Far fewer stakeholders weighed in to Congress on the topic of interconnection policy than on the previous three white papers House Republicans had issued to solicit feedback on an effort to overhaul the Communications Act. Responses to the July interconnection white paper were due earlier this month. The House Communications Subcommittee posted the 44 responses online recently (http://1.usa.gov/1pHdC0v); the previous three white papers produced an average of 85 responses per white paper, said Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., at an event last month (CD July 17 p17). In the latest responses, NASUCA told Congress to “maintain the interconnection obligations set forth in the 1996 Telecom Act” and to maintain the state role. Public Knowledge argued that “policymakers must also retain authority to ensure interconnection agreements are not being used to stifle competition or diminish service in hard-to-reach rural areas” and that state regulators “should also be able to collect information about interconnection agreements and ensure interconnection disputes do not harm consumers or competition.” The American Cable Association backs interconnection obligations of sections 201 and 251, which “recognize the key need to interconnect to further the public interest, provide for additional oversight of networks providers with market power, and enable deregulation where market power no longer exists,” in addition to granting state regulators “an important role where negotiations between incumbents and competitors break down.” The Competitive Carriers Association judged that “preserving interconnection obligations throughout and beyond the ongoing transition to all-IP networks is a cornerstone in supporting competition in the digital age,” hailing the importance of some kind of regulatory backstop.

Keep the Internet open, said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., in a video the Internet Association posted online Tuesday. “Keep it robust, open, to keep it as a sense a free marketplace of ideas and innovation,” Booker said in the 2 1/2-minute video (http://bit.ly/1miFVhh). It featured interviews with officials from CardCash, Google, Uber, websignia and Yelp. “The more connected you are, the more opportunity that’s going to come your way,” Booker said. “It’s critical that lawmakers understand the potential and possibility.” Carley Graham Garcia, Google’s head of global industry relations, said “it’s critical that folks everywhere, especially here in New Jersey, care about the open Internet so that people have access to Internet from all corners of our country.”

Two Democrats pushed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband, which Republicans have strongly questioned. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., issued a joint news release (http://1.usa.gov/1mipVMr) focusing on Wheeler’s recent response to several congressional Democrats on the issue (CD Aug 19 p8). “I strongly encourage him and the FCC to take quick and decisive action to lift restrictions that limit or prevent communities from addressing their own broadband needs,” Doyle said in a statement Tuesday after review of Wheeler’s response. Markey also issued a statement thanking Wheeler. “What the broadband market needs today are more options and greater local choice, not barriers that prevent cities and towns from participating fully in the global economy,” Markey said. “I encourage the Commission to use its authority to ensure municipalities have the power to make decisions about their broadband infrastructure.”

The FCC won’t rule on recent petitions seeking commission preemption of state laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that restrict municipal broadband projects until “after a full opportunity for comment by all interested parties in an open proceeding and a careful analysis of the specific factual, policy, and legal issues involved,” Chairman Tom Wheeler said in letters to five Senate Democrats and three House Democrats. “I respect the important role of state governments in our federal system, but I know that state laws that directly conflict with critical federal laws and policy may be subject to preemption in appropriate circumstances. I recognize that federal preemption is not a step to be taken lightly without a careful consideration of all relevant legal and policy issues” (http://bit.ly/1oKFO3y). The cities of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, filed preemption petitions with the FCC in late July (CD July 28 p5). The eight Democrats -- California Reps. Anna Eshoo and Henry Waxman, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle -- asked Wheeler in June to clarify how the FCC would eliminate barriers to community broadband.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., requested information from the top 10 revenue earning airlines on how they manage consumer privacy and pricing issues, said a committee news release Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1ldC61U). There isn’t a federal law governing the use of consumer travel information, and consumer advocates have stated that it’s “difficult for consumers to learn what information airlines and others in the travel sector are collecting, keeping, and sharing about them,” said Rockefeller in a letter to the airlines, which included Delta, Southwest and US Airways. Rockefeller asked the airlines a series of questions related to privacy and pricing standards and requested a response by Sept. 5.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler assured members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) that reviews of proposed media transactions will be open and transparent “with ample opportunity for the public to voice their views and concerns,” he said in a letter to Caucus head Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, posted Friday (http://bit.ly/Vr4Yrt). Wheeler pointed to the update of FCC rules to attribute TV joint service agreements, and other recent commission action, that may help reverse the decline of ownership diversity in the industry. Fudge and the CBC urged the FCC to incorporate guiding principles on diversity when reviewing proposed media industry mergers and acquisitions. Applicants should include within their applications the companies’ diversity goals, and how they intend to integrate diversity and minority inclusion as a part of the corporate culture, members said in a letter to Wheeler this month (http://bit.ly/Vr4Yrt). Applicants for the proposed transactions, like the Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV deals, should detail how the deals “will create minority ownership opportunities in the sale of cable television and wireless cellular systems,” it said. They also should provide how they will include minority and women-owned real estate professionals in matters involving the acquisition and disposition of company real estate, it said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler assured Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that ensuring access to high-speed broadband networks for all Americans is an FCC priority. The FCC is focused on updating the universal service program “to ensure that we are delivering the best possible voice and broadband experiences to rural America,” he said in a letter posted Friday (http://bit.ly/1uCiUhi). The letter is a response to a letter from Graham urging the FCC to be mindful of the potential impacts of proposed takeovers on rural South Carolina citizens.

