FY 2021 Omnibus, COVID-19 Package Telecom Language Praised

“With an increased number of families and businesses working from home throughout this pandemic, we recognized how important it was for Congress to prioritize greater broadband access, resiliency, and adoption in this omnibus, and we are pleased to have achieved exactly that,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. HR-133 has $6.81 billion for broadband, including a $3.2 billion “emergency broadband benefit” to be spent during the pandemic, $1 billion for tribal broadband grants and $300 million for an NTIA pilot to fund “covered partnerships” for broadband projects.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks praised lawmakers for targeting HR-133’s broadband funding partly at “low-income Americans, Tribal communities, and communities of color.” Many lawmakers in recent years “focused on rural access as the key to curbing the digital divide,” but “we know that tens of millions of Americans do not have broadband simply because they cannot afford it,” he said. Starks has “long called on the FCC to focus on affordability, and I am committed to ensuring that this emergency broadband benefit quickly reaches the families that need it most.”

Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va., hailed Congress for allocating $635 million to the Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect broadband program. That’s a 14% increase from the $555 million the program got in FY 2020 (see 1912190068). Rep. Anna Eshoo of California, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and seven other congressional Democrats in a joint statement praised HR-133’s $285 million in funding for historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities, and Hispanic-serving institutions. ACA Connects; the Competitive Carriers Association; Consumer Reports; the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition; and the Wireless Infrastructure Association were among others praising the broadband funding.

“This package is not perfect, but there are certainly several bipartisan wins that should be celebrated,” said House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranker Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., who will succeed Walden at Commerce. They cited the measure’s $1.9 billion to reimburse U.S. telecom companies that replace suspect network equipment under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998), and language to help “the U.S. beat China in the race to emerging technologies.” Mavenir also praised Congress for including the HR-4998 funding in the omnibus.

Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and others hailed the inclusion in HR-133 of their Artificial Intelligence in Government Act (S-1363/HR-2575), which would provide AI expertise to federal agencies and promote AI policy research (see 1905090019). “We need to get smart on AI if we want to have a competitive edge against the rest of the world in the next decade,” Schatz said. “That starts with making sure the federal government is using AI technology ethically and effectively.” Ensuring “our government has the capabilities and expertise to help navigate those impacts will be important in the coming years and decades,” Portman said.

Copyright stakeholders’ views on lawmakers’ agreement to add HR-2426/S-1273 and the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act to HR-133 were sharply divided. HR-2426/S-1273 would create a voluntary small claims board within the Copyright Office. The act would make “large-scale criminal streaming services” liable for felonies but wouldn’t affect individual users who stream unauthorized copies of copyrighted works (see 2012100075).

PLSA “will provide prosecutors with a critical new tool to deter online criminal activity and protect the rights of cable programmers that stream their creative works online,” said NCTA CEO Michael Powell. Passage of HR-2426/HR-1273 is “a momentous victory for individual creators and small businesses who, despite strong opposition by certain internet behemoths and the organizations that they fund, did not give up their decade-long fight for a level playing field,” said Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid: PLSA “will provide prosecutors with an effective tool to deter harmful criminal activity and protect the rights of creators and copyright owners.” The Free State Foundation, MPA and several music industry groups and others offered praise.

“Shoehorning last-minute proposals that haven’t had a hearing," like PLSA, "into an end of the year spending bill is concerning both due to the controversial substance and the lack of due process,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association Vice President-Policy Arthur Sidney in a statement. Such proposals require “hearings for stakeholders and thorough consideration by members of Congress,” which were lacking in talks on HR-133.

The omnibus “has nothing to do with copyright reform,” said Public Knowledge Legal Director John Bergmayer. “This meant there was no meaningful opportunity for hearings, amendments, and public feedback. The American people deserve better when financially crippling fines are created outside the traditional court system.” Re:Create Executive Director Joshua Lamel opposed “the last-minute inclusion of controversial copyright small claims provisions that would expose ordinary Americans to tens of thousands of dollars in damages, has significant constitutionality issues, and has advanced with almost no public debate in Congress.”