Many major technology companies, associations and privacy and civil liberties advocates again urged House and Senate leadership to put respective bills up for a vote to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Over 75 entities -- including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo -- sent letters Wednesday to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., (http://bit.ly/1lTLAzE) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nev. (http://bit.ly/1otcl9G). The two bills (S-607 and HR-1852) would require a warrant for government to access personal digital information, similar to a warrant to access personal physical property, the letter said. The ECPA update also “would aid American companies seeking to innovate and compete globally,” the letters said. “Removing uncertainty about the standards for government access to data stored online will encourage consumers and companies, including those outside the U.S., to utilize these services.” Lawmakers and observers have said this narrow ECPA revamp has a high chance of passing Congress this year -- a majority of House members now support the bill -- but a full ECPA overhaul will take years as lawmakers grapple with tougher issues like standards for geolocation (CD July 14 p9). The organizations said there’s almost no opposition to the narrow bills. “The only resistance to reform comes from civil regulatory agencies that want an exception allowing them to obtain the content of customer documents and communications directly from third-party service providers,” the letters said. “This would expand government power.” The Senate bill was approved by the Judiciary Committee last year, but the House bill has not yet moved through committee, the letters said.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., sent a joint letter (http://bit.ly/1lUprRM) to CBS CEO Les Moonves Wednesday asking about CBS’s rejection of certain American Television Alliance (ATVA) ads in favor of Local Choice, a Senate proposal to which broadcasters object. A CBS Radio spokeswoman has previously confirmed to us that it rejected such ads because they did not meet its broadcast standards. Blumenthal and Fischer asked several questions of Moonves, such as whether CBS provided ATVA with a reason for the denial and what other communications issues for which CBS has refused to run advertisements. “We're very grateful that Sens. Blumenthal and Fischer are looking into this issue on behalf of consumers,” ATVA’s spokesman said. “CBS has the right to disagree with us about the best way to fix retransmission consent but they shouldn’t be stifling the debate. The American public deserves better from those entrusted with our airwaves.” A CBS spokeswoman declined comment.
As expected, the House Small Business Committee scheduled an FCC oversight hearing Wednesday at 1 p.m., it said on its website (http://1.usa.gov/1otXLif), listing the location as 2360 Rayburn. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is the one witness listed. The hearing title is “Is the FCC Responding to the Needs of Small Business and Rural America?"
Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., introduced a net neutrality bill Tuesday. HR-5429 is not yet posted online, but would amend the Telecom Act to restore the FCC’s authority “to adopt certain rules relating to preserving the open Internet and to direct the Commission to take all actions necessary to restore to effect vacated portions of such rules,” according to its longer title. It was referred to the House Commerce Committee. No co-sponsors are listed.
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson urged Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation before it adjourns. He said in an op-ed in The Hill posted online Tuesday night that the House and Senate have made “real progress” on cyber in the 113th Congress that “should not go to waste” (http://bit.ly/1ujijQf). Johnson said there has been bipartisan consensus on several cyber bills that have moved out of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, along with the House-passed National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR-3696). Industry lobbyists have said the rapidly closing legislative window is making further progress on HR-3696 and on more controversial information sharing bills like the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-2588) far less likely before the 114th Congress convenes (CD July 30 p6).
House lawmakers approved the Anti-Spoofing Act (HR-3670) Tuesday and were planning to consider the E-Label Act (HR-5161) Wednesday, both under suspension of the rules. Suspension is reserved for noncontroversial legislation and requires a two-thirds vote. The House Commerce Committee approved both pieces of legislation earlier this year. The Anti-Spoofing Act would update the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 and the E-Label Act would allow electronics manufacturers to provide an FCC-required label digitally rather than on the physical device. “Scammers are using technology to work around an outdated law,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, in a statement after passage of the Anti-Spoofing Act, which he backed. “The practice of spoofing needs to be stopped! This bill will broaden protections for consumers by holding spoofing companies outside the US accountable, stopping abusers from using text messages, and including IP-enabled voice services.”
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told the FCC he wants it to craft net neutrality rules under its Communications Act Title II authority, reclassifying broadband as a telecom service. Several prominent Democrats have backed Title II reclassification (CD Sept 10 p5), which congressional Republicans and industry stakeholders have resisted. “The FCC should protect access to the Internet under a Title II framework, with appropriate forbearance, thereby ensuring greater regulatory and market certainty for users and broadband providers,” King told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Wednesday. “To ensure that the Internet fulfills its promise of being a powerful, open platform for social, political, and economic life, the FCC must adopt a rule against blocking, a bright-line rule against application-specific discrimination, and a rule banning access fees.” Protections should apply at points of interconnection, King said, urging the agency to “abandon its current proposal.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., another backer of Title II reclassification, meanwhile, allied himself “in solidarity with netizens everywhere” in participating with online protests in favor of net neutrality rules. (See separate report above in this issue.) His website featured a loading symbol, as did many other sites, as “a harbinger of the dark days ahead if we let the broadband behemoths win,” Markey said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “Net neutrality is as basic to the functioning of the Internet as nondiscrimination is to the United States Constitution.”
