Congress should dig into surveillance overhaul as well as revamp of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act upon its return from long recess, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement Monday (http://1.usa.gov/XXM6RS). Congress broke for recess last week and won’t return until after the November midterm elections. “When the Senate returns in November, I will continue to urge swift consideration and passage of the USA FREEDOM Act of 2014, S-2685,” Leahy said. “This is a bipartisan bill that makes important reforms to the government’s surveillance authorities, while providing the intelligence community the operational flexibility it needs to keep our country safe.” He cited backing from national security officials and “a broad coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups, the technology industry, and members of Congress from across the political spectrum.” It needs a vote in November, Leahy said. He also said Congress needs to move forward on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization. (See separate report in this issue.) “The Leahy-Lee ECPA Reform Act updates our digital privacy laws to keep pace with new technologies, protect civil liberties, and provide guidance to law enforcement,” Leahy said. “Congress should act swiftly to pass this bill.”
Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., took aim at the issue of orphan counties, in legislation introduced Thursday. HR-5585 (http://1.usa.gov/1r7YbhB) aims “to amend the Communications Act of 1934 and title 17, United States Code, to provide greater access to in-State television broadcast programming for cable and satellite subscribers in certain counties,” said its longer title. It has no co-sponsors and has been referred to the House Commerce and Judiciary committees. In a news release, Duffy said the bill is called The Granting Our People Access to Channel Choice Act. It will let households “continue to access their current programming, but also give residents the choice to access Wisconsin news, weather and sports -- including Packers games,” Duffy said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/XwFMQO). The news release said the legislation “would provide local programming to Wisconsin residents in the seven border counties by allowing them to access in-state, over-the-air broadcasting,” saying “cable or satellite subscribers may choose to keep their current broadcasting, elect the Wisconsin broadcasting or -- for an additional fee -- obtain both market broadcasts."
The Senate Judiciary Committee now lists a planned Tuesday hearing on sports blackouts as postponed. It had announced the hearing early last week and said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., was to have presided. The Senate broke for recess Thursday.
Both chambers of Congress have now approved the E-Label Act, which has received industry praise. The Senate unanimously approved S-2583 Thursday before breaking for recess. It had cleared the Commerce Committee the day before and the House approved a companion bill in July. It would let manufacturers display electronic approval labeling digitally rather than physically on a device.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., suspects his trio of wireless proposals will be on hold for the short term, as November midterm elections approach. He introduced two bills this year dealing with such issues -- one on reallocation of spectrum (S-2473) and one on spectrum sharing in the upper 5 GHz band (S-2505). He has indicated interest in introducing a third bill that would kill infrastructure barriers for carriers, whether at the level of state and local regulation or federal agency delays. He alluded to new leadership of the Commerce Committee depending on the outcome of the November midterm elections, widely expected to be either Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., or current ranking member John Thune, R-S.D. (CD Feb 10 p9). “My hope is realistically, it’s probably going to have to be something we tackle in the new Congress, in the new Commerce Committee, with either Sen. Nelson or Thune as the chair,” Rubio told us at the Capitol Thursday. “I've been working with them, trying to talk to them a little bit, getting them excited about it.” The Wireless Innovation Act (S-2473) has no co-sponsors, and the Wi-Fi Innovation Act (S-2505) has one co-sponsor: Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. “I'm still looking for a Democratic partner to work with me for all the pieces I've got,” Rubio said.
Correction: The National Consumers League didn’t seek to have Local Choice be considered as part of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization (CD Sept 15 p10).
Lawmakers introduced bicameral legislation to overhaul the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board Thursday. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., introduced S-2903, and Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., introduced HR-5595. Both longer titles say the legislation is “to reform the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and for other purposes.” Text for the legislation was not online.
The public Internet needs to evolve to have more capacity, quality and security to support an estimated more than 50 billion connected devices generating half of all traffic by 2030, said a report sponsored by Liberty Global (http://bit.ly/1Dm19Wj) released Thursday. IP interconnection agreements are seeing “a significant increase” and there’s “growing imbalance” of IP traffic from streaming video, the report said. Disputes concern less than 1 percent of all interconnection agreements, and the market seems well positioned for growth, investment and innovation, the report said. By 2020, most Internet use will still involve “the current ‘best effort’ public internet,” the report said. “But the public internet also needs to evolve further."
The Copyright Office needs to upgrade its services for digital interoperability and should add staff attorneys, said Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante at a House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Thursday hearing on oversight of the office (http://1.usa.gov/1AHlscs). “We can only build a sustainable system if we ensure the Office has sufficient resources and a modern IT infrastructure,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., in prepared testimony. The recording of copyright licenses or transfers is a “cumbersome and costly process that requires manual examination and data entry,” which hasn’t been changed “for decades,” said Pallante in prepared remarks (http://1.usa.gov/Zsf4KZ). “How to bring [the office’s documents] online has been a major focus.” Pallante said $28 million of the office’s $45 million budget comes from registration fees. House Judiciary IP Subcommittee member John Conyers, D-Mich., lamented that Congress has cut the office’s budget by 7.2 percent since 2010, even though the office has been asked to take on additional responsibilities. House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Tom Marino, R-Pa., suggested the office be made an independent agency under the authority of the president, rather than under the Library of Congress.
Three Congressional Democrats back a petition to the FCC (http://bit.ly/UO5y1O) from Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and the Sunlight Foundation, they told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Thursday. “Adoption of this petition would enhance campaign disclosure by requiring cable, satellite, and broadcast radio stations to post existing political file documents to the FCC’s online database,” said the letter from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. (http://1.usa.gov/1p2Eg0g). “As of July 1, 2014, all broadcast television stations are already subject to this simple requirement which greatly improves the accessibility of the political advertising data disclosed in the political file.” The 2014 midterm elections are poised to be the “most expensive” in the history of the U.S., the Democratic lawmakers said. The FCC should “consider taking steps to enhance the accessibility of online political file documents,” they said.