The House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology plans a field hearing on “Expanding Broadband Access and Capabilities to Small Businesses in Rural New York.” The hearing will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Orleans County Legislature, 3 South Main St., in Albion, N.Y. The hearing will “examine access to broadband in rural communities and the role of the federal government in expanding these capabilities to small businesses,” the subcommittee said. Witnesses are NTCA Assistant General Counsel Jill Canfield; Kendra Lamb, owner of Lamb Farms, testifying for the New York Farm Bureau; Mark Meyerhofer, Time Warner Cable director-government relations for northeast and western New York; and Frontier Communications New York Manager-Government Relations Craig Miller. Subcommittee Chairman Chris Collins, R-N.Y., is leading the hearing. It won’t be streamed online, his spokesman told us.

Congress must establish a new Church Committee to tackle questions about government surveillance, said 16 former staffers associated with the first Church Committee established in the 1970s and named for its chairman Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, signing a Monday letter (http://bit.ly/OpaFmz) directed at Congress. It should “create a Church Committee for the 21st Century -- a special investigatory committee to undertake a thorough, and public, examination of current intelligence community practices affecting the rights of Americans and to make specific recommendations for future oversight and reform,” the letter said. “Such a committee would work in good faith with the president, hold public and private hearings, and be empowered to obtain documents.” Surveillance now “dwarfs” that of the ‘70s, they said. Signatories included former chief counsel Frederick Schwarz. At the start of last month, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced a resolution calling for such a select committee (http://bit.ly/1dh2gao).

The Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act should be permanently reauthorized and include major tweaks to the video marketplace, Dish and DirecTV told the Senate Commerce Committee leadership in a letter Monday. Democratic and Republican committee leadership had asked several questions of industry in February, requesting responses no later than Monday. These two companies asked for several changes to STELA, which expires at the end of 2014 unless it’s reauthorized. Congress should ban “joint sales agreements and other collusive methods used by broadcasters” and authorize the FCC “to impose baseball-style arbitration and a standstill so the programming stays up while the parties arbitrate their dispute; or, alternatively, permitting the importation of distant signals during retransmission consent disputes,” they said, also urging Congress to prevent broadcasters from blocking online content to broadcast subscribers of multichannel video programming distributors during disputes. Encourage broadcast programming to be unbundled at both wholesale and retail levels, they added. “Broadcasters abuse their retransmission consent rights during negotiations, using brinksmanship tactics and blackouts to extract ever-greater fees from MVPDs, with no end in sight,” Dish and DirecTV said in a 94-page response, much devoted to appendices. “Blackouts happen when companies like DIRECTV and DISH try to fight back and reject broadcasters’ unreasonable price demands, which often involve rate increases of several hundred percent. Retransmission consent fees raised $758 million for broadcasters in 2009. They hit $3.3 billion in 2013. They are expected to reach $7.6 billion in 2019.” They said retrans blackouts increased by a thousand percent since Congress had passed STELA, which they called “the perfect vehicle” for making video marketplace changes. Broadcasters have long argued for a clean reauthorization of STELA that doesn’t include such broad changes to the video marketplace. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., had introduced the Consumer Choice in Online Video Act, S-1680, last fall, and the committee leadership asked whether its elements should be considered as part of STELA reauthorization. Dish and DirecTV noted “beneficial” provisions in the bill, but “several provisions appear to impose additional, unwarranted regulation on MVPDs,” the two companies said. “One such provision would prohibit many exclusive arrangements -- even those between distributors without market power and unaffiliated programmers.” STELA must pass through the Commerce and Judiciary committees in both chambers, and the House Communications Subcommittee leadership released its first draft of legislation earlier this month.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., again committed to ensuring the FCC develops wireless 911 location accuracy standards. “Thanks to my calls for action, last month the FCC approved a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding 911 calls,” Pryor told emergency responders associated with the Find Me 911 Coalition at a Little Rock, Ark., fire station Monday, according to prepared remarks. “This is a good start, but our work’s not done yet. I'll continue to work closely with my colleagues and the FCC to ensure we address this problem. I won’t give up until our neighbors and friends are able to receive the help they need in times of emergency.” Pryor mentioned a recent subcommittee hearing he held on the topic and his urgings to the FCC that the agency act: “We want our 911 systems to receive accurate location data from all callers, regardless of whether those callers place the call from a landline or wireless phone, from a rural community or urban area, or from inside or outside of a building."

Two Senate Republicans want the FCC to move forward on the USF’s $100 million Remote Areas Fund. Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire wrote a letter, dated Thursday, to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, saying: “If implemented correctly, RAF could potentially provide the most rural areas of the country, including the most rural parts of New Hampshire and Missouri, with access to advanced broadband services” (http://1.usa.gov/1fAJvU9). “We are encouraged that the Commission’s recent IP transitions item included a commitment to address the challenges of providing service to the most remote, unserved areas of the country by the end of 2014,” wrote Ayotte and Blunt. “Please provide us an update as to how the Commission plans to implement the $100 million annual RAF portion within the Universal Service Fund this year."

