Minnesota legislators on Wednesday advanced an age-appropriate design bill modeled after a California law that was recently deemed unconstitutional.
Florida senators unanimously supported joining other states that designate mobile phone providers as eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) for the federal Lifeline program. On the floor Wednesday, senators voted 37-0 to pass a bill (SB-478) that would transfer wireless ETC designation powers from the FCC to the Florida Public Service Commission. Later, senators debated a bill (HB-1) that would override parents and ban all kids younger than 16 from getting social media accounts.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Wednesday he and other supporters of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program are seeking stopgap funding for an FY 2024 omnibus appropriations package in a bid to keep the endangered initiative running. Meanwhile, ex-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and eight other former commission heads said congressional leaders should “act swiftly” and appropriate up to $15 billion for next-generation 911 tech upgrades. President Joe Biden last year sought $6 billion in stopgap ACP money and $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program as part of a supplemental appropriations request but didn’t mention NG-911 (see 2310250075).
NTIA is inappropriately trying to set prices in Virginia through the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program by demanding that the state put a specific rate on low-cost plans, former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly blogged Friday. “Despite repeated public reassurances by [Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo] and select staff that BEAD implementation would reject setting specific broadband rates -- an act prohibited by provisions of the infrastructure law -- that’s exactly what is this underhanded attempt is all about,” the Republican wrote. “Contrary to claims being made, setting a price is ratemaking. And by putting Virginia’s application in purgatory, Secretary Raimondo is trying to bend the state to Commerce’s will.” NTIA and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development didn’t comment.
House Communications Subcommittee members were universally positive about the Future Uses of Technology Upholding Reliable and Enhancing Networks Act (HR-1513) and four other communications network security bills during a Thursday hearing. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and other lawmakers used the hearing to continue the drumbeat for Congress to allocate an additional $3.08 billion to close a funding shortfall for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, as expected (see 2402140055). Several Democrats touted the stopgap funding push for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program (see 2402130074) as another priority for securing U.S. networks.
Witnesses set to testify during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday (see 2402090072) want lawmakers to consider longer-term initiatives for curbing China’s risk to U.S. communications networks. The push for Congress to allocate an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2401240001) will likely receive attention during the hearing, as it has in other recent panels, lobbyists said. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
NOAA'S Office of Space Commerce (OSC) expects it will have some form of a civil and commercial space situational awareness (SSA) service available by year's end, according to OSC Director Richard DalBello. DOD is in the midst of a phased handover of civil and commercial SSA oversight to OSC, stemming from the White House's 2018 space policy directive on space traffic management (see 21806180028). Designed to be slow and deliberate, that transition will be complete within five years, DalBello said Wednesday in a Washington Space Business Roundtable talk.
Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929) GOP co-sponsor Rep. Marc Molinaro of New York acknowledged Tuesday that Republican opponents of stopgap funding for ACP are an impediment, but one the bill’s backers can overcome. HR-6929 and Senate companion S-3565 would allocate $7 billion for ACP, keeping it alive through FY 2024 (see 2401100056). The FCC froze ACP enrollments last week in keeping with procedures for winding down the program absent more federal funding.
Emergency communications bills advanced in multiple states last week. Thursday in Wisconsin, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-2 to approve SB-890 with a slight wording change. The full Senate could soon vote on the bill, which would require wireless providers to provide device location information to law enforcement without a warrant if the subscriber consents, if the provider believes disclosure could prevent a person’s death or injury or if the provider receives a written law enforcement request stating that disclosure is needed to respond to an emergency call or situation involving possible death or serious physical injury. The bill would give wireless providers immunity from criminal liability for such disclosures. Providers already have immunity from civil liability. In Hawaii, the Senate Government Operations Committee voted 3-0 Thursday to approve a bill (SB-3028) that would remove the term “enhanced” from state 911 law so that Hawaii can fund future 911 technologies. The Senate bill next needs approval from the Commerce and Ways and Means committees. The South Dakota Senate scheduled a second reading for Monday on the House-passed HB-1092, which would increase the state 911 fee on monthly phone bills to $2, from $1.25. The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared it Thursday (see 2402080071). In Washington state, the Senate voted 48-0 Thursday for SB-6308 to extend timelines for implementing the 988 mental health hotline, including providing the state health department 18 additional months to develop the technology platform (see 2402050049). The Senate also voted 31-18 that day for SB-5838, establishing an AI task force. Both Washington bills will go to the House.
The Virginia House Commerce Committee cleared a pole-attachments bill (HB-800) in a 22-0 vote Thursday. Under a committee substitute, the bill would regulate how public utilities handle attachment requests. A pole owner would have to determine within 15 business days if an application is complete. If the owner decides it’s incomplete, the attacher could resubmit the application and receive a response within seven business days. Within 75 days of receiving a complete request, the utility would have to decide whether to grant or deny the application and survey affected poles. HB-800 would bar a public utility from making a telecom or cable provider pay the cost of replacing a red-tagged pole, meaning a pole that is “designated for replacement for any reason unrelated to a lack of capacity to accommodate a new attacher's request for attachment or … would have needed to be replaced at the time of replacement even if the new attachment was not made.” Telecom and cable providers would have to pay “the incremental cost of a taller or stronger pole that is necessitated solely by the new” telecom or cable facilities. Also, HB-800 would require the Virginia State Corporation Commission to resolve pole-access disputes, including allocation of rearrangement costs, within 90 days, and to resolve other pole attachment issues within 120 days.