FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and the other three commissioners appealed directly to the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees to “restore” the commission’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. The FCC’s mandate expired in March amid a Senate impasse on two competing bills to extend the remit that turned on related negotiations on a larger spectrum legislative package that Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., feared would result in a deal that would repurpose parts of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial use before DOD finishes a study of its systems on the frequency (see 2303090074). “Restoring this authority will provide the United States with the strongest foundation to compete in a global economy, counter Chinese technology leadership ambitions, and safeguard our national security,” Rosenworcel and the other commissioners said in a letter released Wednesday to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and their ranking members. The U.S. “cannot afford to wait. The global community will soon convene for another World Radiocommunication Conference,” Nov. 20-Dec. 15 in Dubai, “to determine the future of spectrum policy, and we must send a strong signal in advance of that meeting of our continued commitment to lead in coming generations of wireless technologies.” In previous years, Congress has always acted to extend the Commission’s auction authority without interruption,” the commissioners said. They said they need the authority so "we can once again use this authority in service of consumers, businesses, and national security.”

Congress should ban members from using TikTok, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., wrote in a letter Tuesday with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. Several members use TikTok and “effectively encourage their constituents to use the app even though all members have received warnings from their respective chamber’s cybersecurity officials,” they said. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and several other House Republicans signed the letter addressed to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Rules and House Administration committees: “We feel this situation warrants further action to protect the privacy of both sensitive congressional information and the personal information of our constituents. To that end, we urge you to enact a change to the Senate and House rules to ban members of Congress from using TikTok for official use.” The company didn’t comment.

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., criticized the FCC Tuesday for not issuing T-Mobile licenses it bought in the 2022 2.5 GHz sale once the commission’s spectrum auction authority lapsed in March (see 2303220077). The FCC is effectively “a bottleneck” to U.S. work to continue to make spectrum available for wireless efforts,” which has become a national security issue due to competition with China to lead on 5G, Cline said during a House Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department’s FY 2024 budget request. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo sidestepped the issue, saying she wasn’t “going to speak to what the FCC is doing or not doing.” It’s “very important to have spectrum available to advance innovation” and NTIA is working “hand in glove” with DOD “to make sure” it “has what it needs to advance its” priorities, she said. The FCC’s mandate expired in a Senate impasse on two competing bills to extend the remit that turned on related negotiations on a larger spectrum legislative package that Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., feared would result in a deal to repurpose parts of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial use before DOD finishes a study of its systems on the frequency (see 2303090074). “National defense also depends on America out-innovating our competitors and we need spectrum in order to move forward” on important commercial priorities, Raimondo said. The FCC didn't immediately comment.

The House was to vote as soon as Monday night under suspension of the rules on the Countering Untrusted Telecommunications Abroad Act (HR-1149). The measure, which the House previously passed in September (see 2209210049), would require publicly traded companies to disclose whether they contracted to use untrusted telecom equipment or services. It would also direct the State Department to report on U.S. collective defense allies using untrusted telecom equipment or services in their 5G networks.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency Wednesday to “conduct or commission annual cybersecurity audits of FirstNet" and complained that the federal government “has done little to force wireless carriers to fix” known vulnerabilities in the emergency network. “CISA’s subject matter expert told my staff” during a February 2022 briefing “that they had no confidence in the security of FirstNet, in large part because they have not seen the results of any cybersecurity audits conducted against this government-only network,” Wyden said in a letter to CISA Director Jen Easterly and NSA Director Paul Nakasone. A nondisclosure agreement included in AT&T’s contract to operate FirstNet means “NTIA and the FirstNet Authority are not allowed to reveal how frequently AT&T commissions these audits, how robust they are, what the audit results were, or whether all vulnerabilities discovered during the audits have been fixed.” Concealing “vital cybersecurity reporting is simply unacceptable,” he said: “CISA and NSA need to have access to all relevant information regarding the cybersecurity of FirstNet, and Congress needs this information to conduct oversight.” If the Commerce Department “is unable to share the results of the FirstNet audits commissioned by AT&T, CISA and NSA should conduct or commission their own annual audits and deliver the results to Congress and the FCC.” CISA and NSA didn’t comment. The FCC, meanwhile, should undo actions during Ajit Pai’s chairmanship that “allowed the industry to invest as little as it wanted in cybersecurity,” Wyden said. “During the Trump Administration,” then-FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel “called for the Commission to ‘move beyond studies and voluntary recommendations.' Now under her leadership, I hope that the FCC will address this market failure and protect Americans’ privacy. The FCC should issue new regulations forcing the carriers to meet minimum cybersecurity standards, just as regulators in other countries have done.” FirstNet said in a statement it “prioritized cybersecurity in the planning for the public safety broadband network, and it continues to be a top priority for us today.” It emphasized its existing cybersecurity strategy “goes well beyond standard commercial network security measures.”

