Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., raised concerns Wednesday that language in Democrats' proposed Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation package that would set a 15% minimum corporate tax rate would include wireless carriers' spectrum assets. CTIA President Meredith Baker urged lawmakers during a Tuesday Communications Subcommittee hearing to make a “technical correction” to the proposal so it doesn’t cover spectrum assets (see 2208020076). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hopes to have a final vote on the reconciliation bill this weekend. The 15% corporate tax “would not only reduce the GDP and kill jobs, but would disproportionately punish American wireless carriers who have invested heavily in resources to fuel connectivity and build state-of-the-art networks,” Wicker said: “Wireless carriers have spent hundreds of billions of private-sector dollars on spectrum assets” and the proposal “would apply retroactively and prospectively to those purchases, diverting billions of dollars intended for future investment.” No “other country in the world has instituted a tax on spectrum,” he said. “China is working to undermine the United States as it seeks to dominate 5G and next-generation wireless technology. This makes the Democrats’ tax proposal not only an economic security issue but a national security issue as well.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee slated the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act for markup Thursday (see 2204200049 and 2204050074). This is the first time S-673 has been on the committee’s markup agenda, meaning it will be held over until Judiciary’s next executive business meeting, after the August recess. The JCPA would allow news publishers to negotiate revenue sharing with online platforms through an antitrust exemption. The bill proposes an “expansion of copyright and imposition of a link tax” so extreme that even the “Copyright Office recommended against it,” said Fight for the Future Director Evan Greer in a statement: “The bill would force tech platforms to carry and pay for links to articles from outlets the government designates as news.” NAB and the News Media Alliance support the legislation. Tech industry groups and various consumer advocates, including Public Knowledge, opposed iterations of the bill. PK Senior Policy Analyst Lisa Macpherson said Tuesday that the JCPA isn't the answer to journalism's challenges: It "forces news organizations to negotiate alongside publications with diametrically opposing values. The bill excludes only the nation's most giant news organizations from enjoying Big Tech's largesse, and lumps small outlets in with powerful behemoths who can make an outsized impact on negotiations. Finally, the bill encourages more consolidation in an already shrinking industry."

Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee leadership introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would direct a federal study on improving the “patent examination process and the overall quality of patents” issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. Introduced by Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C., the Patent Examination and Quality Improvement Act directs the comptroller general of the U.S. to deliver a report to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees one year after enactment with an evaluation on improving patent examination. The PTO would deliver another report a year after that. The PTO report would examine how to improve “technical training of patent examiners with respect to emerging areas of technology, the status of office IT systems, a 5-year IT modernization plan, an accounting of the use by the office of advanced data science analytics and a 5-year modernization plan regarding advanced data science analytics, and finally how the result of the application of advanced data science analytics can be regularly shared with the public.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans a Wednesday confirmation hearing for Elastic Vice President-Security Strategy Nate Fick, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador at large-cyberspace and digital policy (see 2206030039). If confirmed, Fick would also head the State Department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (see 2206070047). The panel will begin at 10 a.m. in 419 Dirksen, Senate Foreign Relations said.

Intel was “thrilled to see the bipartisan vote in the Congress” to pass the chips package (see 2207280060), said CEO Pat Gelsinger on a Q2 earnings call Thursday. “We have been integrally involved in moving this groundbreaking legislation forward. This progress, combined with the strong momentum in Europe, will reshape our industry and bring us toward a geographically balanced, resilient supply chain that we are uniquely positioned to enable and benefit from.” Gelsinger personally had lobbied heavily for the chips package, threatening at one point to delay Intel’s $20 billion investment to build two semiconductor fabs in Ohio if Congress failed to pass the legislation before leaving for the August recess. "Literally since World War II, there might not have been a more important piece of industrial policy that’s came forward through Congress," said Gelsinger of the chips package. "This is great for the semiconductor industry," he said. "We see this as an accelerant to our strategy and something that will give us the capacity" to meet Intel's product needs, plus the needs of its foundry customers, he said. "This is powerful and something that we are thrilled to have come across the line just today."

