The National Governors Association is “disappointed” in House passage of the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (PITFA) (HR-3086), NGA said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1rgRBI3) Tuesday. PITFA, which bans any taxation on Internet access, passed the House by a voice vote Tuesday (CD July 16 p12). No changes were made to the bill before or during its consideration, said a House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman. NGA said “this federal prohibition on state taxing authority is contrary to federalism and the sovereign authority of states to structure and manage their own fiscal systems.” Congress should instead “address the disparity between Main Street retailers and online sellers regarding the collection of state and local sales taxes,” it said. House passage of PITFA “protects millions of Americans across the country who use the Internet daily to look for employment, participate in online courses or access government services from state and local taxes on Internet access,” said Internet Tax Freedom Act Coalition Executive Director Annabelle Canning in a statement (http://bit.ly/1naI8jB) Tuesday. The coalition encouraged the Senate to pass its version of PITFA (S-1431) before Nov. 1. The coalition’s members (http://bit.ly/1tRqQMh) include Amazon, AT&T and Verizon, and those two telcos also backed passage in separate statements. S-1431 has 51 co-sponsors.

The Senate approved cellphone unlocking legislation by unanimous consent Tuesday. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., had introduced a bipartisan compromise version of his Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (S-517) earlier this summer and easily cleared it from committee. The compromise mirrored a cellphone unlocking bill that passed the House earlier this year. “With the Senate’s swift action last night, just days after the Judiciary Committee approved the measure, I hope the House will soon take up and pass our bill so that consumers will be able to use their existing cell phones on the wireless carrier of their choice,” Leahy said in a statement Wednesday.

The confirmation of Robert Holleyman as deputy U.S. Trade Representative will provide USTR digital experience as that area of the trade agenda continues to grow in importance, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in an opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing on Holleyman’s nomination. Holleyman was president of BSA/The Software Alliance for more than 20 years before stepping down in 2013. “Digital trade has rapidly emerged as a major source of economic growth and innovation, and it is fundamentally reorganizing how goods and services are made and traded across borders,” said Wyden (http://1.usa.gov/1mMYfmqf). “As significant trade agreements are taking shape, it is essential that USTR provide global leadership in the development of rules that make sense for a 21st century digital economy.” President Barack Obama sent Holleyman’s nomination to the Senate in February, to replace outgoing deputy USTR Miriam Sapiro. Public Citizen recently chided Holleyman for supporting the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act, which some critics say infringe on online liberties.

USTelecom Vice President-Law and Policy Kevin Rupy testified before Congress Wednesday about the association’s efforts to tackle phone scams. “Our industry has ramped up a concerted, broad-based, public-private effort focused exclusively on the issue of telephony abuse,” he said in written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/1zJDj4Z) before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. “Our member companies continue to work with government and industry stakeholders to develop more secure forms of caller identification authentication to more effectively address a practice that facilitates fraud, caller-ID spoofing.” The telcos are working to offer services to cut the number of fraudulent calls, he said. Rupy also raised the challenges of robocalls. USTelecom members “will initiate legal actions against robocallers when they can be found,” he said.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced the Wi-Fi Innovation Act Wednesday. It’s a companion bill to one that Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced earlier this summer. Its backers in the House are Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio; subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.; and Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “The Wi-Fi Innovation Act paves a pathway to maximize the use of spectrum and examine ways to expand the deployment of wireless networks and services across the country, so all can benefit from this next-generation technology,” Latta said in a statement. The legislation “directs the FCC to determine the extent to which unlicensed spectrum can be shared and utilized in increasingly innovative ways to benefit consumers and our economy,” Eshoo said. The bill says the FCC should run tests on possible interference in the 5 GHz band, and prompts a study on different barriers to Wi-Fi deployment in low-income areas.

The House’s planned Communications Act overhaul is far from any legislative drafts, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Wednesday at a Capitol Hill briefing hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (See separate report above in this issue.) “We're a long way from circulating a draft because we're collecting the information,” Walden said. “The concept here is actually absorb that information, value it.” He and colleagues have released four white papers to collect information about relevant topics, such as competition policy or the latest Tuesday white paper on interconnection. “I'd say we've averaged about 85 responses per white paper,” Walden said, saying more are to come later this year on media and public safety issues. Of the stakeholder comments, “you can see industry’s protecting status quo in some places and wanting status quo in others,” Walden said, saying any overhaul would shift “massive parts of the economy” and require caution so as not to “upend” it. Other factors affecting the legislative direction of the overhaul will include the makeup of the committee next year and the political leadership of the Senate following the 2014 midterm elections, he said. Walden also wants to make sure committee members understand the issues, he said. “The members better understand what they're engaging in here.”

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., lauded the FCC saying it’s creating a USF strike force to target fraud and abuse (CD July 15 p10). “Identifying and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse to protect taxpayer dollars has been a top priority for House Republicans,” Walden said in a news release Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1qcXdDF). “As the USF has continued to grow, it has become an increasing cost on consumers’ monthly phone bill. The FCC has a responsibility to ensure any dollars being spent are being spent wisely and efficiently.”

The House Commerce Communications and Health subcommittees plan a joint hearing on “21st century technology for 21st century cures,” Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. Witnesses are Qualcomm Senior Director-Government Affairs Robert Jarrin; Amazon Vice President-Global Public Policy Paul Misener; McKesson Connected Care and Analytics Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Niloff; Health Fidelity founder Dan Riskin; and LyfeChannel CEO Dave Vockell. “The ability to access real time data through the use of wireless sensors could allow clinicians to improve the quality and efficiency of clinical trials, help researchers design targeted therapies, and inform research and development efforts,” the GOP memo said (http://1.usa.gov/1zGiUxI). In announcing the hearing, Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., had framed it as allied with the goals of the committee’s broader effort to overhaul the Communications Act (http://1.usa.gov/1r0xOMF).

Five more House members signed on as co-sponsors to the Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 16), said an NAB news release (http://bit.ly/1juGLeS) Tuesday: Reps. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio; Bill Foster, D-Ill.; Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash.; David Jolly, R-Fla.; and Derek Kilmer, D-Wash. The resolution has 231 co-sponsors in the House (http://1.usa.gov/1ksHOam). The resolution would oppose “'any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge’ on local broadcast radio stations,” said NAB. The musicFirst coalition is targeting Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and David Price, D-N.C., to condemn their support of the act (CD July 11 p13) .

Congress must update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to counter the rising threat of botnet attacks, said Leslie Caldwell, assistant attorney general for the criminal division, at a Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism hearing Tuesday, according to her prepared testimony (http://1.usa.gov/1l0sMZm). The government must also continue to fund research and development and to encourage intra-government and private sector collaboration, said Joseph Demarest, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, according to his prepared remarks (http://1.usa.gov/1mHIeyd). Congress has updated the CFAA several times since its 1986 passage, but not since 2008, Caldwell said. “The intervening years have again created the need for the enactment of modest, incremental changes,” he said, pointing to an administration legislative proposal in 2011 (http://1.usa.gov/UbeqP0). “We continue to support changes like these that will keep up with rapidly evolving technologies and uses.” Caldwell also said “the availability of legal investigative process” granted by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) has been “essential to the success of our anti-botnet initiatives, and to our efforts against cybercrime as a whole.” Lawmakers, and ECPA update advocates have blamed the administration for stymieing efforts to pass legislation requiring the government to get a warrant before accessing emails stored remotely (CD July 14 p9).