President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order directing DOJ to establish rules blocking large-scale transfers of Americans’ personal data to entities in hostile nations.
Municipal interests pushed back on a bill before the Missouri Senate Tuesday clarifying that streaming content is exempted from paying video franchise fees. In a Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment Committee hearing on SB-947, Missouri Municipal League lobbyist Shanon Hawk of Armstrong Teasdale said municipalities started working with the Senate about eight years ago on updates to the state's public right-of-way rules, and streaming was part of that much larger conversation. She said subsequent updates included a promise that there would be a state task force on the future of right-of-way taxation, but that task force authorization expired in 2023 without ever meeting. Confusion remains about who must get a state franchise as a video service provider and municipalities are still trying to get right-of-way updates. ROWs are a financial liability for municipalities, as they carry maintenance and upkeep costs, said Pat Kelly, Municipal League of Metro St. Louis executive director. If streaming services don't pay using infrastructure in the ROW, taxpayers must, he said. Republican sponsor of the bill, Holly Thompson Rehder, said she had pushed for similar legislation when she worked as head of government relations for Galaxy Cablevision. She said streaming services weren't being considered when the state's Video Services Providers Act was passed, and that legislation never intended for streamers to be included under its franchise-fee obligations. She said franchise fees are intended to pay for actual access to rights of way. Levying a franchise fee on streamers is akin to levying such a fee on a cable provider's premium channels like HBO, she said. Representatives of Dish Network, DirecTV and Netflix all briefly testified in favor of the legislation. Backers of the bill repeatedly referred to franchise fees on streaming series as a tax that would be borne by those streamers' subscribers. Rehder said fee increases ultimately get passed to subscribers, and the clarification would prevent "our constituents from getting a tax increase, because that's exactly what this would be for them." The Municipal League's Kelly disputed that, calling it a fee. Similar legislation, HB-2057, has been introduced in the Missouri House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other congressional leaders were optimistic Tuesday they can avoid a partial government shutdown that would otherwise shutter the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service and other agencies when an existing continuing resolution expires Friday night. A second CR covering the FCC, FTC, NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division lasts through March 8 (see 2401180057). Johnson told reporters after a meeting with President Joe Biden and Capitol Hill leaders he’s “very optimistic” that Congress can keep government running. “We believe that we can get to agreement on these issues and prevent a government shutdown, and that’s our first responsibility,” he said. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed. “We can’t shut the government down,” Schumer said, but to do that now “means we need CRs” rather than a “minibus” appropriations package Johnson recently floated.
George Kelemen, Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies executive director, advised National Emergency Number Association members Monday to distinguish between the general push for Congress to appropriate $15 billion for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and existing legislative vehicles for allocating that funding when they meet this week with Capitol Hill offices. Backers of the House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565), which would use some future auction proceeds to pay up to $14.8 billion for NG-911, haven't advanced the measure amid stalled negotiations on a broader spectrum legislative package (see 2312280044). Some offices, particularly Senate Republicans, are likely to say HR-3565 “‘is dead,’ and as a legislative vehicle it may very well be dead,” Kelemen said during NENA’s conference in Pentagon City, Virginia. “It’s still technically … a live bill,” and the hope is that lawmakers will “take all of the important parts of” the bill dealing with NG-911 and put them in "a different vehicle sometime this year and let’s hope they get it all done.” The NG-911 language in HR-3565, which mirrors an aborted spectrum legislative deal leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees agreed to in December 2022 (see 2212190069), is “what we’re looking for and that’s what we’d like to see in whatever vehicle eventually moves,” Kelemen said. NENA members will also lobby lawmakers’ offices on the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-6319) and similar Enhancing First Response Act (S-3556), both of which would reclassify public safety call-takers and dispatchers as a protective service.
Congressional Republican leaders are determined to advance a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to undo the FCC’s digital discrimination order (H.J.Res. 107) despite widespread acknowledgment the measure faces long odds of making it through the majority-Democratic Senate and an all-but-certain veto from President Joe Biden. GOP leaders’ intent in pursuing H.J.Res. 107 appears to be to bolster legal challenges of the digital discrimination order, officials and lobbyists told us. House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia and more than 60 other Republicans filed the measure in late January (see 2401310003).
AT&T said the outage that affected many wireless subscribers on Thursday (see 2402220058) was most likely a technical problem and not a cyberattack. An initial review concluded the outage resulted from the "application and execution of an incorrect process ... as we were expanding our network,” AT&T said in a Thursday evening update. The carrier said it’s still investigating. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said Thursday night they are assessing the "disruption in order to gain a complete understanding of what went wrong and what can be done to prevent future incidents like this from occurring.” As more information comes in, the panel “will continue to encourage transparency and accountability for those affected and ensure that appropriate steps are taken to strengthen our communications networks, which are vital for nearly every aspect of our economy and daily lives.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) isn’t ready to ban children younger than 16 from using social media without an opportunity for parental override, he said Thursday. This puts him at odds with many of his state's Republican lawmakers. Earlier in the day, Florida's Senate voted 23-14 to approve HB-1, which would require that websites verify potential users' ages, preventing kids younger than 16 from using social media and stop those younger than 18 from accessing pornography. Many, but not all, Democratic state senators opposed the bill. Later on the floor, senators joined House members in unanimously supporting another measure extending a $1 promotion for broadband attachments through 2028.
Commerce would take "a go-slow, cautious" regulatory approach if given oversight of novel space missions, as proposed in the White House's novel space activities framework (see 2402210036), according to Glenn Tallia, NOAA weather, satellites and research section chief. Speaking Thursday at the FAA’s annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, he promised a "light-touch," noting concerns that regulation could chill innovation or investment. FCC Space Bureau special counsel Karl Kensinger said the policy proposal leaves the agency's authority largely unaffected.
The Virginia House Commerce Committee cleared a Senate-passed bill on pole attachments (SB-713) in a 22-0 vote Tuesday. The committee earlier this month approved a similar House bill (HB-800) regulating how public utilities handle attachment requests (see 2402090062). SB-713 can now go to the full House. HB-800 is currently in the Senate Commerce Committee.
Emerging commercial space applications that fall outside existing regulatory regimes are driving the need for clarity about what agency is responsible for what, House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Brian Babin said Wednesday. Speaking at the annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, the Texas Republican was critical of the White House's proposed novel space activities authorization framework. Instead, he talked up his Commercial Space Act. In addition, multiple space regulators from other nations spoke about needing a more-uniform launch regulatory regime that would clear the path to reciprocal launch licenses.