Jimm Phillips

The Senate is likely to consider two cybersecurity bills this week -- the National Cybersecurity Protection Act (S-2519) and the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (S-2521) -- as the lame-duck session draws to a close, an industry lobbyist told us. The timing of final votes on the two bills was fluid amid wrangling by the bills’ Senate supporters, though it was possible a vote on S-2519 could occur as early as Monday night after our deadline, the lobbyist said. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., has been circulating the revised version of S-2519, originally called the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center Act, in recent days in the form of a manager’s amendment, the industry lobbyist said. The revised S-2519 would combine many elements of the original S-2519 and some language from the House-passed National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR-3696), the manager's amendment said. S-2519 would codify the Department of Homeland Security’s current cybersecurity role, particularly via DHS's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. Senate Homeland Security originally cleared the bill in June (see 1406270036). Senate Homeland Security didn’t comment. The revised S-2519 doesn’t include provisions in HR-3696 that would have amended the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act of 2002 to allow companies to seek liability protections for sharing cybersecurity information with DHS. S-2519 does include language from HR-3696 urging security clearances be provided to critical infrastructure owners and operators, as well as requiring the DHS secretary to submit a report six months after the bill’s enactment on facilitating information sharing. The American Civil Liberties Union endorsed HR-3696 but has criticized the stalled Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-2588) and its House-passed counterpart, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624).

A Vermont investigation and recent Washington state investigation into 911 outages highlight problems identified in an FCC report on an April 10 multistate outage (see 1410170057), industry executives and lawyers told us. The Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) will move ahead this week on investigating FairPoint Communications’ response to a Nov. 28 partial 911 outage as part of a larger investigation of the telco's service quality, which the state Department of Public Service requested last week (see 1412010037). The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission is reviewing a staff report released last week (see 1412030032) on an April 10 outage, which affected all of Washington and portions of six other states, a UTC spokeswoman said.

The Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council approved a report Wednesday from CSRIC Working Group 2 on wireless emergency alerts that recommends the FCC modify its current 90-character limit rule for WEA alerts, to allow for messages of up to 280 characters for 4G LTE devices following technology confirmation by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS). The FCC should retain the 90-character rule for WEA alerts for devices using legacy 2G and 3G networks, but the working group believes the goal should be to phase that limit out as 2G and 3G devices go offline, said CTIA Assistant Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Brian Josef, Working Group 2 co-chairman. “We’re raising the floor” but recognize that some devices will be able to accept WEA alerts of only up to 90 characters, Josef said during the CSRIC meeting.

FCC Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Matthew DelNero urged state and local governments Tuesday to comment on the IP transition rulemaking the commission adopted in late November seeking input on how the agency should deal with the transition away from copper. The FCC also approved a related declaratory ruling at its November meeting on FCC ability to require approvals for copper retirements (see 1411210037). The NPRM sought comment on how states, localities and tribal nations should be involved in IP transition rulemaking, along with clearer rules for determining when to allow incumbents to retire a “last-mile” service and battery backup standards. The FCC believes comments from states and localities will be particularly valuable on IP transition rules because they’re “the ones who are closest” to on-the-ground conditions in different parts of the U.S., DelNero said during an FCC seminar. The NPRM is awaiting Federal Register publication, he said.

Multiple House and Senate committees responsible for cybersecurity legislation and oversight will have new leadership in the 114th Congress, but industry lawyers and lobbyists told us that's unlikely to result in substantial changes in how the committees handle cybersecurity legislation. Most cybersecurity legislation has been stalled during the 113th Congress and there are limited prospects for bills like the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) to pass during the lame-duck session (see 1411070037). Those limited prospects are in part a reflection of a desire to “start fresh” on cybersecurity once the 114th Congress convenes, said Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, a lobbyist at the Monument Policy Group whose Q3 clients included LinkedIn and Microsoft.

An administrative ruling on the California Public Utilities Commission's revised timeline for review of Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable was delayed after a coalition of state public interest advocates filed a motion for the CPUC to dismiss its review of Comcast/TWC and associated deals. CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer had been expected to rule Monday (see 1411210043) on a petition by public interest advocates to extend the timeline for CPUC review of Comcast/TWC, but could rule on the timeline extension and the motion to dismiss by the end of the week, Greenlining Institute Legal Counsel Paul Goodman said in an interview. Bemesderfer’s delayed ruling on the timeline isn’t necessarily connected to the motion to dismiss, CPUC Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) Senior Attorney Lindsay Brown said. A Comcast spokeswoman declined to comment on the motion to dismiss.

A decision is likely on Monday on the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) schedule for reviewing the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal and associated transactions, state participants in the review told us. California public interest groups have joined with the CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) in petitioning Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer to reconsider the review schedule he set earlier this month, which they view as too compressed to result in the thorough review the CPUC had planned. CPUC had earlier delayed its review in response to the FCC’s temporary pause of its own review in the case (see 1410140022). Another administrative law judge who had temporarily replaced Bemesderfer had ruled last month on the scope of ORA’s discovery requests for the review, but deferred to Bemesderfer on a revised schedule (see 1410170049). Comments on the ORA’s petition were due at the close of business Friday.

NARUC members unanimously approved Wednesday a Telecom Committee-passed resolution on FCC treatment of utility spectrum allocations. The resolution, which also received NARUC board backing Tuesday, urges the FCC to equalize its spectrum license transfer process for utilities seeking spectrum for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and smart grid systems. The resolution also asks the FCC to reconsider the “precedential effects” of a September order. The resolution’s proponents claim the order shows the agency believes utilities’ use of spectrum for SCADA and smart grid systems isn’t “dedicated” to public safety purposes yet supports positive train control on public safety grounds (see 1411170044).

SAN FRANCISCO -- State agencies are working to address vulnerabilities in Next-Generation 911 (NG-911) and text-to-911 even as they advance deployment of the technologies, state officials said Tuesday. The April 2014 multi-state 911 outage is the latest example of the “accelerating” trend of 911 outages caused by increasingly advanced 911 technologies, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth during a panel discussion at a NARUC conference. The Bureau released a report in October that found a “preventable software error” at a 911 call processing center in Englewood, Colorado, was responsible for the outage (see 1410170057).

SAN FRANCISCO -- NARUC Telecom Committee Co-Vice Chairman Paul Kjellander, Idaho Public Utilities Commission president, urged state regulators Monday to be cautious about using Communications Act Section 706 as a legal authority for regulating broadband and other advanced communications services at the state level. “In Idaho, if I tried to exercise any kind of regulatory authority under Section 706, I wouldn’t get very far” before state courts would likely rule against such actions, Kjellander said during a panel discussion at a NARUC conference. Kjellander said he believes the ongoing debate over a Section 706 interpretation included in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's decision in Verizon v. FCC could be "put to death" if Congress were to revise the Telecom Act.