House Commerce Committee member Ralph Hall, R-Texas, lost his primary race in a runoff vote Tuesday to former U.S. attorney and Heath, Texas, mayor John Ratcliffe. The vote was 52.8 percent to 47.2 percent. Hall’s tenure in the House, initially as a Democrat, began in 1981. Hall was a rumored candidate to be chairman of the Commerce Committee four years ago (CD May 27/10 p2). He subsequently became chairman of the Science Committee.

"Any hindering of NTIA’s ability to conduct the proper levels of due diligence” for its transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) “through the use of currently available resources could result in harm to U.S. businesses and Internet users as a whole,” wrote Bruce Josten, U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive vice president-government affairs, to the House Tuesday. The letter was about the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY 2015 (HR-4660), slated for debate on the House floor Wednesday and a vote Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1wgP2WX). HR-4660 would provide $36.7 million for NTIA, below the $51 million the executive branch requested. The funding would not include money for NTIA’s plan to transition the IANA, which Republicans have slammed, the appropriations committee has said. Josten said “NTIA has steadfastly opposed a transition of any mechanism that would deviate from the current multistakeholder model of Internet governance and should be allowed to take any needed steps to achieve the cautiousness and transparency that we agree is essential for a safe and smooth transition."

A top House Republican intended to introduce a bill Wednesday night to stop reclassification of broadband as a Title II telecom service, his office told us. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said he would introduce such a bill, at a recent FCC oversight hearing (CD May 21 p3). Latta is an opponent of net neutrality rules and lambasted the request from some net neutrality proponents that the agency reclassify broadband as a way to develop stronger rules.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman should start a case at the World Trade Organization against China for state-sponsored trade secret theft on U.S. industry, said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a May 22 letter to Froman. A grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania recently indicted five Chinese military officials accused of economic espionage on U.S. interests. “It is critical to the cyber security of American businesses that we have in place and take advantage of strong enforcement mechanisms to punish countries who sanction cyber-attacks,” wrote Schumer (http://1.usa.gov/1kl3vMQ). “The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) requires each WTO member to protect trade secrets and Chinese policies that sanction cyber espionage are in clear violation of that agreement.” China has criticized the U.S. for the indictment, according to media reports.

Rural broadband connectivity is crucial for healthcare, education, commerce and for social reasons, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said during an episode of The Broadband Beat With Shirley Bloomfield, hosted by NTCA (http://bit.ly/1oGmZMl). “If you don’t have high-speed broadband connectivity in your community, you're going to be left out,” he said in the video. He called telemedicine “a powerful tool” and said distance learning is another asset. “You need a lot of capacity,” he said. Begich, a member of the Commerce Committee, said he gave the FCC “a hard time” on how it maps broadband and the challenges facing Alaska. “It’s great to have the big companies but you also have to have these smaller companies that were there before anyone else was there. They offer unique, if you think of a credit union, it’s local, homegrown, member-driven, and they are part of the equation at the end of the day.” Don’t “saddle” innovative smaller companies with huge debt due to the way technology and rules are changing, Begich said. He emphasized he not only talks to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, but also to the Republican commissioners and other Democrats. “The chairman and I have had very positive conversations,” the senator said. “He’s been to Alaska.” Such a visit is his test for commissioners, Begich added.

The Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee will mark up its FY2015 funding bill for those agencies June 3 at 11 a.m. in 192 Dirksen, the Appropriations Committee said. The House is expected to take up its companion funding bill (HR-4660) this week, slated for debate and a vote Wednesday and Thursday, according to the schedule of Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. (http://1.usa.gov/1wgP2WX).

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is “reviewing” the House-passed version of the USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, “very carefully,” she said in a statement Thursday, citing the “considerable margin” by which it passed the House earlier that day (CD May 23 p9). “I have spoken with the president who is urging the Senate to pass the bill as well, and I am open to considering the legislation when the Senate returns to Washington.” Feinstein has strongly defended NSA surveillance authorities over the past year and discouraged lawmakers from curbing bulk collection of metadata. Several of the USA Freedom Act’s original co-sponsors in the House abandoned it, voting no, and multiple Senate Democrats who backed the original USA Freedom Act, introduced last fall, already have cautioned that the modified House version may be too weak to prevent government surveillance. The New York Times released an editorial (http://nyti.ms/1jL9HOI) Thursday evening slamming the bill due to such concerns: “Unfortunately, the bill passed by the House on Thursday falls far short of those promises, and does not live up to its title, the U.S.A. Freedom Act. Because of last-minute pressure from a recalcitrant Obama administration, the bill contains loopholes that dilute the strong restrictions in an earlier version, potentially allowing the spy agencies to continue much of their phone-data collection.”

The Colorado News, Emergency, Weather and Sports Act of 2014 aims to help in “facilitating delivery of relevant television programming to unserved consumers,” said the four-page bill text provided to us Friday by a spokesman for Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. The text was not yet online. Udall introduced the Colorado NEWS Act, S-2375, last week with the backing of fellow Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, and the bill has been referred to the Commerce Committee. Neither Udall nor Bennet belongs to Commerce. “For too long, TV market lines have orphaned Coloradans living in the Four Corners region from the news, weather, sports and emergency information they need,” Udall said in a news release (http://1.usa.gov/1jDOuVC), saying it’s no longer time for government studies. The bill would let TV providers transmit signals from Colorado-based broadcast stations to consumers living in La Plata and Montezuma counties, address copyright issues involving TV providers transmitting Colorado and New Mexico signals, and let broadcasters and TV providers “determine a fair way to ensure all Coloradans have 24-hour access to the news, emergency information, weather and sports most relevant to them,” the news release said. Udall may look to attaching S-2375 to the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation -- considered must-pass given STELA’s expiration at the end of the year -- to advance this bill. “Sen. Udall is open to passing this by any means available, including STELA,” Udall’s spokesman said.

The Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Awareness Matters (DOTCOM) amendment would “hamstring NTIA as it attempts to do exactly what Congress has twice voted for unanimously -- namely, transferring responsibility for Internet governance to the multi-stakeholder community,” said House Commerce Committee member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., by email Thursday. DOTCOM, which seeks to delay NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) until a GAO study is completed, was approved as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (HR-4435) Thursday (CD May 23 p6). The amendment was approved by 245-177 with full Republican support (http://1.usa.gov/1jYFPsz). Only 17 Democrats supported the amendment. “Delaying this transition allows anti-democratic nations to continue to use the IANA contract as a red herring to falsely claim that ’the U.S. government controls the Internet’ and argue for a greater role for governmental entities,” such as the ITU, said Doyle. “The amendment sends the wrong message to the multi-stakeholder community.”

Broadband is a priority in S-2389, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, said a report submitted with the bill last week (http://1.usa.gov/1k260P8). Senate Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., formally introduced the FY2015 funding bill Thursday and it was cleared from Appropriations the same day. Appropriations would ask for $898,000 for the Office of the Under Secretary for Rural Development, which oversees funds going to the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The report points to commitment “to promote development and demonstrate innovative connectivity solutions such as providing high-speed Internet via optical laser beams in free space, which help connect rural America without broadband infrastructure costs and where wireless coverage does not exist.” Appropriations also would recommend $41.13 million for the Distance Learning, Telemedicine and Broadband Program. “Funds recommended for the RUS broadband program are intended to promote broadband availability in those areas where there is not otherwise a business case for private investment in a broadband network,” the report said. “The Committee encourages RUS to focus expenditures on projects that bring broadband service to currently unserved households.” Of the broadband grants, $10.37 million would go “to support broadband transmission and local dial-up Internet services for rural areas,” the report said.