The priority of the E-rate program in the future must be ensuring there’s “high-speed Wi-Fi in every classroom,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a letter to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. Now, 40 percent of classrooms are not Wi-Fi enabled, Wheeler said. E-rate modernization is “one of the most important issues before the Commission today,” he said. Goodlatte wrote Wheeler July 10 to raise general concerns about the FCC’s direction on the program, and Wheeler replied Monday. The letters were posted by the FCC Friday in docket 14-8 (http://bit.ly/YdXc5K).

Congress should work to release more government health data and encourage consumer access to their own health data, said stakeholders in comments filed to the Senate Finance Committee. Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in June requested comment on how to improve healthcare transparency (http://1.usa.gov/1lznzv4). The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s Center for Data Innovation said Congress should focus on three areas: “Releasing taxpayer-funded research data in non-proprietary and machine readable formats; releasing claims data from other programs besides Medicare, including data from Medicaid, Tricare, Federal Employees Health Benefits, and Indian Health; and encouraging data sharing across the healthcare industry” (http://bit.ly/1t4hMQp). Pew Charitable Trusts also pointed to medical device performance data as critical to both doctors and patients. “One area where patients and physicians need better information is the performance of medical devices after they receive approval or clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)” (http://bit.ly/1oy1n7D). The eHealth Initiative, a health IT advocate, pushed for patients’ greater access to their own health data. “Increasing the availability of mobile, medical device patient data sources for integration into the clinical health record will further enrich the data available for patients and clinicians to monitor care outside traditional settings of care” (http://bit.ly/1uybVG7). Comments were due Monday and have been published throughout the week.

The Parents Television Council (PTC) praised Local Choice, a proposal to end TV blackouts that Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., recently circulated. The lawmakers say they want to attach the proposal, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules, to Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation. Broadcasters have expressed deep concerns and are expected to lobby against the proposal, and the big cable companies of NCTA have stayed silent (CD Aug 13 p4). “This proposal is a wonderful and important first step for consumer choice,” PTC President Tim Winter said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1nQ9kyV). “Consumers, not the media conglomerates, should decide for themselves which networks they want to purchase and bring into their homes. While the present measure would give consumers choice over the broadcast networks, we hope this will ultimately pave the way for consumers to enjoy greater choice for all of their cable programming.” The PTC is a member of the American Television Alliance (ATVA), which includes several pay-TV operators that have sought to overhaul retransmission consent. “Broadcasters’ opposition shows that they're unwilling to accept even a reasonable solution to our broken retransmission consent system,” an ATVA spokesman told us. “They've complained for years that they don’t get fair market value for their content and this bill provides exactly that. ... This is a simple and elegant solution that should appease both sides and consumers and it can immediately be added to STELA."