Spectrum management should be among the priorities of federal government, wrapped into how it conducts acquisition, a former federal official told Congress in a report released Thursday. The Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee released a long report containing views from many people on the best ways to overhaul defense acquisitions. The Joint Capabilities and Integration Development System “process needs to be streamlined and better integrated with acquisition,” Paul Kaminski, chairman of Technovation, said in the committee staff report (http://1.usa.gov/1sRwqxR). “A robust Development Planning process ... would produce a better outcome. We need a more robust process to better address the issues associated with integrating spectrum management, electronic warfare, cyber offense and defense, and C4ISR [command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] across our forces and across our various acquisition programs.” Technovation is a consulting firm focused on technology applications for aerospace and defense. Kaminski was undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology during the Clinton administration.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., still sees a possible net neutrality letter to the FCC as “in the works” but not imminent, a Democratic aide told us Friday. Lofgren is considering advocating for Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband but limited only to the issue of net neutrality, as an aide first told us last month (CD Sept 12 p9).

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., pressured NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a letter dated Wednesday to act against sports blackouts. “We ask that you capitalize on the FCC’s vote this week and voluntarily rescind your requirement that local television stations blackout games that fail to sell-out,” they said (http://1.usa.gov/1vyad4N), referring to FCC action Tuesday against sports blackouts. “The NFL has received substantial benefits from the public in the form of antitrust exemptions, a specialized tax status, and direct taxpayer dollars that subsidize football arenas and stadiums. ... But, the provision of these substantial public benefits requires that the NFL meet basic obligations to the American public and loyal fans, and this includes abandoning rules that punish those same fans.” They've introduced legislation targeting sports blackouts and the NFL’s antitrust exemption and threatened that Congress may be forced to act if the NFL does not. The NFL declined comment on the letter, citing how recently it was sent.

Congress needs to give “serious consideration” to the Respecting Senior Performers as Essential Cultural Treasures (RESPECT) Act after a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruling against SiriusXM for pre-1972 public performance royalties (CD Sept 24 p7), said Seth Cooper of Free State Foundation (FSF) in a paper released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1nLtJMs). Because legal questions on the protection of pre-1972 public performance royalties remain unresolved in other states, HR-4772 “could provide certainty,” he said. Although the RESPECT Act doesn’t pre-empt state law protections for such recordings, the bill provides “safe harbor for digital music services providers from state copyright infringement lawsuits,” said Cooper. The ruling also highlighted copyright law’s “unfair favoritism” toward terrestrial radio, he said. That terrestrial broadcasters aren’t obligated to pay public performance royalties for any sound recordings “infringes on the rights of copyright holders” and is “unfair to digital and satellite radio services,” said Cooper. “Free market copyright policy should include an eventual transition, even if piecemeal, toward greater reliance on contract bargaining and less on government rate-setting,” he said. “It’s apparent that FSF has very little understanding of the unparalleled free promotional value that broadcast radio provides artists and record labels,” said an NAB spokesman. Many cases are pending on pre-1972 public performance royalties for digital broadcasters, but “none of those lawsuits were brought against over-the-air radio stations,” said NAB. “There’s no reason to believe the outcome of these cases will impact” terrestrial broadcasters, it said. The Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 16), which would prohibit any new taxes or royalties on broadcast radio stations, has 232 co-sponsors (http://1.usa.gov/1rM1GfK). HR-4772 has 14 co-sponsors (http://1.usa.gov/10lsRDj).

Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., has continued to weigh potential problems with Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. He met with members of the Writers Guild of America, West for an informal briefing at the Capitol Tuesday that included Alfredo Barrios, known for his work on the TV show Burn Notice, and Patric Verrone, a past guild president. Cardenas is concerned about “the potential for both vertical and horizontal integration issues surrounding the potential Comcast-Time Warner merger, and how those could lead to both media consolidation and a shortage of independent voices in front of the camera, along with fewer job and growth opportunities in production and other trades,” his spokesman told us. The spokesman said the briefing’s key takeaway was the Guild’s objection to Comcast/TWC due to creation of “more homogenized programs, with far fewer opportunities for diverse, unique voices to be heard.” Cardenas signed a letter to the heads of Comcast and Time Warner Cable this summer expressing concerns. In September, Cardenas and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with independent producers to discuss the transaction. Comcast has defended the proposed acquisition as ultimately good for consumers.

