Jimm Phillips

The Senate Homeland Security Committee tested possible parameters of cybersecurity information sharing legislation Wednesday. Ranking member Tom Carper, D-Del., said the committee is examining how to combine elements of the White House’s cybersecurity information sharing legislative proposal with provisions in previous legislation. Industry witnesses said they preferred many provisions of the White House’s proposal to coordinate private sector information sharing with the government through the Department of Homeland Security rather than tactics outlined in the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA).

House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee members said they're optimistic that the House can produce a bipartisan national data breach notification bill. Still, their questions during a Tuesday hearing revealed lingering concerns about the bill's details. Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said he believes it’s “achievable” for Congress to pass a national data breach bill this session. House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said Congress will need to “get it right” on data breaches “before we try to tackle some of the other concerns” about cybersecurity.

NARUC filed an appeal with the Supreme Court Monday of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision upholding the FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation order (see report in the May 27 issue). NARUC's petition for writ of certiorari sought review of the lower court decision, which the group said upheld the FCC’s “radical interpretations of the Communications Act that fundamentally restructure” the telecom sector. NARUC said it's seeking court clarification of whether statutory construction rules in the Communications Act and the 1996 Telecom Act “place any limits on either the FCC’s or a reviewing Court’s interpretation of agency authority.” The group is also seeking a decision on whether Chevron deference allows the 10th Circuit to confirm a change in the definition of “reciprocal compensation” that directly conflicts with the 1996 Telecom Act.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is demanding improved emergency communications interoperability coordination between the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in response to issues first responders encountered during a Jan. 12 rescue on WMATA’s Metrorail system. “It is apparent that the process" WMATA and its partners currently employ to address communication problems "needs greater oversight and urgency,” Warner said in a letter Thursday to COG board Chairman William Euille and WMATA board Chairman Mort Downey. WMATA interim General Manager Jack Requa said Thursday that WMATA was unaware that the Washington city government had altered D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) radios until after the Jan. 12 incident at the L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station (see 1501220067).

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority was unaware until after a Jan. 12 rescue outside its L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station that the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) department’s radios were encrypted, said WMATA interim General Manager Jack Requa Thursday during a WMATA board meeting. WMATA has faced scrutiny since the Jan. 12 incident because firefighters found their radios didn’t work at the L’Enfant Plaza station or in adjacent tunnels, potentially hampering efforts to rescue passengers stuck on a train filled with smoke (see 1501200067). WMATA and FEMS determined Jan. 14 that the FEMS encryption codes blocked communication in the station, because WMATA hadn’t calibrated its equipment with the same codes, Requa said. The two agencies have now calibrated those codes, he said. FEMS has been very open about its move to encrypt its radios, a FEMS spokesman said. The National Transportation Safety Board said it’s examining the radio connectivity issue as part of its overall investigation of the Jan. 12 incident, which left one passenger dead.

The Supreme Court or a federal circuit court is highly likely to overturn any FCC pre-emption of state municipal broadband restrictions, industry lawyers opposed to pre-emption said Thursday during a Phoenix Center teleconference. The FCC is to vote Feb. 26 on petitions from the Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga and the city of Wilson, North Carolina, seeking pre-emption of their states’ municipal broadband restrictions. Most industry observers expected the FCC to vote 3-2 in favor of pre-emption, even before President Barack Obama declared his support last week for ending state municipal broadband restrictions (see 1501140048).

Commissioner Mike O’Rielly urged the FCC to “take a step back” from its work on new net neutrality rules because “Congress is actively working” on legislation that would address the issue. “There is absolutely no reason why the commission needs to rush” to write new net neutrality rules, O’Rielly said Wednesday during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. “There is still no evidence of a market failure or harm to consumers. There are no pending claims of potential net neutrality violations.”

Washington firefighters “encountered difficulty communicating with each other” on the 800 MHz band used for their radios while attempting to rescue passengers from a train in a smoke-filled Metrorail tunnel and in the adjacent L’Enfant Plaza station Jan. 12, said the city’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) department Saturday in a report. Firefighters were delayed in their rescue of passengers stranded on the Metrorail train because their radios weren’t functioning properly in the station and tunnels, FEMS said in its report to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he's asking the state legislature to pass a bill backed by his office that would significantly strengthen New York’s data breach notification law, vowing it would be “the strongest, most comprehensive in the nation” and would make New York a “national model for data privacy and security.” Schneiderman’s push for a strengthened New York data breach law followed days after the White House proposed a national data breach bill to replace the “patchwork” of existing state laws (see 1501120043) and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced the Data Security and Breach Notification Act (S-177) (see 1501140046). That bill’s text remained unavailable Friday, but Nelson has said he intended the bill to mirror the White House proposal.

The BroadbandUSA initiative under the NTIA’s auspices uses the agency’s experience with the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) “and brings that skill set to share with communities around the country to help them with the issues they’re facing to ensure” they can improve their broadband access, Douglas Kinkoph, acting associate administrator of the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications, said in an interview. The White House announced the BroadbandUSA initiative Wednesday as part of its package of plans to improve access to affordable high-speed broadband. President Barack Obama also declared his support for ending state laws that restrict municipal broadband deployments as part of that plan (see 1501140048). BroadbandUSA is “a continuation in some ways of NTIA’s mission of always pushing and helping in the broadband space, but we’re not funding this time,” Kinkoph said Thursday. “We’re providing expertise and sharing it on a no-cost basis.” New NTIA grants would have required legislation from Congress, and the White House emphasized that its new broadband plan would focus on initiatives that didn’t require Congress. NTIA’s BTOP experience means it has “expertise that cuts across infrastructure, broadband mapping, broadband adoption, digital inclusion and public access,” which can all be integrated into advice the agency can provide to local communities, said Laura Breeden, program director-public computing and broadband adoption.