President Joe Biden said Wednesday that “debate is welcome” and “compromise is inevitable” on how to pay for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure spending proposal, which includes $100 billion for broadband (see 2103310064). Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Monday he would support increasing the corporate tax rate to 25% from the current 21% level but opposes a larger hike (see 2104050037). “I am willing to listen” to calls to seek a smaller increase than the proposed 28% level (see 2104010062), “but we have got to pay for this,” Biden said. “There are many other ways we can do this, but I am willing to negotiate that.” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters she also believes "there is room for compromise" on the tax increase proposal. The Treasury Department cited the proposed corporate tax rate increase Wednesday, among others. Biden said good infrastructure includes “having reliable high-speed internet in every home.” Ask “folks in rural America, where more than 35% of people lack a reliable high-speed internet” connection, “whether investing in internet access will lead to better jobs, markets for farmers, better opportunities for their kids,” he said. The administration “won’t be open to doing nothing.” University of Florida professor Mark Jamison criticized Biden’s broadband proposal in a Tuesday opinion piece for The Hill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday that Republicans would be willing to back a “much more modest” infrastructure plan if it doesn’t seek to increase the corporate tax rate to pay for it. The rate was cut in 2017 from 35% to 21%.

The Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a 10 a.m. EDT hearing April 14 on global security threats, Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., announced Tuesday. National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, CIA Director William Burns, FBI Director Christopher Wray, NSA Director Paul Nakasone and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Scott Berrier will testify at the virtual hearing.

The federal government needs to provide answers on why it didn’t detect the SolarWinds cyberattack, despite significant investment, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, wrote the Department of Homeland Security and OMB Tuesday (see 2103190014). “Despite significant investments in cyber defenses, the federal government did not initially detect this cyberattack,” they wrote. U.S. cyber strategy will “require careful consideration of the appropriate role of the federal government, companies, and citizens in cyber defense, especially when it comes to nation-state actors with near unlimited resources and time.” The agencies didn’t comment.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough “advised that a revised budget resolution may contain budget reconciliation instructions,” opening up the possibility of Democrats using that process again in FY 2021 to pass an infrastructure spending package or another measure, said the office of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Monday. That "allows Democrats additional tools to improve the lives of Americans if Republican obstruction continues," the office said. Democrats began floating the possibility last month of using reconciliation on an infrastructure bill (see 2103160001). New America's Open Technology Institute and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies proposed using "the windfall proceeds of current and anticipated spectrum auctions" to pay for a "Digital Futures Foundation" aimed at investing "in the significant advancements in public-purpose applications and services needed to close the various digital equity gaps for the benefit of all the American people." Some lawmakers are reexamining the possibility of using spectrum auction proceeds to pay for broadband funding in an infrastructure package (see 2104010062). Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said Tuesday he backs an increase in the corporate tax rate to pay for infrastructure.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., ranking member Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and 13 other senators urged President Joe Biden Tuesday to seek at least $3 billion in his FY 2022 budget proposal for the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund and the Multilateral Telecommunications Security Fund. Each program would get $1.5 billion, the senators said. Congress enacted the two programs, which aim to encourage adoption of open radio access network technology, in the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (see 2101030002). "As wireless networks adapt to the growing demands for 5G connectivity," ORAN "architecture will allow telecommunications providers to migrate from the current hardware-centric approach into a software-centric model that relies heavily on cloud-based services," the senators wrote Biden. "This architecture will break down the current end-to-end proprietary stack of hardware; lower barriers to entry and prompt innovation; diversify the supply chain and decrease dependence on foreign suppliers; and spur" ORAN "deployments throughout the United States, particularly in rural America."

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Monday he opposes President Joe Biden’s proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% to pay for new infrastructure spending (see 2104010062) but would support a smaller increase. Biden’s proposal includes $100 billion for broadband as part of a larger $2.3 trillion package (see 2103310064). “If I don’t vote” to get on board with the Biden proposal, “it’s not going anywhere,” Manchin said on WV MetroNews radio. He cited the 50-50 Senate split and the possibility that Democrats will have to move a bill using the budget reconciliation process. “This whole thing has got to change,” he said. “There are six or seven other Democrats that feel strongly about” not raising the rate to 28%, from the 21% rate enacted in 2017, but would back raising it to 25%.

Facebook should abandon plans to launch Instagram for children unless it can meet the “highest standards of user protection,” Democrats wrote the company Monday. The letter from Sens. Ed Markey, Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, Conn., and Reps. Kathy Castor, Fla., and Lori Trahan, Mass., suggests Facebook not sell or share user data with third parties for commercial purposes. Such a platform should be free of targeted ads and influencer marketing, they said. "The National PTA found that 81 percent of parents reported their children started using social media between the ages of 8 and 13," a company spokesperson said. "If we can encourage kids to use an experience that is age-appropriate and managed by parents, we think that's far better than kids using apps that weren't designed for them. This is in addition to our ongoing work to keep underage users off Instagram."

CTA agrees with “elements” of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, including its efforts to update U.S. broadband (see 2103310064), “which we need now more than ever,” said CEO Gary Shapiro Thursday. “Rebuilding our infrastructure will better position the U.S. to compete with our biggest innovation rivals including China,” he said. “Extending apprenticeships -- critical to creating more pathways into tech and advancing diversity -- will strengthen the American workforce.” But CTA has “concerns” about the proposal’s plan to pay for infrastructure reforms by raising the corporate tax rate, said Shapiro.

The Commerce Department wants input by April 28 on how it should structure its internet and communications technology and services preclearance or licensing process. It said it won't have an ICTS licensing regime in place by May 19, as predicted by the previous administration. “While the Department understands that business decisions must often be made within tight timeframes, the Department may not be able to determine whether a particular ICTS transaction qualifies for a license or pre-clearance without detailed information and analysis," said Monday's Federal Register. "Considering this tension, should the Department issue decisions on a shorter timeframe if that could result in fewer licenses or pre-clearances being granted, or would the inconvenience of a longer timeframe for review be outweighed by the potential for a greater number of licenses or pre-clearances being issued?” DOC didn't comment Wednesday on when it might have ICTS rules ready.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon told acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday he’s “committed to working with you and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that investments in broadband are at the center of any comprehensive infrastructure bill.” Wyden and other Senate Democratic caucus members filed legislation last week to allocate $6 billion more to the FCC emergency broadband benefit program (see 2103110060 plus the earlier HR-1783 and HR-1848). Wyden called for “our country to state unequivocally that it is an American priority to make broadband in 2021 what electricity became eighty years ago: an essential service on which every household could count.” He wants “big, bold, timely action on broadband, patterned on the success of” the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, said his letter to Rosenworcel.