The FCC goes live in Maryland this week with a new database for Lifeline, intended to ease some concerns over waste and fraud. The database, which includes social services and LexisNexis records, will allow phone companies to check to make sure no others in a household are receiving Lifeline when someone applies for the discounted phone service, said Telecommunications Access Policy Division Chief Kim Scardino at the NARUC Winter Committee meeting Saturday. The database will be rolled out next week in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Washington states, with the rest of the nation to follow, she said. She said the program will also allow screeners to tell if someone signed up for the service through another carrier, or used up his or her minutes and is trying to sign up through a new carrier. She said that over the past 2-1/2 years, the FCC has manually scrubbed Lifeline’s rolls, saving $250 million. But Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable General Counsel Paul Abbott said 98 percent of those scrubbed in the state were removed because they didn’t respond to attempts to reach them to resolve questions. “I don’t know if there was waste or abuse involved,” he said on a panel about Lifeline data collection. Stephen Athanson, regulatory counsel for TracFone Wireless, expressed concern LexisNexis doesn’t include all people, which may lead to some people being disqualified without further verification of their address. Members of Congress have attacked Lifeline, citing the program’s rising cost due to wireless company participation and other alleged shortfalls.

NARUC staff approved five telecom-related resolutions Sunday. One offered by Vermont Commissioner John Burke asks the FCC to expand the USF contribution base, “so that all communications services, including services such as broadband that are required to be offered in order to receive federal support, contribute to USF.” Another by Commissioner Sally Talberg, of Michigan, supports efforts by the FCC to allow a variety of service providers to apply for rural broadband experiments. The resolution also urged the FCC to ensure the funds for the experiments not only be aimed at ensuring broadband service for rural areas, but also that broadband networks deployed in rural areas remain sustainable. A third resolution, by Nebraska Commissioners Tim Schram and Anne Boyle, asked the FCC to clarify that rules on 911 accuracy apply both indoors and outdoors. A resolution by Commissioner Philip Jones of Washington state expressed support and encouragement to the National Association of Public Affairs Networks to establish C-SPAN-like networks in all 50 states. Another resolution by South Dakota Commissioner Chris Nelson thanked Jim McConnaughey for his public service. He retired last month as NTIA chief economist.

Surveillance changes are under way. President Barack Obama recently said that “absent a true emergency, the telephony metadata can only be queried after a judicial finding that there is a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the selection term is associated with an approved international terrorist organization,” said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in a statement Thursday night (http://bit.ly/1iBEtWh). “The President also directed that the query results must be limited to metadata within two hops of the selection term instead of three.” The Justice Department filed a motion with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to amend its Jan. 3 primary order on phone surveillance, which was granted on Thursday. The government is working to declassify these documents by Feb. 17, Clapper said.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a request for information last week asking about how to potentially move the storage of phone metadata from government hands to elsewhere. Responses are due Wednesday. ODNI is looking into “whether existing commercially available capabilities can provide for a new approach to the government’s telephony metadata bulk collection program under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, without the government holding the metadata,” it said in the request (http://1.usa.gov/1caC9RC). Responses may shape the government’s next steps, it said.

Representatives of civil society groups such as the Center for Digital Democracy, American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Privacy Information Center will attend a Monday meeting on big data with Counselor to the President John Podesta, said an organization attending the meeting. Podesta is leading the administration’s big data review to determine whether the current U.S. policy framework addresses the challenges and privacy concerns raised by the proliferation of commercial data collection (CD Jan 24 p9). President Barack Obama directed Podesta to launch the study during his speech on changes to the government’s surveillance programs (CD Jan 21 p1). Podesta said he expects the working group to deliver its findings within the next two and a half months.

Several groups will hold what they call “The Day We Fight Back” on Tuesday protesting government surveillance, they said. The groups include the American Civil Liberties Union, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, Mozilla and Tumblr, amounting to more than 4,000 groups, according to organizers. “Participating sites will be encouraging users to engage in the day of action, through website banners and other means,” organizers said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1iYb0ch). “That participation will include tens of thousands of calls and emails to Members of Congress, tweets and Facebook posts, memes and social avatars, and other viral activity.” The groups support the USA Freedom Act, which would end bulk collection of metadata, and oppose the FISA Improvements Act, a bill that cleared the Senate Intelligence Committee last fall.

Annual customer proprietary network information certifications are due March 14, the FCC said in a public notice Wednesday. The requirement applies to telecom carriers and interconnected VoIP providers, it said. “Because the CPNI rules provide important consumer protections, the Commission has taken enforcement action against telecommunications carriers and interconnected VoIP providers that were not in compliance with the requirements, and we intend to continue to strictly enforce the rules.” The docket is EB 06-36.

The Communications Workers of America is preparing to “underwrite” an ad in opposition to trade promotion authority (TPA) and is seeking a national organization to sign on to the effort, said an email circulated by CWA. Under TPA, commonly called fast-track, Congress agrees to suspend normal legislative procedure for trade bills, offering no amendments, limiting debate and making a simple up-or-down vote. “Fast track has had a difficult month because of the great work done by a broad range of groups,” and “now it’s time to do more,” said Kenneth Peres, CWA chief economist, in the email. He said the ad would “reflect the breadth of opposition to Fast Track.” CWA doesn’t have “definite plans for a particular publication at this time,” though it and others “have been raising concerns about fast track authority for” the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a spokeswoman for the union told us. Those concerns also apply to other trade deals where citizens groups, so-called greens, workers and members of “Congress are shut out of the negotiating process, as has been the case with” TPP, she said. The ad would include recent poll results showing “62 percent of voters oppose fast track authority for the” TPP, and a list of groups that have signed on, the email said. The poll, done by the Hart Research Associates and Chesapeake Beach Consulting Jan. 14-18, was commissioned by CWA, the Sierra Club and the U.S. Business Industry Council (http://bit.ly/1n7DjCJ).

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) “has never been better poised to effect positive change as it further fuels our nation’s innovation economy,” said PTO Deputy Director Michelle Lee in a speech Thursday. Lee is currently PTO’s acting leader, but is not officially its acting director because President Barack Obama has not yet named a nominee to permanently head the agency following former acting Director Teresa Rea’s departure. Lee noted in her speech at an American Intellectual Property Law Association event in Phoenix that the PTO is committed to “fostering a strong and balanced IP system,” AIPLA said in a news release. PTO released its proposed new rules for patent owners’ regular disclosure of a patent’s real-party-in-interest information in late January. PTO said in the Federal Register it will accept comments on the proposed rules through March 25 (http://1.usa.gov/1n5qjAq).

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lauded the White House’s nomination of Vice Admiral Mike Rogers to head the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command (http://1.usa.gov/1a82mFl). Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had announced the nomination in a news release. “If confirmed, Vice Adm. Rogers will be joined by an exceptionally able Deputy Director and senior civilian leader, Rick Ledgett, whom I congratulate on his appointment today,” Hagel said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/1fig2Lu). Rogers had “served in numerous leadership and cryptological roles, including the director for intelligence for both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Pacific Command,” Clapper said.