A top Senate Democrat has gone after a billing aggregator with a subpoena over concerns about wireless bill cramming. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., issued the subpoena Thursday to Los Angeles-based Mobile Messenger, he said in a Friday news release (http://1.usa.gov/1krgieS). Rockefeller had requested information from Mobile Messenger in March 2013 and followed up on that request last November. “Unfortunately, one year after my March 2013 request, major gaps remain in Mobile Messenger’s response,” Rockefeller told what seems to be the former Mobile Messenger CEO Michael Iaccarino in a letter accompanying the subpoena. “You failed to respond to my request to identify your third-party vendors, their officers, other names under which these companies may have done business, and the total charges you helped these companies place on consumer bills.” Iaccarino has not led Mobile Messenger since 2011, according to his biography on Infogroup’s website, where he’s listed as chairman and CEO of that company (http://bit.ly/1gxq4rk). Rockefeller has addressed at least three letters to Iaccarino, listing him as the CEO of Mobile Messenger, in the last year. Rockefeller Thursday complained of heavily redacted contracts with carriers that the company had supplied. These redactions “impede” committee staff from reviewing “basic contract terms,” he said. Mobile Messenger had provided a detailed letter last May, but a case brought by the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in November against Mobile Messenger and five third-party vendors “raised serious questions,” said Rockefeller. The Texas AG in a November court document attacked Mobile Messenger as being “involved in virtually all aspects of the [premium short messaging services]PSMS program, orchestrating and facilitating the entire deceptive scheme,” which involved the placement of “unauthorized, misleading, and deceptive PSMS charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills, a practice commonly referred to as cramming,” it said (http://bit.ly/1gjppZO). Rockefeller’s subpoena calls for “information including the identity of Mobile Messenger’s third-party vendors and the amount they have charged consumers, consumer complaints received by the company, and unredacted contracts with carriers,” and “communications related to the cramming scheme alleged in the Texas Attorney General’s action,” the news release said. Mobile Messenger and Iaccarino didn’t comment, and Rockefeller’s office didn’t immediately respond to a query on whether Iaccarino still leads the company.

Senators actively concerned about rural call completion issues have yet to sign on to legislation on the issue. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., introduced a bill Thursday that targets intermediate providers and would compel basic service quality standards (CD March 14 p7). S-2125, the Public Safety and Economic Security Communications Act, lists zero co-sponsors, but Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who have both voiced strong concerns about rural call completion problems, expressed some receptivity to Johnson’s action. “Call completion is an ongoing problem in rural America, and the FCC is in the middle of an effort to resolve the issue by adopting recording, retention, and reporting requirements for long distance carriers to address problems with completing calls to rural areas,” Thune told us in a statement. “The FCC has also engaged in some enforcement actions on call completion, which I would like to see increase. I have made a point to reiterate these concerns personally with each of the FCC Commissioners who have agreed to step up enforcement actions, but should these efforts not prove to be effective in reducing the call completion problem within a reasonable time, I think it may be appropriate to take legislative action.” A spokeswoman for Fischer cited Fischer’s involvement in a resolution on call completion issues with Johnson and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., which passed the Commerce Committee last summer and awaits Senate action. “Senator Fischer’s focus remains on getting this resolution passed and is pleased to see Senator Johnson remains a committed partner in efforts to address these challenges,” the spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Klobuchar did not comment. Johnson’s bill has been referred to the Commerce Committee. NARUC state regulators “applaud Sen. Johnson for introducing legislation to address call completion problems that have plagued rural America for the last several years,” said NARUC President Colette Honorable in a statement. “NARUC has adopted multiple resolutions calling for action while several State commissions have moved to investigate and act on intrastate call-completion issues. While the FCC has proposed changes and is collecting data to better monitor the situation, this legislation would be a significant step forward in eliminating the problem.” The FCC has taken several actions recently on rural call completion, an agency spokesman said. (See separate report in this issue.)

House Commerce Committee Republican leaders are not happy with how the FCC is handling TV station sharing agreements, most recently singling out the Media Bureau public notice Wednesday that it would apply extra scrutiny to the approval of such sharing agreements (CD March 14 p9). “Coming on the heels of the House’s overwhelming bipartisan approval of the FCC Process Reform Act Monday evening, the FCC Media Bureau’s action not only flies in the face of reform, it reveals an alarming disregard for process,” said Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., in a statement Thursday. “This effort raises questions about Chairman [Tom] Wheeler’s stated commitment to process reform. This end-run around the full commission is a step back for transparency and reform.” Walden inserted language into his draft legislation of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act that would prevent the FCC from making sharing agreements attributable until the agency completes its quadrennial review. “On the [joint sales agreements], the FCC needs to follow the law,” Walden told reporters following a subcommittee hearing Wednesday. “For the life of me, I don’t understand why they can’t follow the law and finish their quadrennial review.” The agency is “disrupting a marketplace dealing with an issue that really has to deal with ownership,” Walden added. “The quadrennial review is about ownership. What we're saying is, ‘Do your job, follow the law before you go out there and picking and choosing on the JSA issue that could have enormous disruption.'"

A bill to “strengthen privacy and data security” (HR-4215) was introduced by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., Wednesday, according to Congress.gov (http://1.usa.gov/1fAQWKY). The bill’s summary is “in progress” and the text hadn’t been received as of Thursday, it said. We couldn’t immediately reach Connolly’s office Thursday for the bill text.

A key member of the House Intelligence Committee reversed course on phone surveillance. Ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., no longer wants the government to collect phone metadata in bulk, as it currently does. “We should end the government’s bulk collection of telephone metadata, but preserve the important capability the intelligence community needs to keep us safe,” Ruppersberger said in a statement. “We must design a targeted and closely overseen way to find the early indicators of domestic terrorism. We must have mandatory judicial review, we must ensure that telecommunication providers are legally required to turn over their relevant records, and we must not require them to hold their data any longer than they normally do.” The process “efficiently and effectively gets the Intelligence Community the information it needs to protect our country and her people,” he added. Ruppersberger’s advocacy is “not yet legislation” so much as “just proposed changes for the time being,” his spokeswoman told us. Ruppersberger had previously spoken publicly about crafting a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act revamp bill with committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., legislation widely expected to codify the phone surveillance practices that exist now. They both described working on that for months, up through December. That legislation has never been introduced, and one committee Democrat, Jim Himes of Connecticut, has told us it is stalled for good (CD Dec 30 p4).