Consumers Union slammed the Senate Commerce Committee’s legislation to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. The Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (S-2799), unanimously approved by Commerce in September, includes “a special-interest cable giveaway,” said Consumers Union on its website Friday (http://bit.ly/1p97xHf), singling out STAVRA’s repeal of the set-top box integration ban. NCTA has lobbied for the provision, which TiVo and some other groups have opposed. “Cable companies might think they can get away with this tactic, but we’re fighting back,” Consumers Union said, saying it's “putting pressure on Congress to stop this industry maneuver, and we’re going to keep shining a spotlight on the issue to help ensure you get a better deal. Stay tuned.” Consumers Union suspects the issue “is likely to come to a head after the November midterm elections, when lawmakers plan to return to Washington for a lame-duck session,” it said. STELA expires Dec. 31. “It's unfortunate that Consumer Reports has been misled about the negative impact that the integration ban has had on millions of cable customers who have been forced to spend over a billion dollars for an unnecessary tech mandate that wastes energy and provides no benefit,” an NCTA spokesman told us in response. “Consumer Reports should overwhelmingly support this measure.”

The roundtable of technology executives discussing surveillance last week (CD Oct 9 p16) made “loud and clear” calls for action on surveillance overhaul, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement Friday. “When the Senate returns next month, it must swiftly take up and pass the USA FREEDOM Act. There is no excuse for inaction, as the important reforms in this bipartisan bill are strongly supported by the technology industry, the privacy and civil liberties community, and national security professionals in the intelligence community.” Leahy has called repeatedly for Senate action since introducing his modified version of the USA Freedom Act (S-2685) earlier this year, which is different from a version the House passed.

U.S. leadership is key in the transition of Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community, House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., told President Barack Obama in a letter Friday. “Such a transition can be successful provided that there are built-in mechanisms for transparency and accountability and a commitment by ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers] to resist any expansion of the role governments or intergovernmental organizations may play in ICANN’s own deliberations,” Eshoo said (http://1.usa.gov/1vUyN04). “NTIA must work with ICANN to ensure that the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to the multistakeholder community will not take place until ICANN has fully embraced the principles of openness, security, stability, and resiliency -- principles that have guided the management of the Internet since its inception.” It’s “prudent” to include “a governance structure within ICANN that separates policy-making from the implementation of policy decisions as well as from the adjudication of disputes,” Eshoo said. IANA is expected to be a topic at ICANN’s conference this week. (See separate report above in this issue.)

Allowing the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) to expire could cost $14.7 billion annually in taxes, said research released Thursday by the American Action Forum (AAF) (http://bit.ly/1CYKmHK). The self-described center-right group, which does not take specific policy stances, calculated its number by applying state wireless tax rates to the Internet. “Sales taxes often hit the poorest the hardest and that is where the burden of new Internet access taxes would fall,” the organization said.

The government’s “broad regulatory approach” to health information technology (IT) is creating confusion about which regulations apply to various technologies, said Software and Information Industry Association Senior Director-Public Policy David LeDuc in a Thursday blog post (http://bit.ly/1pVYPMu). “There is significant confusion in the market about what technologies may be regulated, by which agencies, and to what standards,” LeDuc said. “This uncertainty is standing in the way of myriad promising technologies.” Earlier this week, a broad array of healthcare tech companies sent a letter to members of Congress (http://bit.ly/1neEgz5), urging Congress to take action following the Food and Drug Administration’s release of a risk-based framework for regulating health IT devices (CD April 4 p8). That framework was a start, but Congress needs to make categories and definitions more concrete through legislation, the organizations said in the letter. “It is now time for lawmakers to pass legislation that achieves the complementary goals of protecting patients, ensuring safe and effective care and fostering continued innovation in the rapidly-growing health IT field,” the letter said.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., hammered home the need for the Senate to pass the USA Freedom Act surveillance overhaul this year. “The House acted earlier this year to end the bulk collection of data by the government and provide American tech companies new ways to report data concerning government requests for customer information,” he said in a statement Thursday. “When the Senate returns in November, it must pass the USA Freedom Act in order to protect Americans’ civil liberties and to ensure that American tech companies can begin to rebuild trust with their customers and flourish in the global economy."

