Most industry groups opposed the FCC's decision restoring net neutrality rules and reclassifying broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Communications Act Title II service Thursday. Most disagreed with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on the order's legal standing, warning it could likely be overturned if a challenge is brought (see 2404250004). The Wireless ISP Association will "carefully review" the order and "determine what legal recourse we should take," Vice President-Policy Louis Peraertz said. Several consumer advocacy groups praised the order.
Controversy over a broadband bill spilled out into the open at a Louisiana Senate hearing Wednesday. The Senate Commerce Committee deferred the bill for a week as it attempts to resolve cable industry opposition to part of HB-700. That provision would require that Louisiana broadband grant winners collect data for the state broadband office about locations of new broadband infrastructure and “existing water, sewer, or gas infrastructure in the path of excavation funded through” the Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities (GUMBO) program. Lashing out against cable for what he claimed was a “hit piece” against his son, sponsor Rep. Daryl Deshotel (R) nearly spiked his bill. Committee members convinced him not to do so.
Republican members of the House and Senate Commerce committees echoed arguments from opponents of the FCC’s draft net neutrality order in a letter to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel ahead of the commission’s expected adoption of the new rules (see 2404190038). The panels’ Republicans are eying a range of potential actions countering the net neutrality bid (see 2404180058). Meanwhile, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (Ohio) and 11 other Republicans urged Rosenworcel last Thursday to “leverage all resources at its disposal for a successful 5G Fund that maximizes the reach and effectiveness of the program.”
The Missouri House offered unanimous support for keeping the state’s small-cells law. On a 151-0 vote Monday, lawmakers approved HB-1995, which would extend the 2018 law’s expiration date by five years to 2030. The small-cells law preempted local governments on right of way to try to streamline 5G infrastructure deployment. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the similar SB-1411 during a meeting last month (see 2403260022).
Forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok is the right move and will withstand legal challenges, Senate Democrats and Republicans told us Tuesday as the chamber cleared the first procedural hurdle in approving the provision in the FY 2024 national security appropriations supplemental package (see 2404220049 and 2404190042).
The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing a May 1 vote on the to-be-filed Spectrum and National Security Act from panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., lobbyists told us. A general notice on the Senate Commerce markup session was online Wednesday night but the committee hadn’t formally announced its agenda. It wasn’t certain Wednesday night whether the Spectrum and National Security Act would actually be part of the meeting. The executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. There are five other telecom and tech-focused bills on the docket: the Rural Broadband Protection Act (S-275), Network Equipment Transparency Act (S-690), Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S-1291), Create AI Act (S-2714) and Future of AI Innovation Act (S-4178).
Legislation forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban will “trample” the rights of 170 million users, TikTok said in a statement. The House on Saturday approved a package of foreign aid bills, including the divestment legislation and a bill that would ban data brokers from transferring sensitive data of American users to adversarial foreign nations like China. The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (HR-7520) and the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (HR-7521) were attached to the 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act, which the House passed 360-58. TikTok said Monday: "It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually." The foreign aid package will “bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday, urging the Senate to send it “quickly” to his desk. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats and Republicans “locked in an agreement enabling the Senate to finish work on the supplemental with the first vote on Tuesday afternoon.” The Senate is on a path to pass the “same bill soon,” he added. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., welcomed the inclusion of HR-7520 and HR-7521: The House vote “is a clear victory for protecting Americans online and off.” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said he’s “very glad to see progress toward compelling a divestiture of TikTok from its parent company, Byte Dance, which is legally beholden to the Chinese Communist Party. This is a strong step forward to shore up our national security against malign influence, and it couldn’t come at a more important time.”
The House Communications Subcommittee plans May hearings on the FY 2025 budget requests for the FCC and NTIA, the Commerce Committee said Friday. President Joe Biden in March proposed $448 million for the FCC in FY25 and $65 million for NTIA (see 2403110056). The FCC hearing, set for May 7, would happen less than two weeks after the commission is expected to vote in favor of net neutrality rules that largely mirror a rescinded 2015 order. House Communications Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, previously predicted the subpanel would hold more hearings on the FCC’s net neutrality actions (see 2404180058). The NTIA hearing will happen May 15.
The House on Friday voted 316-94 to advance a foreign aid package, setting up a Saturday vote on four bills, including one that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok.
Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., said during a Thursday Punchbowl News event he will “very shortly” roll out a resolution aimed at allowing 5G innovation in the U.S. to “continue” amid uncertainty about when Congress will restore the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. “There is incredible interest from my colleagues” in both parties for the resolution, he said. Joyce remains hopeful that Congress still has a chance to renew the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority “by the end of the year” despite more than a year of stalled progress in talks aimed at reauthorizing the mandate as part of a broader legislative package (see 2404110059). Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others are shopping new spectrum proposals in hopes of jump-starting the talks (see 2403210063). Restoring the FCC’s authority not only is positive … for anyone who logs on, it’s positive for industry because competition can continue to occur,” said Joyce, a House Communications Subcommittee member. “It’s what’s needed worldwide so that we can” be as dominant on 5G as the U.S. was with 4G. “We’re gonna lose out to China if we don’t have that reauthorization.” He pointed to enactment of his 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act in late December to give the FCC temporary authority to issue 2.5 GHz band licenses that T-Mobile and others won in a 2022 auction (see 2312200061) as an example of Congress being able to quickly move on airwaves issues when necessary. “We have a very short window … to get this completed,” Joyce said.