” before the recess, Sullivan said. Democrats who are facing tough re-election battles this year who might vote in Sohn’s favor would be delivering their GOP opponents “a campaign ad on a silver platter.” The Chamber of Progress, CompTIA, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Consumer Technology Association, Incompas, Internet Infrastructure Coalition and NTCA pressed the Senate Thursday to “move expeditiously” to confirm Sohn. “The absence of a fifth Commissioner hamstrings the agency when U.S. leadership on technology policy is most needed,” the groups said in a letter to Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “As authoritarian regimes around the world move to supplant U.S. leadership and restrict access to an open and free internet, we must ensure the U.S. government is well positioned to thoroughly consider and advance policies that promote democratic values.”

House Commerce Committee Democratic leaders hailed lawmakers Tuesday for passing (see 2204050066) the Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act (HR-1218) and Spectrum Coordination Act (HR-2501). HR-1218 and Senate-passed companion S-198 “will incorporate maternal mortality and morbidity data into” the FCC’s “health mapping platform to better understand how access to broadband can improve our country’s response to maternal challenges and, ultimately, save mothers’ lives,” said House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. HR-2501 would mandate changes to the FCC’s 2003 memorandum of understanding with NTIA, which will “improve their efforts to collectively oversee our airwaves.” The GPS Innovation Alliance praised the House for passing HR-2501. It’s “a step toward codifying important aspects of the FCC and NTIA’s recently announced” spectrum coordination work (see 2202150001) “and we strongly agree that improving the spectrum coordination process through a whole-of-government approach is necessary to strengthen our spectrum policy decision making,” said GPSIA acting Executive Director Alex Damato.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is compiling a list of “systemically important” critical infrastructure entities to ensure the U.S. can depend on organizations providing vital, everyday services under threat from cyberattack, Executive Assistant Director-Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein told the House Cybersecurity Subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday. Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., said Congress is searching for the next cyber proposal to tackle after passing a new law requiring such entities to report cyber incidents to CISA. She noted the Cyberspace Solarium Commission recommended a new designation for critical infrastructure entities that are systemically important to national security. She asked about the need to codify the new designation into law, which would include new security requirements for entities. CISA is developing a list that aligns closely with the Solarium Commission’s recommendation, said Goldstein. This would mean CISA could drive more effective collaboration with organizations to drive down risks, he said. A much smaller list of systemically important entities is needed so Americans can be assured they can depend on certain services, said the White House’s acting Principal Deputy National Cyber Director Robert Knake.

The House passed the Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act (HR-1218) and Spectrum Coordination Act (HR-2501) Tuesday by lopsided margins. The chamber voted 409-11 for HR-1218. It and Senate-passed companion S-198 would require the FCC to include data on certain maternal health outcomes in its broadband health mapping tool (see 2203030037). The House voted 418-6 for HR-2501, which would mandate changes to the FCC’s 2003 memorandum of understanding with NTIA. "Securing American leadership in next generation communications technology is essential to winning the future," said House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio. "The bipartisan bills passed today will enhance interagency spectrum coordination, as well as improve our existing broadband health mapping tools by incorporating public data on maternal health." The Competitive Carriers Association and Wireless Infrastructure Association also hailed House passage of both measures.

The Wireless Infrastructure Association urged House and Senate Democratic leaders Tuesday to not include language in a potential alternative version of the scuttled Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package (see 2112170036) that would institute a 15% book alternative minimum tax on spectrum licenses. “Under the current tax code, companies that acquire spectrum licenses” via FCC “auctions are permitted to amortize these auction costs over a 15-year period, freeing up additional capital for investment in next-generation wireless infrastructure,” WIA President Jonathan Adelstein said in letters to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts. “The book alternative minimum tax provision in last year’s Build Back Better bill would have changed this tax treatment -- spectrum licenses would be considered indefinite-lived assets under tax law, and the purchase of these licenses would receive no deduction for book income purposes.” At “a time when Congress is prioritizing the expansion of broadband infrastructure across the country, changing the current tax treatment would represent a retreat in the march towards reaching the nation’s connectivity goals,” Adelstein said.

Former House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said Tuesday he won't seek reelection this year. He’s the 11th Commerce member to announce plans to leave the House either for retirement or to seek another office. Others include Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. (see 2111120002). Upton has been active in Commerce Republicans’ work on legislation to revamp Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2107280069) and other bills aimed at reining in major tech companies. He also was among the Republicans urging House Commerce to take up a package of bills aimed at streamlining broadband deployments (see 2006250068). Upton’s “announcement is sad to many, for both Democrats and Republicans alike,” said Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. NAB and the Wireless Infrastructure Association also praised Upton’s service.

The House was expected to vote Monday night on passing the Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act (HR-1218) and Spectrum Coordination Act (HR-2501). HR-1218 and Senate-passed companion S-198 would require the FCC to include data on certain maternal health outcomes in its broadband health mapping tool (see 2203030037). The House Commerce Committee advanced HR-1218 in November (see 2111170052). HR-2501 would mandate changes to the FCC’s 2003 memorandum of understanding with NTIA.

A bipartisan House bill would require the administration to study how digital currencies could help Russia evade U.S. sanctions. The legislation, introduced Thursday by Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the top members of the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee, would also create a new State Department officer to oversee sanctions evasion efforts involving digital currency. Although administration officials have cast doubt on Russia’s ability to use cryptocurrencies to prop up its economy, digital assets are still “ripe for abuse” as Russia looks to evade the U.S.’s “unprecedented” sanctions, Meeks said. McCaul said the bill will ensure the U.S. is “taking the necessary steps to prevent these emerging technologies,” such as blockchain, “from undermining sanctions, including those currently aimed at bankrupting [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine.” The bill would require the State and Treasury departments to submit a report to Congress that assesses how digital currencies could “impact the effectiveness and enforcement of” U.S. sanctions against Russia. It would also authorize the State Department to appoint a director of digital currency to help develop “sanctions enforcement mechanisms resilient to malevolent actors’ use of digital currencies.”

DOJ supports legislation that would ban online platforms’ “discriminatory conduct,” acting Assistant Attorney General Peter Hyun wrote this week to House Judiciary Committee members. The rise of dominant platforms is a threat to open markets and competition, he wrote. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act S. 2992/HR-3816 (see 2202090066) “would emphasize causes of action prohibiting the largest digital platforms from discriminating in favor of their own products or services, or among third parties,” he said: The legislation would supplement existing antitrust laws “in preventing the largest digital companies from abusing and exploiting their dominant positions.” Software & Information Industry Association Senior Vice President-Global Public Policy Paul Lekas disagreed, saying the bills are a “solution in search of a problem.” It isn’t “at all clear that there is a need, let alone a pressing one, for Congress to augment or clarify existing antitrust law or for the government to try to influence how digital markets work in the manner these bills propose,” said Lekas in a statement.

Congress should maintain the urgency in passing its China package, Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., tweeted Tuesday, the day after the Senate sent the bill back to the House, one step closer to formal conference (see 2203280063). The Senate voted 68-28 to pass HR-4521, the America Competes Act, as amended. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted no. The House is expected to reject the substituted legislation and request a conference to reconcile differences, said the office for Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.