FCC nominees may have moved one step closer to Senate confirmation after the House Commerce Committee on Friday shared the FCC’s LightSquared documents with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley was blocking votes on Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai until he got the documents, but the senator’s hold “stands pending document review,” a Grassley spokeswoman said: The senator “appreciates receiving the documents, and he and his staff look forward to reviewing them.” Grassley and the committee “are continuing to work together, and we will have additional updates to share as we assess the information that has been delivered and what additional documents are needed for our investigations,” a House Commerce spokeswoman said. The committee isn’t yet publicly releasing the LightSquared documents, which amount to more than 13,000 pages (CD March 29 p1), she said. It’s up to House Commerce when to release the documents, the Grassley spokeswoman said. The documents comprise communications among the FCC, White House and LightSquared investor Harbinger.
Achieving interoperability among public safety communications systems is “an ongoing issue and problem” that “continues to evolve” with technology, said Amanda Hilliard, a branch chief at the Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) under the Homeland Security Department. “As soon as we declare it done and stop investing the resources, we potentially lose all the great work that’s been done so far,” she said Wednesday at the FOSE conference. OEC is working with the FCC and the Commerce and Justice departments to implement spectrum legislation, Hilliard said. OEC has a coordinating role on the interoperability board at the FCC, which aims to finish technical requirements by a May deadline, she said. NTIA plans by August to launch the First Responder Network Authority to govern the network, as well as a grant program for state and local implementation, she said. Another DHS group, the National Communications System, is also working on implementation of the spectrum legislation, said Michael Echolson, NCS chief of government-industry planning. A scoping group within the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee is “looking at recommendations to the president” to address areas not covered in the spectrum legislation, he said.
It will be a “long journey” before the government reaches true real-time continuous monitoring, an IRS official predicted at the FOSE exposition and conference. But even perfect continuous monitoring won’t be a “silver bullet” against cyber threats, he and other government officials said. “I would definitely say we are not in continuous monitoring right now,” said David Stender, IRS associate chief information officer for cybersecurity and chief information security officer. “We're not even really in dynamic monitoring. But we are at least in monitoring.” Government isn’t “at the point where … everything is monitored [and] I can sit at my desktop and I have the big board that shows me the Star Trek version of how everything is happening at any given time,” Stender said. “It’s just not there yet.” The biggest barrier slowing the process is the culture change in cutting through government bureaucracy and historical ways of doing security, he said. Continuous monitoring is “vitally important” to mitigating threats, said Gregory Wilshusen, director of information security issues at the Government Accountability Office. Stender agreed it’s useful for detecting vulnerabilities but said he’s “leery of continuous monitoring as being seen as a panacea.” Rather, “it just gets us to a better place,” he said. Continuous monitoring is only an effective tool if one acts on its results, Wilshusen agreed. “Continuous monitoring can provide you information … but you have to act.” Monitoring is “just another tool” and it’s “not nirvana today,” said Kevin Deeley, chief information security officer at the Justice Department. “It’s definitely a maturity model that has to grow.”
The FCC should ban cramming on cellphone bills, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday. Cramming is the practice of billing customers -- often on behalf of third parties -- for products or services they either didn’t order or don’t want. Wireless customers should not be charged third-party fees unless they give explicit consent, Schumer said. While the FCC crafts rules, wireless carriers should voluntarily ban the practice, he said. “Cell phone cramming is merely scamming by another name -- it steals money from cell phone users and the FCC and carriers must take prompt action to snuff it out,” he said. Cramming legislation should cover wireless and VoIP, the Consumers Union said Monday. But the wireless and VoIP industries resist extending the rules beyond landline. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., plans to introduce a cramming bill soon but is still working out the details, a committee aide said. In a letter Monday to Rockefeller, Consumers Union said the bill should apply to wireless and VoIP and landline. The group praised recent announcements by AT&T and Verizon to end third-party billing on landline invoices. “But more needs to be done to protect consumers, especially in these tough economic times,” Consumers Union Policy Counsel Parul Desai said. “With more consumers moving away from landline services, it’s imperative that these same protections against unauthorized charges are extended to wireless and VoIP users.” Don’t blame wireless carriers for fraud committed by third parties, CTIA spokesman John Walls replied. “Instead of focusing on the carriers, who, like their customers, are victims of these scammers, the proper focus should be on putting the scammers who are responsible for perpetrating these frauds out of business,” he said. “All major wireless carriers … clearly display charges” for purchases from third parties and provide “a convenient means to challenge any suspect charges,” he said. The VON Coalition didn’t comment but historically has opposed applying cramming rules to interconnected VoIP. In FCC comments from October, VON said the VoIP industry already is “diligent about protecting consumers from unauthorized, third party charges.”
