House Small Business Rural Development Subcommittee members eyed connectivity hurdles that small businesses face, during a Wednesday hearing. “Factors like low population densities, rugged terrain and fewer subscribers to spread deployment costs among have contributed to a lack of investment in broadband networks by private companies,” said Chairman Jared Golden, D-Maine. Ranking member Jim Hagedorn, R-Minn., backed Agriculture Committee GOP leaders’ Broadband for Rural America Act (HR-3369) and criticized President Joe Biden’s broadband infrastructure spending proposal (see 2103310064). HR-3369 would codify USDA’s ReConnect broadband program and set annual funding for its rural connectivity programs at $3.7 billion (see 2105210059). The administration’s plan “to prioritize investments in municipal broadband is concerning,” Hagedorn said. “I worry that, given over one-third of our country has" municipal broadband network "restrictions in place, this will lead to implementation issues and put rural America further behind.” If “broadband infrastructure is going to achieve its promise, we need to make sure federal funds flow to the solutions these communities want, including making it much easier to fund a community-owned network,” said ConnectMaine Authority Executive Director Peggy Schaffer. It’s “critical that the vast majority of future funding should go toward providing a minimum of” 100 Mbps symmetrical “and networks capable of scaling to a gigabit or more,” said Center on Rural Innovation Executive Director Matt Dunne. “To do otherwise is only setting ourselves up for a rural-urban divide five years from now even after a massive infrastructure investment.”
Federal agencies would be barred from using facial recognition technology and other biometric tech such as voice recognition, while grants to states and localities would be conditioned on similar moratoriums, under the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act introduced Tuesday by Democrats. Sponsoring the bill were Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “We do not have to forgo privacy and justice for safety,” Markey said. Pointing to indications of higher levels of facial recognition inaccuracy with racial minorities, he said the bill “is about rooting out systemic racism and stopping invasive technologies from becoming irreversibly imbedded in our society.” The legislation “is an important step to halt government use of face recognition technology,” ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Kate Ruane said “Giving law enforcement even more powerful surveillance technology empowers constant surveillance” and harms racial equity. Markey introduced similar legislation in 2020, which never left the Senate Judiciary Committee.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., filed a House version of the Secure Equipment Act (S-1790) Tuesday in a bid to bar the FCC from issuing new equipment licenses to Huawei and other companies the commission determines to be a national security risk. Commissioners earlier this month approved 4-0 an NPRM proposing a similar ban (see 2106090063). “For far too long, we’ve allowed manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE … to have access to American networks,” Scalise said. “China must be stopped from doing further damage to our telecommunications network.” Commissioner Brendan Carr said the measure “would close a glaring loophole that Huawei and other entities are exploiting today to place their insecure gear into our networks.” Also Tuesday, Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; Angus King, I-Maine; and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, refiled their Broadband Reform and Investment to Drive Growth in the Economy (Bridge) Act. First filed last year, it would allocate $40 billion for broadband deployments and affordability programs. “Our bipartisan bill puts states in the driver’s seat,” Bennet said. “It empowers communities to deploy their own networks to promote choice and competition. And it significantly raises the standard for any new broadband networks.”
House Science Committee member Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., led filing Monday of the National Science and Technology Strategy Act to institute a quadrennial review of U.S. science and tech issues. HR-3858 would direct the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science and Technology Council to lead the review and develop a four-year policy strategy. HR-3858 would require the White House to send an annual report to Congress on national research priorities and potential threats to U.S. leadership in the science and tech field. “This legislation would require the federal government to take a methodical, comprehensive approach to plan for and meet our research and development needs,” Ross said. Technology Subcommittee ranking member Michael Waltz of Florida is HR-3858’s main GOP sponsor. Science Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, and ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., are also co-sponsors. The committee is set Tuesday to mark up the National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225), a rival measure to the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). Johnson and Lucas have opposed S-1260 over its proposal to create a Technology Directorate within NSF (see 2104270045). The virtual markup begins at 10 a.m.
Amazon Associate General Counsel Ryan McCrate, Google Senior Director-Government Affairs and Public Policy Wilson White, Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain, University of Virginia Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture Research Fellow Matthew Crawford and Sonos General Counsel Eddie Lazarus will testify Tuesday to a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on home technologies, Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Friday.
