The FCC will take a series of steps to reestablish the commission's net neutrality framework and reclassify broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Communications Act Title II telecom service in a declaratory ruling and order (see 2404030043). A draft of the items to be considered during the agency's April meeting, released Thursday, would establish "broad" and "tailored" forbearance for ISPs. The draft doesn’t make a final determination on how network slicing should be treated under the rules.
The Tennessee Senate voted 30-0 for a broadband reporting bill Monday. SB-2907 would require state and federal broadband grant recipients to list unserved areas where they plan to deploy high-speed internet using government cash, and to say when they aim to have service in those places. The House Commerce Committee took no action on the cross-filed HB-2910 at a Tuesday meeting.
Advocates of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe funding for both priorities remains available this year, despite Congress having omitted funding in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package enacted last week (see 2403210067). Program backers acknowledge funding will be more difficult as the FY24 package was their best opportunity. They also admit appropriations politics will only prove trickier with Capitol Hill hunkering down for the 2024 election campaign.
House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., said Wednesday she’s not running for reelection in November. “I always said I was not going to stay in Congress forever,” said Kuster, who chairs the centrist New Democrat Coalition. “I will continue serving the people of New Hampshire until the end of my term in January 2025. In the months ahead, I will use my time to help Congress build on the progress we have made and finish the job for the American people.” The six-term legislator is one of four House Communications members not seeking reelection. The others are John Curtis, R-Utah, and California Democrats Tony Cardenas and Anna Eshoo. Other House Commerce Committee members retiring after this Congress include panel Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. (see 2402080063), and Vice Chairman Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D.
Rising opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion policies puts the latest iteration of the Communications, Equity and Diversity Council in a difficult position, said several CEDC members Wednesday during the group’s first meeting under its new charter. “We have always been challenged in our work, but I cannot remember a time that we have been so challenged,” said former FCC Commissioner Henry Rivera, who has served on every FCC diversity committee dating to the 1980s.
The Missouri Senate Commerce Committee supported extending the sunset date for the state’s 2018 small-cells law to Dec. 31, 2029, from Jan. 1, 2025. The committee voted 9-0 for SB-1411 at a livestreamed hearing Tuesday. The 2018 law preempted local governments on right of way in an effort to streamline 5G infrastructure deployment. The House has a similar bill, HB-1995. The Senate panel also heard testimony on HB-2057, which would explicitly exempt streaming content providers from paying video franchise fees. The House passed the bill Feb. 29 (see 2402290065). The Senate committee last month OK’d the Senate version, SB-947. Dish Network, DirecTV and Netflix lobbyists supported HB-2057, while the Missouri Municipal League and others representing cities opposed the measure. No regular constituents have ever testified for the bill, said Korein Tillery attorney Steve Berezney, who said he represented cities involved in litigation to collect fees from streamers. "This is something that is being pushed by the industry." Also at the Commerce Committee meeting, AT&T, Missouri Cable Telecommunications Association and other ISPs supported SB-1018, which would require the state or municipalities to reimburse internet and video service providers whenever they require them to relocate their infrastructure. Sponsor Sen. Justin Brown (R) proposed an amendment to match the bill’s language with the House’s HB-2056. At a meeting Monday, the House Fiscal Review Committee voted 7-0 to clear HB-2142, which would provide a tax deduction for broadband grant funds for 2022 and later tax years.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone (N.J.), Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui (Calif.) and 10 other subpanel Democrats urged NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson Tuesday "to continue to prioritize affordability in your administration of" the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program as the agency reviews states' plans for the money. The Democrats wrote Davidson days after Congress approved the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package without hoped-for stopgap money for the FCC's affordable connectivity program or Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403210067). "Access to internet service is meaningless to consumers if the cost of signing up is a barrier,” the lawmakers said in their letter. “Studies show that nearly half of all broadband non-adopters cited cost as the primary reason they did not have home internet service." The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which created ACP and BEAD, "includes separate affordability provisions that are specific to the BEAD program," the lawmakers said: "Congress decided to allocate BEAD funds to states and territories since they are best situated to determine the needs of their communities, but it did not change any existing authority to oversee broadband or pricing." NTIA has "administrative oversight and programmatic support responsibilities to ensure the funds would be spent consistent with Congressional intent, including the review and approval of proposals after significant consultation between the state or territory and NTIA," the Democrats said. "These are critical procedures for NTIA to follow in determining whether low-cost plans are in fact affordable for the areas and markets where they are proposed." It "would be a significant missed opportunity in the administration of BEAD if these affordability provisions are not exercised to their fullest to help middle-class and low-income Americans afford the cost of internet service, consistent with the statute," the lawmakers said. Congressional Republicans have criticized NTIA's reviews of state plans' affordability provisions as a form of rate regulation (see 2312180063).
Vermont could be the first state to include a private right of action in a comprehensive privacy bill. The Vermont House voted 139-0 Friday to approve H-121, which would allow individuals to sue in privacy cases and give the state's attorney general an enforcement role. The bill will go next to the Senate. Initially, the House Commerce Committee decided not to advance H-121 in 2023 after members determined it needed work (see 2304060060). But on Thursday, lawmakers amended the bill, teeing up H-121 for a Friday vote. The Commerce Committee considered privacy testimony for four years to draft a “protective but largely technology-and industry-neutral proposal,” Rep. Monique Priestley (D) said. The amended bill would align with privacy laws in Connecticut and many other states, taking some features from each, Priestley added. Some would be “unique to Vermont,” including the private right of action and restrictions on “how businesses may use data to what is consistent with the reasonable expectations of consumers,” she said. For the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the “private right of action is our main point of concern with the bill's current language,” said CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender: “The bill otherwise is largely harmonized with existing privacy frameworks” like Connecticut’s. Private rights of action in state laws such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act “have resulted in plaintiffs advancing frivolous claims with little evidence of actual injury,” Boender said. No other comprehensive privacy bill has a broad private right of action, though the California Consumer Privacy Act has a narrower one, said Husch Blackwell privacy attorney David Stauss. Whether it survives the Vermont Senate is an open question, he said. "I certainly expect that there will be significant pushback."
Recent House legislation attempting to force ByteDance to divest TikTok raises constitutional issues and doesn’t address broader privacy concerns, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., told reporters Thursday, creating a bipartisan roadblock in the upper chamber.
Senate Commerce Committee Democrats and Republicans who back allocating an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and stopgap funding for the commission’s ailing affordable connectivity program used a Thursday spectrum-focused hearing (see 2403210063) to vent about the Hill's failure thus far to address either priority. The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending bill, which congressional leaders released early Thursday morning as an amendment to legislative vehicle HR-2882, as expected (see 2403190062) includes neither ACP nor rip-and-replace funding.