NCTA and USTelecom are criticizing the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act (HR-8573/S-4676) over its proposal to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 2207280063). "Twenty years into an increasingly stale debate over net neutrality, the justifications for it seem increasingly limp," said NCTA CEO Michael Powell. "The case is particularly thin to justify the famed ‘nuclear option’ to reclassify carriers under Title II utility regulation which empowers the FCC with the authority to go big on new regulation.” The “once-in-a-lifetime” $65 billion in broadband funding included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act means “we need to be focused collectively on closing the digital divide and not taking a ride on the net neutrality carousel for the umpteenth time for no discernable reason,” Powell said: “Slapping an outdated and burdensome regulatory regime on broadband networks surely will damage the mission to deploy next-generation internet technology throughout America and get everyone connected.” ISPs “support net neutrality and already operate under these important principles while delivering real value and performance to customers,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. “There is bipartisan support for net neutrality, but legislative proposals that would put any of this progress at risk are not the right answer. Let’s keep our focus on moving consumers’ internet experiences forward, not backward.”

The House passed the Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624) and three other telecom and tech bills Wednesday night, drawing praise from lawmakers and some stakeholders. The chamber voted 336-90 for an en bloc package that included HR-7624 and two of the other bills, the Reporting Attacks from Nations Selected for Oversight and Monitoring Web Attacks and Ransomware from Enemies Act (HR-4551) and Safe Connections Act (HR-7132). Lawmakers voted 416-12 for the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID–19 Act (HR-4040). HR-7132 and HR-7624 "provide our nation’s mobile networks with the spectrum resources necessary to provide next-generation wireless technologies, promote wireless innovation, fund important public safety priorities like Next Generation 9-1-1, and ensure that phone contracts cannot be used to perpetuate abuse when survivors and abusers share a phone contract," said House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. "The bipartisan bills passed today will enhance spectrum management, strengthen public safety communications tools" and "secure our networks from countries like China," said House Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio. Matt Mandel, Wireless Infrastructure Association senior vice president-government and public affairs, praised lawmakers for "prioritizing America’s leadership in wireless network innovation by voting to make more spectrum available for commercial and shared use" via HR-7624. The measure would renew the FCC's auction authority through March 31, 2024, and authorize sales of 3.1-3.45 GHz spectrum licenses. "Making additional Federal spectrum resources available for commercial use will provide significant benefits for the industry, the economy, and most importantly, consumers," said Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry: HR-7132 "will help survivors of domestic violence remain connected."

The House passed the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences Codification Act (HR-4990) by voice vote Wednesday. The measure would provide statutory authority for ITS’ role in managing NTIA’s telecom and spectrum technology programs. HR-4990 would give ITS clear authority to set “the use of innovative sharing technologies for our airwaves and improving the interference tolerance of federal systems operating with or using federal spectrum,” House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said on the floor. The House was expected to vote as soon as Wednesday night on four other telecom and tech bills: Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID–19 Act (HR-4040), Reporting Attacks from Nations Selected for Oversight and Monitoring Web Attacks and Ransomware from Enemies Act (HR-4551), Safe Connections Act (HR-7132) and Spectrum Innovation Act legislative package (HR-7624). Debate on the measures happened Tuesday (see 2207260063).

The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans a Tuesday hearing on renewing the FCC’s spectrum auction authority and related legislative issues, as expected (see 2207180067). The House is expected to vote as soon as Wednesday night on the Spectrum Innovation Act legislative package (HR-7624) to extend the FCC's authority past its current Sept. 30 expiration date. The measure's backers argued on its behalf Tuesday (see 2207260063). Witnesses set to testify Tuesday include Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis, who opposes HR-7624’s proposal to extend the FCC’s remit by 18 months, to March 31, 2024, and CTIA President Meredith Baker, whose group backs a short-term renewal. The upcoming renewal deadline means “Congress has a unique opportunity to set future spectrum priorities and coordination goals to encourage efficient spectrum use,” the Senate Commerce Committee said: “Past disputes” between the FCC and other federal agencies on spectrum issues (see 2010260001) “have demonstrated the importance of strong leadership at” the commission and NTIA “to ensure coordinated agency management of this important resource. This coordination will become even more important as developing technologies lead to better spectrum sharing in the future.” Also on the witness list: Brattle Group principal Coleman Bazelon and GAO Director-Physical infrastructure Andrew Von Ah. The hearing will begin at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell.

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., plan to file the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act Thursday, as expected (see 2207180063), Markey’s office confirmed Wednesday. House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., is expected to file the lower chamber's companion version. The measure would reinstate the FCC’s 2015 reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. It “appropriately classifies internet as an essential service" and brings back the FCC’s “rightful authority to reinstate net neutrality protection, including prohibiting discriminatory" practices "like blocking, throttling and paid prioritization online,” Markey’s office said in a statement. The bill’s sponsors plan a 2:30 p.m. Thursday news conference and a 5:30 p.m. Reddit Ask Me Anything session to publicize its introduction.