The Senate voted 52-46 Thursday to invoke cloture on U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit judge nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, setting up a final Monday confirmation vote. Brown Jackson would replace now-Attorney General Merrick Garland if confirmed. The Judiciary Committee advanced Brown Jackson 13-9 last month (see 2105170072). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also set a Monday vote on Democratic FTC nominee Lina Khan (see 2106100069).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., filed Thursday his Promoting Rights and Online Speech Protections to Ensure Every Consumer is Heard (Pro-Speech) Act. The bill was as expected (see our report here). It would regulate online platforms like common carriers. The measure would bar social media from actions against users based on racial, sexual, religious, partisan or ethnic grounds. It would bar platforms from blocking or discriminating against competing platforms by declaring such actions presumptively anti-competitive. It would let the FTC to use Section 5 authority to enforce the law. The Pro-Speech Act should “make it clear that these large internet tech platforms cannot discriminate based on their own opinions and based on what they think the public should and should not be allowed to hear,” Wicker told a news conference on Republicans’ concerns about Big Tech “censorship” related to the pandemic. “This is a serious, grave threat to freedom and the open exchange of ideas under” the Constitution. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr praised the legislation and believes it should be enacted in concert with Communications Decency Act Section 230 revamp. The bill “would give Big Tech a simple choice: either stop blocking people from posting and accessing lawful content or declare that you are acting as a publisher and accept the responsibilities that come with that status,” he said. It “would also bring much needed transparency to Big Tech’s practices and rein in their anticompetitive conduct.” NetChoice opposes the measure. It “may look like it checks some boxes for conservatives, but in practice it will make the internet impossible to use by forcing all of us to sift through the worst of the internet just to connect with our friends and family,” said General Counsel Carl Szabo in a statement. “The bill’s advocates have not thought through its wide array of harmful consequences like the simultaneous proliferation of hate speech, sexism, racism, and other types of awful but lawful content.”
NAB is one of four groups to adopt a Diversity in Government Relations Coalition industry pledge, blogged NAB Vice President-Government Relations Charlynn Stanberry. Others include Signal Group. NAB is “addressing the gaps in diverse representation of our staff and our leadership teams that influence local, state, federal and international policy” and “exploring the unintended consequences that result from policy and advocacy” that lack diverse representation. For our Special Report on diversity, see here.
House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, put the onus on congressional Republicans Wednesday to come “to the table and sit down with us” to reach a compromise on an infrastructure spending package, as talks continued after the collapse of negotiations between the White House and a Senate GOP group led by Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia (see 2106080060). Veasey told a USTelecom virtual event that he expects the House Commerce Committee to mark up its part of infrastructure legislation soon so it can “get onto the floor for a vote,” after which it will be up to “my colleagues … in the other chamber to make sure this important legislation moves to” President Joe Biden’s desk. Veasey touted his backing of panel Democrats’ Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s America Act infrastructure bill. HR-1848 includes $80 billion for broadband and $15 billion for next-generation 911 (see 2103110060). Whether that measure or another infrastructure bill passes depends on whether lawmakers are “willing … to come together and pass legislation that will help everyone be connected,” Veasey said. “Rural constituents will be very much … helped by this, as well as the lower income, largely urban residents that I represent.” Veasey touted his Enhanced Emergency Broadband Act, which would provide additional emergency broadband benefit program money (see 2103040049). “Create a path forward,” he said, “to make this program both permanent and sustainable.”
Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., cited the power major tech companies have over the U.S. economy Wednesday as a reason to enact her Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act to “update our antitrust laws.” S-225 would in part create an FTC division to do market studies and merger retrospectives. Competition law violations would be subject to DOJ and FTC fines of up to 15% of a company’s annual revenue, instead of capped at $100 million (see 2102040053). Facebook, Google and other major tech companies have long “said ‘just trust us,’” but “experience has shown that we can't rely on these companies to protect our personal data, or prevent the spread of toxic disinformation, or even to compete fairly in the marketplace,” Klobuchar told a virtual FCBA event. “The only thing we can trust is that” these companies “will act in their own interest. A few giant companies in the tech area act as gatekeepers and dominate markets, exclude their rivals and gobble up other companies. This is not by chance or coincidence, this is a strategy.” If the sector were “more competitive, we would have companies competing to offer consumers new bells and whistles to protect privacy, to increase transparency or to prevent the spread of toxic disinformation,” she said. Big Tech’s “grip on the market suppresses” potential “would-be competitors.” Lawmakers need to address the situation by “rebooting the antitrust movement in the,” Klobuchar said. “We don't get rid of the companies, but we shed” the monopoly “that surrounds them. And that may mean divesting assets, that may mean putting conditions that are actually enforceable." The Internet Association didn't comment right away.