FCC staffers are “actively reviewing” the meaning of the term “not-for-profit hospital,” which appears in the Communications Act, Chairman Tom Wheeler told multiple lawmakers in a Sept. 19 letter (http://bit.ly/1E18CdH). Agency officials will “seek to reach a determination in as expeditious a manner as possible,” he said. The meaning of the term came into question as the FCC seeks to implement its Healthcare Connect Fund.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is continuing to work with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to deal with “political tantrums” over the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), he said during an event Wednesday. Experts consider CISPA (HR-624) and CISA (S-2588) relatively analogous, though CISA’s proponents say it has better privacy protections than CISPA. Critics of CISA argue those privacy protections are insufficient (CD July 30 p6). “Tantrums” over CISA threaten to result in “holds and other things” in the Senate that could kill the bill’s prospects for the rest of the 113th Congress, Rogers said during a Washington Post event. Rogers said he fears if the Senate isn’t able to pass CISA during the post-election lame-duck session, the legislative process “all starts over.” Rogers and Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., are retiring at the end of the 113th Congress, adding to future problems for cybersecurity information sharing legislation, Rogers said. There aren’t any holds on CISA because the bill “hasn’t been hotlined,” a committee aide told us. Senate Intelligence hopes to address all potential issues before it’s hotlined “to allow it to be passed,” the aide said.

House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, jointly asked the GAO Wednesday to do a study on how the FCC’s broadcast TV incentive auction may affect low-power TV (LPTV) broadcasters and translators and their served communities, (http://1.usa.gov/1mR9L1V). Eshoo and Barton want to know the number of low-power stations that offer original programming or show local news and information, “especially those serving racial and ethnic minority communities”; “a projection of the number of such LPTV stations and TV translator stations that will be unable to locate to or operate on replacement channels after the auction”; and “a projection of the number of viewers that will lose over-the-air access to at least one such local LPTV station that provide[s] local news and information, especially to underserved communities of interest,” a Barton news release said. They asked for recommendations from GAO on the FCC and Congress “on ways to remedy adverse impacts ... .” Barton has circulated a draft bill that would protect such low-power entities, which Eshoo had voiced concerns about in a legislative hearing in late July.

The FCC is “actively working on initiatives” in line with recommendations in a GAO report on how the agency should improve the accountability and transparency of its high-cost program funding, Chairman Tom Wheeler told members of Congress from both chambers and parties in a Sept. 19 letter the agency released this week. The GAO report advised the agency to show “how high-cost funds are being used to improve broadband availability, service quality and capacity, and by conducting analyses of carrier data and publicly reporting this information annually in a granular and accessible manner,” Wheeler said (http://bit.ly/1ue8raJ). “We agree with the GAO’s findings and its recommendation,” he said, having “carefully reviewed” the report. “Specifically, based on the GAO’s recommendation, we are working to quantify where recipients have used high-cost funds to increase broadband deployment, penetration, and available speeds.”

American Commitment has gathered 2.4 million letters from constituents asking Capitol Hill lawmakers to stop what it says is the FCC attempt to “impose regulations on the Internet,” the free market-oriented group said in a news release Tuesday. “A Washington takeover of the Internet would be disastrous for free speech, commerce, and the future of the Internet as a sphere of innovation,” said American Commitment President Phil Kerpen in a statement. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., also issued a statement welcoming the letters as part of the net neutrality debate: “We have said all along that these rules continue to be a solution in search of a problem. We will continue working to get government out of the way in our effort to create jobs, boost the economy, and spur innovation.” The group had included a form letter at StopInternetRegulation.org, which said it would send a petition to the FCC as well as to the sender’s relevant member of Congress. “The unregulated Internet is probably the greatest success story of the century,” said the form letter, which does not explicitly mention net neutrality. “Tens of billions of private dollars pour into its networks every year, even in a bad economy. The only reason to change this is to appease a small left-wing political faction that is ideologically obsessed with government control over the economy.”