Indiana lawmakers may address social media legislation next year, Senate Commerce Committee members said at a livestreamed hearing Thursday. The panel heard testimony but didn’t vote on SB-201, which would require that social media companies verify a user's age and obtain parental consent before a minor can open accounts. Also, the bill would require smartphone makers to activate content filters by default for minors. Sponsor Sen. Spencer Deery (R) hopes to continue the conversation and “find something that we can come back next year with … that will enter Indiana into this space,” he said as the hearing wrapped. Likewise, Committee Chair Brian Buchanan (R) said “this is something I want to continue discussion on and possibly bring back next year.” Buchanan seeks a balance between keeping kids safe and maintaining parental rights, he said. Content filter mandates and social media restrictions for minors are unconstitutional, Edward Longe, director-technology and innovation for free-market think tank James Madison Institute, argued. "Content filters represent a one-size-fits-all government solution to a problem that has already been resolved by the market,” he said. “There is no age restriction to the First Amendment.” Rather than restrict minors, it’s better to require online media literacy training, as in a 2023 Florida law, he told the committee. Longe didn’t mention that Florida House members Wednesday passed a bill restricting children younger than 16 from using social media regardless of parental consent (see 2401240079). Deery doesn’t want Indiana to ban kids from social media but rather give parents power to consent, said the Republican: Literacy training alone won’t cut it. The Computer & Communications Industry Association opposed SB-201 in written testimony. “While CCIA strongly supports the overall goal of keeping children safe online, requiring a state-specific default filter is technologically infeasible and would create unobtainable expectations with regard to content that filters can reasonably block.”
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson; Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez are among those scheduled to speak at NTIA’s spectrum policy symposium on Feb. 1, NTIA said Thursday. Other speakers include DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman and Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology. The symposium starts at 9 a.m. at the National Press Club, with livestream availability.
The FCC will continue updating Congress about the affordable connectivity program's status in hopes of convincing lawmakers for money to keep it running, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters Thursday after the commissioners’ open meeting (see 2401250064). The FCC expects the initiative will exhaust its $14.2 billion allocation in April. The Wireline Bureau said earlier this month it would freeze new enrollments Feb. 8 as part of the program's wind-down process (see 2401110072).
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is considering attaching an amendment to a pending national security supplemental spending bill that would allocate $3.08 billion to fully fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, communications officials and lobbyists said in interviews. Telecom-focused lawmakers are still eyeing FY 2024 appropriations bills as vehicles for allocating rip-and-replace money, and some are pushing to keep using a spectrum legislative package to pay for it. President Joe Biden asked Congress to authorize the additional rip-and-replace money in October as part of a domestic funding supplemental separate from the national security request (see 2310250075).
The Florida Senate Commerce Committee unanimously supported a bill to extend dollar broadband attachments through 2028. Tuesday's committee OK means the full Senate could soon vote on SB-1218, which would extend a promotional rate that the state began offering in 2021 to let ISPs pay $1 a year per wireline attachment per pole to bring broadband to unserved or underserved areas in municipal electric utility service territories. The promo will expire July 1 unless extended. A House subcommittee cleared a similar bill (HB-1147) last week (see 2401190064).
Under a House bill advanced Tuesday, Florida would not allow parents to permit their children to use certain social media platforms. HB-1, which advanced to a final third-reading, would remove minors younger than 16 from the platforms July 1. "Studies have shown that social media is having a devastating impact on our kids,” and the platforms know it, said sponsor Rep. Tyler Sirois (R) at a livestreamed floor session. Likening social media to “a digital fentanyl,” he said “our children are challenged to break this habit.”
Florida could extend dollar broadband attachments through 2028. The state’s House Energy, Communications & Cybersecurity Subcommittee voted 13-0 Friday to clear HB-1147, paving the way for a full Commerce Committee vote. Since July 2021, ISPs could pay $1 a year per wireline attachment per pole to bring broadband to unserved or underserved areas in municipal electric utility service territories. The promotional rate is set to expire July 1. The Senate Commerce Committee plans Tuesday to consider the similar SB-1218, which cleared the Regulated Industries Committee in a 6-0 vote on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden signed off Friday on a continuing resolution (HR-2872) that averts a partial government shutdown, as expected (see 2401180057), the White House said. The CR funds the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service through March 1. In addition, it funds the FCC, FTC, NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division through March 8.
Kansas Rep. Kyle Hoffman (R) would hesitate to scrap a recurring state 911 audit if the legislature doesn’t pass his forthcoming bill to move the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council to a state agency, he said at a livestreamed House Commerce Committee hearing Thursday. The committee heard testimony on HB-2483, which would eliminate a five-year audit by the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit that checks if public safety answering points are appropriately using 911 funding, whether they have enough money, and the status of 911 service implementation (see 2401030019). An audit could still be requested, but the bill would stop automatically requiring audits that are “somewhat boring for the most part,” said Chair Sean Tarwater (R). Committee member Hoffman responded that auditing is useful to the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council where he serves. However, Hoffman plans to propose a bill next week, probably with a Democratic co-sponsor, "that will be moving the 911 Coordinating Council to a fee-funded state agency, which would then negate the reasoning for the 5-year audit,” he said. "I would be a little bit hesitant to totally get rid of the audit if we don't move it to a state agency because that is one of the only real lookbacks that we have as a legislature to really look at what they're doing.” Kansas Legislative Post Auditor Chris Clarke testified that her division usually receives more requests for audits than it has capacity to perform.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign a continuing resolution (HR-2872) that would fund the FCC, FTC, NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division through March 8. Congress passed the measure Thursday. The House voted 314-108 for HR-2872, which would fund the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service through March 1. The Senate earlier voted 77-18 to approve the measure. The CR, if signed, would avert a partial government shutdown that would otherwise begin late Friday night. The previous CR Congress passed in November funded the FCC, FTC, Commerce and DOJ through Feb. 2, while USDA's appropriation would have expired Friday night (see 2311160070).