Democrats dismissed GOP alarm bells over the frequency of White House visits by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (CD March 25 p3) . House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, R-Calif., alleged last week that Genachowski made 81 visits between January 2009 and November 2010, timed near events in the FCC’s net neutrality rulemaking. But in a memo released Monday, Democratic committee staff said Genachowski actually visited the White House 35 times, and many meetings didn’t relate to net neutrality. “Any way you cut it, the claim that Genachowski visited the White House 81 times is a mischaracterization,” they said. Democratic committee staff discovered 76 scheduled White House visits, but said Genachowski didn’t attend 41 of them. Of the remaining 35 events, 17 “are completely unrelated to net neutrality,” including Genachowski’s swearing-in ceremony and 2009’s White House turkey pardoning. Democratic committee staff said it was wrong of Issa to compare Genachowski’s number of visits with that of Cabinet secretaries. Issa said Genachowski’s alleged 81 visits equal the combined number by the secretaries of State, Defense, Energy, Treasury and Homeland Security, but, unlike Genachowski, cabinet secretaries are allowed to skip the usual White House visit registration system, the Democrats said. “The Secretaries attend literally hundreds of meetings with the President and his staff,” the Democrats said. Genachowski had more matters than net neutrality to discuss, added the Democratic committee staff. “The depth and breadth of the agency’s work is substantial, and in any given week, the FCC has numerous high-stakes matters to address,” the Democratic committee staff said in the memo. Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., has no plans at this time to weigh in himself, a spokeswoman said. Issa’s office declined to comment.
Mobile app developers protested the banning of apps that show the location of police DUI traps. Research In Motion blocked apps last week at the request of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and two other Democratic senators (CD March 24 p10) . In a letter Monday to Schumer, Association for Competitive Technology President Jonathan Zuck urged lawmakers to “proceed slowly and consider the implications to the mobile apps ecosystem when regulation and rule of law are abandoned and apps are pulled by government fiat.” Law enforcement bodies are legally required to publish speed-trap data contained in the apps, and “they believe that widespread dissemination of this information effectively serves to reduce speeding and improve traffic safety,” Zuck said. App developers fear that banning the traffic apps could lead to prohibition of other apps that mix government and user-provided information. “What is to stop another member of Congress from demanding the removal of Facebook, Twitter or any number of forums or public discussion sites?” asked Zuck. The plea by ACT failed to win over Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who co-signed the original Senate letter. “We should be utilizing technology to stop drunk[en] driving, not make it easier,” Udall said Monday in a written response. “The apps “are realistically only going to help one person: the driver who has had too much to drink.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wants to know why FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski met with White House officials more times over a 23-month period than the secretaries of State, Defense, Energy, Treasury and Homeland Security combined. In a letter Thursday to Genachowski, the House Oversight Committee chairman said the meetings may show improper White House influence over the FCC’s net neutrality rulemaking. “The FCC has done little to demonstrate its independence from the White House,” Issa said.
The House Communications Subcommittee plans a spectrum hearing April 12, a subcommittee spokeswoman said Wednesday. The hearing on “Using Spectrum to Advance Public Safety, Promote Broadband, Create Jobs, and Reduce the Deficit” is at 1:30 p.m. in Room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building. Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., previewed the hearing in a speech last week (CD March 18 p3).
Google and the New America Foundation took the wraps off a broadband map that displays median download and upload speeds around the world, making use of open, publicly available M-Lab data. “There’s a lot of assertions” about global broadband rankings, “but those are often not very quantitative, so we're very interested in making those more crisp and understandable,” said Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, demonstrating the tool at a New America Foundation event Wednesday. Speakers also discussed broadband usage caps and bandwidth-intensive video apps such as Netflix.
AT&T’s T-Mobile deal raises the stakes for carriers seeking the 700 MHz D-block in a commercial auction, telecom industry officials and observers said Tuesday. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are the only carriers with nationwide 700 MHz holdings. The deal may bolster arguments to increase the spectrum assets of AT&T’s remaining competitors, but it may still be politically difficult for lawmakers to side against public safety, which wants the spectrum reallocated before this year’s 10th anniversary of 9/11, officials said.
Expect more Capitol Hill scrutiny on AT&T and T-Mobile’s merger than was seen for the Comcast-NBC Universal combination, telecom industry lobbyists said. The $39 billion deal could steal attention from spectrum and other telecom issues, they said. The House and Senate Judiciary committees each announced hearings Monday. Neither Commerce Committee announced a hearing, but Democratic members from each have urged close scrutiny of the landmark deal (CD Bulletin March 21).
The Senate Communications Subcommittee may have a spectrum hearing March 30, Capitol Hill and industry officials said. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., has said his subcommittee will have a hearing next month (CD March 18 p3). A slew of overlapping spectrum bills have been referred to the subcommittee, including by Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Mark Warner, D-Va., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., as well as full committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. The wealth of bipartisan interest provides a good opportunity to move forward on spectrum reform, a Senate aide said.
Major wireless carriers said they'll act as quickly as possible to transfer mobile text donations targeted to Japanese relief efforts. In a letter Friday to the CEOs of the four top carriers, Senate Commerce Committee member Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., urged acceleration of the mobile donation process, which can take 30 to 90 days because money isn’t sent until customers pay their monthly bills.
Privacy may be one issue where Democrats and Republicans can find consensus in the House Commerce Committee, “if there’s a willingness to do so,” Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in a speech Thursday to the Consumer Federation of America. Some Republicans are concerned about the issue, and Waxman was also encouraged when the White House on Wednesday signaled it wants Congress to take action (CD March 17 p9). While lawmakers must avoid stifling innovation, it’s important to protect consumers who don’t want their personal browser data tracked and sold, Waxman said. If unchecked, that data could be accessed by the government or used by insurance companies when determining rates and coverage, he said: “The issue boils down to a consumer’s right to know and the consumer’s right to stop this kind of thing from happening.”