Congressional Republicans have remained relatively quiet about the FCC’s draft net neutrality order since Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released it earlier this month (see 2404030043) but are likely to become more active in opposition when the commission adopts it as expected next week, lawmakers and observers said in interviews. Congressional Democrats have been comparatively active since the draft’s release, including sending Rosenworcel suggestions aimed at preventing loopholes that ISPs could use to circumvent regulation. Congressional Democrats highlighted that divergence in style Thursday by bringing Rosenworcel to Capitol Hill for a news conference that amounted to a preemptive victory lap ahead of the FCC’s April 25 vote on the order.
Congress should eliminate the FCC’s data breach notification authority and instead allow the FTC to regulate through a federal privacy law, a privacy-focused telecom association told House Commerce Committee members Wednesday (see 2404160034).
The Consumer Technology Association looks forward to working with congressional committees to pass a federal privacy law, CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement Monday. CTA “appreciates” the American Privacy Rights Act, a “bipartisan, bicameral effort to pass a federal data privacy law to protect consumers’ personal information,” he said. The organization supports a “national privacy standard that preempts state laws, providing legal clarity for companies to operate and consistent protections across state borders for consumers.” CTA didn’t address the bill’s private right of action provision. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has said he won’t “support any data privacy bill that empowers trial lawyers” and that the APRA has “no chance” of passing (see 2404080062 and 2404150059). Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., are moving forward with committee deliberation. A House Commerce Committee legislative hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. It’s “possible” Senate Commerce will hold a legislative hearing, but there will definitely be a markup “at some point,” Cantwell’s senior counsel on the committee, Shannon Smith, said Monday. Cantwell and Rodgers began negotiating in late December, said Smith. The senator didn’t support the House Commerce Committee’s previous privacy bill, the American Data Privacy Protection Act, largely because its private right of action provision allowed companies to address claims through arbitration, said Smith. It was important for Cantwell to prohibit forced arbitration in the APRA, she said.
The House Commerce Committee said Tuesday it plans an April 30 hearing on a revised draft version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. The move represents an apparent reversal in panel Republicans' position on the measure, which would mandate U.S. automakers keep AM radio technology in future domestic-made vehicles, given they voiced skepticism about a previous iteration (HR-3413/S-1669) earlier in this Congress (see 2401050065). The AM radio bill's backers within and outside the broadcast industry pointed to the hearing announcement as a sign of momentum but stopped short of labeling it an indication House leaders had reached a clear-cut deal to ease the measure's passage through the lower chamber.
Privacy legislation proposed by Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has "no chance of passing," ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us last week. Cantwell said she supports the bill as written and is encouraged to see the House Commerce Committee moving toward a markup on the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA).
Illinois counties could lease or license fiber and other broadband infrastructure for delivery of high-speed internet under a bill the state's Senate approved unanimously Friday. After Senate passage, the bill (SB-3173) arrived in the House. Senators voted 59-0 for an amended bill that would allow counties to lease to public or private entities so long as they do so “on a nondiscriminatory, nonexclusive, and competitively neutral basis” and the county complies with safety codes and all other state and federal laws. The bill's original version would have let counties and municipalities sell local broadband service as a retail provider by obtaining a telecom carrier certificate from the Illinois Commerce Commission.
A reshuffle of the House Appropriations Committee’s leadership has shifted Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, to be Financial Services Subcommittee chairman, new panel Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Thursday night. The subcommittee handles federal funding for the FCC and FTC. Former Financial Services lead Steve Womack, R-Ark., now heads the Transportation Subcommittee. Cole took the House Appropriations gavel last week, replacing now-former Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas. Cole said Friday that Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to end advance federal funding for CPB as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069), will remain chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., will continue to chair the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is pressing the Commerce Department over NOAA’s proposal for creating the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of central California amid concerns over “new regulatory impediments” to permitting undersea fiber cable installations in that area. He noted NTIA’s role in implementing $48.2 billion in connectivity money from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and contrasted that with NOAA’s evaluation of the Chumash NMS, which “envisions adding additional layers of dated bureaucratic red tape to the existing permitting process.” NOAA has acknowledged “‘several U.S. agencies have legal authority to regulate the laying and maintenance of cables off our nation’s shores,’ in addition to state regulatory requirements,” Comer said Friday in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “Despite NOAA’s admission,” the 2011 undersea cable permitting policy the agency “proposes to use for the permitting of undersea internet cables in the Chumash Heritage NMS … has been so onerous that the Committee could not identify a single example of a new undersea communications cable deployed in an NMS governed under the policy.” Some “of the designated NMS sites across the U.S. protect areas that undersea cables might seek to simply avoid,” but “the proposed designation of the Chumash Heritage NMS would fill the last gap off the California coast already utilized by numerous cables for trans-Pacific connectivity,” Comer said: “Substantial cost increases for internet infrastructure connecting the U.S. West Coast to Asia and U.S. Pacific territories, delays, and new maintenance restrictions created by imposition of the 2011 permitting guidance under the Chumash Heritage NMS designation, if left unaddressed, will seemingly occur if NOAA moves forward without mitigating onerous requirements that empower bureaucrats but offer little benefit to marine environments.” NOAA “has proposed substantial revisions to its Chumash Heritage NMS designation as a concession to facilitate undersea electrical cables for offshore wind energy projects” but has “invested little time or effort into analyzing the impact of the designation on existing and potential future use of areas for undersea fiber-optic cables,” he said. Comer pressed Commerce to brief House Oversight about how NOAA and NTIA evaluated the Chumash designation’s impact on undersea cables. NOAA “will review the letter and answer the congressman through official channels,” a spokesperson emailed us.
The House on Friday voted to renew the intelligence community’s foreign surveillance authority for two years (see 2404100069). The vote was 273-147, with 147 Democrats and 126 Republicans in favor. An amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act narrowly failed 212-212, with 128 Republicans and 84 Democrats voting in favor.
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said Thursday she has appointed Rep. Randy Weber (Texas) as Communications Subcommittee vice chair. The post has been vacant since former Vice Chair Buddy Carter (Ga.) relinquished it in January to become Environment Subcommittee chairman (see 2402290054). Weber was among nine Republicans who joined House Commerce last year (see 2301110046). Rodgers also slightly reshuffled House Commerce subcommittees’ GOP rosters. Mariannette Miller Meeks (Iowa) joined House Communications, while Troy Balderson (Ohio) is leaving the subpanel. John James (Mich.) and Jay Obernolte (Calif.) will join the Innovation Subcommittee, while Rick Allen (Ga.) and Greg Pence (Ind.) will leave the subpanel. The reshuffling follows the January departure (see 2401020056) of former House Communications member Bill Johnson, R-Ohio.