The House Communications Subcommittee plans to work on cybersecurity, broadband stimulus, market competition and spectrum, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said this week. He also expects to do oversight on the national public safety network. He questioned the need for an FCC rule requiring broadcasters to post public files online, as well as legislation to stop employers from asking for Facebook passwords. His comments came in a recorded show scheduled to be shown this weekend on C-SPAN’s The Communicators.
The House Commerce Committee has had “discussions” with the FCC about LightSquared since the committee issued its request for documents about the matter, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. “We look forward to a positive response to our request, and we're just fleshing out … what we're after,” Walden said after a cybersecurity hearing in his subcommittee Wednesday. Committee aide Neil Fried added that the committee has also talked with NTIA and the Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT ExCom). “We're starting to get answers, but as you can imagine there is a lot of information to coordinate,” Fried said.
Industry hailed House passage of FCC process reform legislation (HR-3309), though Senate Democrats have no plans to take up the bill and President Barack Obama opposes it. The House passed the bill late Tuesday in a 247-174 roll-call vote, with most Republicans supporting and most Democrats opposing, as expected (CD March 28 p3). “Passage by the House is a needed step forward, and is also an important signal of support for modernizing telecom regulation,” said AT&T Executive Vice President Tim McKone. “It has become increasingly clear that, for America to have the world-class broadband infrastructure it needs, all of us must rethink outmoded regulations and outdated mindsets.” NCTA President Michael Powell said, “The regulatory framework envisioned by this reform legislation will ensure that private enterprise can continue to invest and innovate with more consistent and precise federal government oversight.” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has made many good changes, but “more can always be done to bring greater transparency to the process and encourage more public input,” the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance said. NARUC praised the bill for requiring the FCC to release specific language in proposed rules for public comment and for letting more than two FCC commissioners meet behind closed doors, including meetings with state officials. NARUC asked the Senate to add language allowing FCC members to appoint an engineer or computer scientist to their staffs. NARUC also seeks changes to the forbearance process so a petition can’t be “deemed granted” when the FCC misses its deadline, it said. The House accepted amendments to HR-3309 related to public safety and emergency response that were offered by Reps. Al Green, D-Texas, and Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., as well as an amendment by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Florida, to make FCC handling of Freedom of Information Act requests more transparent. The House rejected by 179-238 an amendment by House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., to require greater political disclosure by radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers. Republicans also turned down an amendment about rural broadband by Rep. Bill Owens, D-N.Y., an amendment about baby monitor warnings by Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., and an amendment by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., requiring an FCC report before implementation of HR-3309.
House Communications Subcommittee cybersecurity recommendations are imminent, Chairman Greg Walden told reporters. The Oregon Republican had no more cybersecurity hearings planned after Wednesday’s, and has already met with the subcommittee’s cybersecurity working group to review draft recommendations, he said after the hearing. The working group had been expected to issue recommendations by the end of this month or early April (CD March 21 p6).
The House was expected to pass FCC process reform legislation (HR-3309) that has little chance of moving this year in the Senate and is opposed by President Barack Obama. In debate Tuesday, members of the GOP-controlled chamber split by party, with Republicans supporting and Democrats condemning the bill by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. The vote was expected to take place after our deadline.
FCC process reform legislation could be dead on arrival in the Senate, even with House passage seen likely. The House plans to vote Tuesday on HR-3309 by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. But the Senate Commerce Committee majority said it has no plans to take up the bill. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, a Democrat, said the bill “appears likely to [inflict] upon the FCC the unfortunate obstacles to sensible bipartisan decision-making that plague the Congress.”