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., laid out her technology vision Thursday. “To stay ahead of the curve, I've developed several principles that can help our country maintain its high tech edge -- a proposal called, ‘A Fresh Technology Agenda for Growth, Innovation, and Opportunity,'” Fischer said in an op-ed for The Hill (http://bit.ly/1ycZKjS). “It’s an effort to spur a real debate about the best federal policies to empower creators and consumers.” She posted a seven-page agenda on her website and attacked the FCC for certain policies. The FCC “sends businesses the wrong signals, meddles in local affairs, and fails to prioritize how best to improve rural citizens’ access to modern networks,” said Fischer (http://1.usa.gov/1oVb4bZ), slamming FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler for proposing to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband networks. Fischer’s document called for upping the focus on rural call completion problems and overhauling USF rules “so that providers have more of an incentive to bring broadband Internet service to consumers.” Her manifesto urged regulatory humility and attacked the FCC for its now-abandoned Critical Information Needs study: “I led the effort in the U.S. Senate to defeat this terrible proposal,” she said. She attacked FCC consideration of Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband and the FTC for its “unwarranted investigations and aggressive regulatory treatment toward American technology companies.” Fischer, a member of the Commerce Committee, is meeting with Silicon Valley tech companies, such as Apple, Facebook and Google, said her office. “A Communications Act reform would be one venue to push some proposals, although it may not be the best fit for all the reforms that Senator Fischer is proposing,” a Fischer spokesman told us. “While it remains to be seen just how some of these reforms would advance, Senator Fischer is happy that more in Congress are prepared to have the discussion.” Her spokesman said Capitol Hill’s “appetite for addressing needed changes to telecom policy” is “encouraging.” In the op-ed, Fischer dismissed Washington as “way behind” in its regulation of health IT “with old rules that predate the VCR,” and said “Congress must modernize outdated federal regulations,” pointing out concerns about how Food and Drug Administration rules affect mobile health applications. She touted efforts to require the FCC “to be more responsive to all individuals who apply for a new technology or license” and her backing of the E-Label Act.

The FCC has begun implementing recommendations from a July GAO report called FCC Should Review the Effects of Broadcaster Agreements on its Media Policy Goals (http://1.usa.gov/1xq2Eyl), Chairman Tom Wheeler told lawmakers in a Sept. 26 letter released Wednesday. He referred to an April Further NPRM that would kick off the 2014 quadrennial review of media ownership rules. “While the record for the 2014 Quadrennial Review is being developed, the FCC will continue to consider broadcaster agreements, in appropriate cases, in deciding whether approval of particular proposed transactions will serve the public interest,” Wheeler said (http://bit.ly/1t3eiRG).

Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., praised the FCC for extending the comment period (CD Oct 6 p7) on Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. “By extending the comment period, the FCC clearly realizes that there are still voices that have legitimate concerns with the merger who still need to be heard,” Cardenas said in a statement Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1rhgs8X). “Because this new entity will have such broad control over media production, distribution, cable and broadband, there is a natural chilling effect for many of those voices.” Comcast has shown “a disregard for those who air legitimate concerns and far too often resorts to accusations of extortion and name calling rather than addressing the concerns raised,” Cardenas said. “I personally have concerns with how smaller, independently-owned companies will be affected by the merger, particularly minority-owned networks already struggling in the current media environment.” Comcast has defended the proposed deal as positive for consumers and pushed back against the notion that the acquisition would hurt the health of the overall market. It made this case in a letter to Cardenas and other lawmakers in August (CD Aug 5 p2).

The American Cable Association is expected to be among participants at Thursday’s House Commerce Committee staff briefing on video marketplace issues, an industry official told us. The private event is part of the House Republican effort to overhaul the Communications Act and is open to Democratic and Republican staffers from the Communications Subcommittee. The committee has held two other such briefings -- one on wireline issues and another on wireless (CD Oct 7 p6). Industry officials had previously told us the speakers expected at the Thursday briefing are DirecTV, Dish, NAB and NCTA.