Coalitions representing pay-TV companies and broadcasters took out new ads in Washington on Local Choice, the Senate proposal that would overhaul retransmission consent rules to end TV blackouts. Broadcasters have opposed the idea and said they're unfairly singled out. The American Television Alliance (ATVA), representing some pay-TV providers, has widely advertised in favor of the proposal and offered a Tuesday advertisement in Politico telling people they “could be next” in facing TV blackouts (http://bit.ly/1uupDrd). TVFreedom, representing broadcasters, featured advertising in the National Journal blasting Local Choice and telling people to contact their senators saying “no new fees for local TV.” (TVFreedom has also purchased advertising in Communications Daily.) TVFreedom’s spokesman cited statements from pay-TV industry stakeholders opposing an a la carte model being used more widely in the video market, placed in an op-ed for The Hill Tuesday. “The contortions taken by certain members of the cable and satellite TV industry to achieve that advantage reflect a flip-flop of Olympic proportion,” the TVFreedom spokesman said of pay-TV backing for Local Choice (http://bit.ly/1tHHJbw). “The naked truth is that such hypocrisy can only be rationally explained by the cable and satellite lobby desire to drive local TV stations off the air.” Some TVFreedom members -- The Hispanic Institute, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, the National Black Religious Broadcasters and the Rural Agriculture Council of America -- sent individual letters to Senate Commerce protesting Local Choice. Public Knowledge, an ATVA member, in a blog post Tuesday partially endorsed Local Choice but cautioned it will be tricky and that Congress should be ready for unpredictable effects of Local Choice on billing and make sure viewers get any savings. “While there are inevitable complicated details, in broad strokes Local Choice is the beginning of a great idea for TV viewers and, if adjusted appropriately to protect consumers, a significant step toward video reform,” Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer said (http://bit.ly/1xEMKE8). Charter, a member of ATVA, praised Senate Commerce Committee leadership for including Local Choice in their Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation, set for markup consideration next week. “The current retransmission consent regime is broken, and the Senators’ legislative proposal offers a clear and simple fix,” Charter said in a statement Monday (http://bit.ly/1p3aGXF). “Stopping broadcast blackouts and increasing consumer control is a logical path forward.” Charter called the reauthorization bill “thoughtful.” Other ATVA members such as the American Cable Association and Dish have also issued statements praising the STELA reauthorization bill since its circulation Friday.
The Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee may hold a hearing investigating pay-TV industry billing practices before the end of the year, Chairman Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told us at the Capitol Tuesday. “Not before the end of this work period, but we're meeting next week to see what meetings we'll have in November and December,” she said. “I don’t know if [that possible hearing] will get in that [November-December] group, but I think it might. … I can’t give you a firm answer, but I'll know better next week.” Some members of the Commerce Committee were still reviewing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill that Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., circulated Friday and plan to mark up next week (CD Sept 8 p1). Despite broadcaster attacks on the proposal’s Local Choice and retransmission consent overhaul components, Thune defended the STELA reauthorization, known as the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act, to reporters at the Capitol. “We'll see what kind of traction it gets in the House,” Thune said. Communications Subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was not prepared to speak to STAVRA’s details. “I'm going to get a briefing on that this afternoon,” Wicker told us. McCaskill has said she plans to introduce a bill addressing her pay-TV industry billing concerns and did not rule out attaching it to STAVRA. “It depends,” McCaskill said. “I haven’t had a chance to look at STELA but these are really tough issues, and the question is, will the chairman and the ranking member … have the votes to get it out of committee on a bipartisan basis? The issue is not what is in the STELA draft that’s been released; the issue is, can we pass it? Or should we pass it?”
The House Judiciary Committee will mark up a bill Wednesday to harmonize the antitrust standards and processes between the FTC and Department of Justice, said a Tuesday news release (http://1.usa.gov/1CO8Ow8). Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, introduced Tuesday the Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules Act (HR-5402), or SMARTER Act, which would “ensure that parties to a proposed merger receive the same treatment regardless of whether the FTC or the DOJ reviews the transaction,” Farenthold said. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., supported the bill in a statement: “One of the responsibilities of the Judiciary Committee is to ensure fairness and consistency in the enforcement of our nation’s antitrust laws. The Smarter Act is a commonsense measure that reduces disparities in the merger review process."