The House Communications Subcommittee approved a bill to overturn the FCC net neutrality rule from December, over protests by Democrats. Dividing by party Wednesday afternoon, the committee voted 15-8 in favor of a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act authored by Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. Democrats held up the vote by flooding the markup with seven amendments. Walden rejected them because he said resolutions under the CRA statute are not subject to amendment. In a new development, GOP-sought witness RapidDSL admitted to slowing Netflix on its network. A Netflix spokesman said, “Consumers should be able to receive what they want over the Internet."

A Justice Department official called on Congress to reauthorize three key provisions in the Patriot Act set to expire in May, including one that allows quick shifting of phone taps from one carrier to another. The testimony came Wednesday during a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee’s Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security subcommittee.

National Broadband Plan architect Blair Levin said the speech by his old boss, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, announcing the plan was effective in winning short-term publicity but “muddied the waters for the universal service debate” because it focused on speed goals.

Vivian Schiller resigned Wednesday as NPR CEO. Her decision to step down follows the resignation of former NPR Foundation President Ron Schiller, who said that NPR “would be better off in the long run without federal funding.” Ron Schiller’s statements could undermine efforts to maintain funding, some public media leaders said. Without Vivian Schiller at the helm, the organization’s initiatives toward mobile and online advancements could be hindered, they said. The former executives are not related.

Cbeyond Communications has filed a breach-of-contract suit against Verizon, alleging that Verizon “unilaterally” lowered its intercarrier compensation rates. Verizon owes $900,000 dating to last August and costs “are continuing to increase,” Cbeyond said in its suit, filed in federal court in Atlanta on Tuesday. Verizon declined to comment for this story, but in January the company announced a deal with Bandwidth.com that charges Bandwidth.com $0.0007 to connect voice over Internet protocol calls. That’s the same rate Cbeyond claims Verizon is now paying to connect Cbeyond VoIP. Verizon told Cbeyond that it was “re-rating” the tariffs last August, Cbeyond’s lawsuit claims.

The GPS industry is taking its concerns of interference due to LightSquared’s planned wireless network to Capitol Hill. Trimble Navigation General Counsel Jim Kirkland will testify at House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee Friday with a focus on the LightSquared issue, he said in an interview. Kirkland, along with Garmin, is also helping organize a new ad hoc group called the Coalition to Save Our GPS. Several companies, groups and federal agencies have voiced worries that LightSquared’s proposed service would harm GPS services. LightSquared is in the process of addressing these concerns along with the U.S. GPS Industry Council in a working group, as required by the FCC.

The Supreme Court should consider Council Tree’s challenge to the AWS-1 and 700 MHz auction results, in part to clear up longstanding questions about how courts should interpret Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act, the designated entity (DE) said in a reply brief to the high court. The 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia found problems with the FCC’s revised DE rules challenged by Council Tree, but left intact the auction results (CD Aug 25 p1).

The Wireless Communications Association (WCAI) called on the FCC to increase a limit on white-spaces antennas of 76-meter height above average terrain (HAAT). Making that change would “enable consumers, businesses, and schools in rural, hilly parts of the country to receive broadband via white space spectrum,” the association said. The Wireless Internet Service Provider Association (WISPA) meanwhile offered two concessions on its proposal for raising the HAAT limit. Others also filed reply comments as the commission deals with five petitions for reconsideration filed in January (CD Jan 10 p 4).

Free Press may challenge the FCC’s net neutrality rules after they are published in The Federal Register, incoming Executive Director Craig Aaron said in an interview. Aaron will replace Josh Silver in mid-April as head of the group, which played a big part in the net neutrality debate.

Sprint Nextel has lost its effort to stay an Iowa order requiring payment of intrastate access of interconnected VoIP. That may be the beginning of a series of battles over VoIP as the FCC moves ahead with its Universal Service Fund revamp, said state and industry officials. Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recently ruled that by refusing to pay access charges for VoIP traffic, Sprint Virginia is in violation of 19 interconnection agreements with CenturyLink business units.