The House Oversight Subcommittee will host a hearing April 19 on the “role of data brokers in the digital economy,” the House Commerce Committee announced Wednesday. The hearing is to start at 2 p.m. in 2322 Rayburn.

The House Communications Subcommittee plans an April 19 hearing on 32 bills aimed at streamlining permitting processes to aid broadband deployment, many of which House Commerce Committee Republicans filed during the last two Congresses when they were in the minority (see 2006250068). "To close the digital divide and further America’s leadership in next generation broadband and wireless networks, we need effective reforms to accelerate the build out of high-speed connections and boost U.S. competition," said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio. "These bills ... will help streamline permitting delays, make an immediate difference for communities across the country, and encourage investment in faster, more affordable communications services for Americans." Filed bills on the docket include the Broadband Incentives for Communities Act (HR-1241) and Community Broadband Act (HR-2552). The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.

FTC Chair Lina Khan’s “refusal” to provide documents on agency action against Twitter after Elon Musk bought the platform is “unacceptable,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Wednesday, issuing a subpoena (see 2303100065). The committee is authorized to oversee agency actions on protection of trade and commerce “against unlawful restraints and monopolies” to aid in legislative activity, said Jordan. “The FTC respects the important role of congressional oversight," an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. "We have made multiple offers to brief Chairman Jordan’s staff on our investigation into Twitter. Those are standing offers made prior to this entirely unnecessary subpoena.”

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks urged Congress to “fully fund” the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program amid its current $3.08 billion shortfall. Lawmakers proposed in a scuttled December spectrum legislative package to use some proceeds from future sales of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and other frequencies to provide the additional rip and replace money (see 2212190069). The Chinese government’s use of spy balloons over the U.S. this year should be “the catalyst for us to eliminate the threat of Chinese government intelligence operations already imbedded in our telecommunications infrastructure once and for all,” Peters and Starks wrote Thursday in a Hill opinion piece. The $3.08 billion shortfall “no doubt is a significant expense. But the cost of failing to secure our networks is orders of magnitude higher.” If “the shortfall goes unaddressed” by July 15, “the FCC will be required to reimburse rip and replace projects at only 40 cents on the dollar,” which “will mean in some cases indefinite delays in securing our networks and the rationing of wireless service across rural America,” Peters and Starks said: “Compounding this issue is the fact that for providers who can’t afford to rip and replace without a higher subsidy, they will lose” USF access, forcing “rural communities to live with a disastrous choice: insecure services ripe for surveillance or no service at all. That is unacceptable.”

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Health Subcommittee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith, R-Va., sought information from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Wednesday on its implementation of the 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The GOP leaders noted in a letter to SAMHSA Administrator Miriam Delphin-Rittmon that the agency got $282 million in federal funding for 988 during FY 2022, but “the national suicide hotline crashed late last year.” Rodgers and the other lawmakers want SAMHSA to give them information by April 18 on why it sought additional 988 funding after having spent an initial $105 million on the hotline by December 2021 and why the Dec. 1 outage of the system happened (see 2301260041) “after all the financial support.” The House Commerce Committee unanimously advanced the 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act (HR-498) in March in response to the outage. It would amend the 2020 National Suicide Hotline Designation Act to require improved coordination and reporting on potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the 9-8-8 lifeline, with the goal of mitigating future cyberattacks and preventing disruption of services. SAMHSA didn’t comment.