A glut of definitions for “rural” can complicate the process of applying for broadband grants and loans, federal officials acknowledged Monday. "The government doesn't make it easy by having some sort of universal definition," said NTIA External Affairs Director Aimee Meacham, moderating a panel on broadband financing at NTIA’s Digital Northwest regional broadband summit in Seattle (see 1603210049). Carol Mattey, deputy chief of the FCC Wireline Bureau, said: "There's more than 20 definitions of rural in federal funding programs. Even within the universal service funding programs themselves, we have different definitions for one program versus another, and it's very arcane." Keith Adams, Rural Utilities Service assistant administrator, noted differences in the definition of rural among programs at RUS. While “traditional” RUS programs define rural as communities with 5,000 or fewer people, the Farm Bill Broadband Loan Program defines rural as communities with 20,000 people or fewer, he said.
Varying state laws may impede sharing of electronic health records (EHR), an official from the Department of Health and Human Services told a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said the problem could “jeopardize someone’s health" and asked if legislation is needed. The FTC backs legislation to bolster the agency’s consumer protection authority, a commission official told the joint hearing of the Information Technology Subcommittee and the Health Care, Benefits and Administrative Rules Subcommittee.
The federal government can do more to promote municipal broadband for local communities, some local government officials said Monday at the Digital Northwest regional broadband summit in Seattle. City, state and federal government officials shared regional strategies to expand broadband deployment and adoption. Meanwhile, NTIA released data showing some improvement to Internet adoption by underserved demographics.
The Senate Agriculture Committee unveiled a fresh Farm Bill Friday, including $50 million per year for the Rural Broadband Loan Program operated by the Rural Utilities Service. Congress must pass a Farm Bill every five years -- the current law expires at the end of 2012. Also last week, Agriculture Committee member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced the Connecting Rural America Act, which would reauthorize the program but provide only $20 million annually. Rural telecom companies hailed the Brown bill, aimed at further expanding broadband access to small, remote, and high poverty communities.
NTIA would receive $45.6 million in FY 2013 under a House appropriations bill approved Thursday. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science adopted the appropriations bill by voice vote. The amount for NTIA is $1.4 million less than President Barack Obama and the subcommittee’s Senate counterpart proposed (CD April 18 p11). But it’s the same as the FY 2012 enacted level for NTIA. The total bill for Commerce, Justice and Science was $51.1 billion, down $1.6 billion from the FY 2012 enacted level and $731 million below Obama’s request. It provides $7.7 billion total for the Commerce Department, $96 million more than the FY 2012 level. The FY 2013 appropriations bill places a “greater focus” on cybersecurity, said the House subcommittee’s Chairman Frank Wolf, R-Va. “It includes a significant focus on expanding the FBI’s cyber-security efforts and on protecting U.S. networks from foreign espionage and cyber-attacks,” he said. The bill provides funding for cybersecurity research and development. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would receive $830 million, $4 million more than the Senate proposal and $79 million more than the FY 2012 level. The National Science Foundation got $7.3 billion, which is $299 million more than the FY 2012 level but $41 million below Obama’s request. Also Thursday, the full Senate Appropriations Committee voted 28-1 to approve the Commerce bill approved by its subcommittee Tuesday"This bill makes our country safer and economy stronger by investing in cybersecurity, cyber workforce development and cyber jobs,” said Chair Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science. “Investments in the 2013 CJS spending bill will help create jobs in cybersecurity that will never leave this country.” The bill next moves to the Senate floor, but no date for consideration has been set.
The government takes an outdated approach to Internet policymaking, said panelists at an Information Technology & Innovation Foundation event Wednesday. Policymakers should target regulation to areas where consumers are vulnerable and there’s market failure, said Anna-Maria Kovacs, visiting senior policy scholar at the Georgetown Center for Business and Policy. Regulation should focus on “targeted situations” like high-cost rural areas and low-income consumers, she said. Kovacs cited a “tremendous amount of competition at all levels of the broadband ecosystem.” Regulators are still treating the market like 1996 when the Telecom Act was passed and landline was still dominant, she said. Consumers are now “mixing and matching” platforms and technologies rather than choosing one over another, she said. For example, only 45 percent of households today have a landline connection, and many of them mostly use wireless for calls, she said. Internet policymakers should use antitrust enforcement rather than regulation, said Jonathan Sallet, an antitrust attorney at O'Melveny and Meyers. He said antitrust focuses on what’s happening today rather than what happened yesterday, and case-by-case adjudications force government to consider current facts specific to the situation. Along similar lines, all statutes and rules should be time-limited to force government to rethink them periodically, he said. “I don’t think it’s possible to develop rigid prescriptive rules.”
A House panel urged more efficient use of spectrum to prevent a “crunch” caused by accelerating consumer demand. In a hearing Wednesday afternoon by the House Science Subcommittee on Technology Chairman Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., urged continued research and development, as well as a critical review of regulations. But witnesses for CTIA and Cisco said improving efficiency is no substitute for reallocating government spectrum.
NTIA would receive $47 million in FY 2013 under a Senate appropriations bill approved Tuesday afternoon. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science adopted the appropriations bill by a 17-1 vote. The amount for NTIA is the same as what President Barack Obama requested and about $1.5 million more than what the agency is estimated to receive in the current fiscal year. The total bill for Commerce, Justice and Science was $51.86 billion, down $1 billion from the FY 2012 enacted level. It provides $6.3 billion total for the Commerce Department, $1.5 billion below the FY 2012 level. The National Institute of Standards and Technology got $826 million, up $75 million from the FY 2012 level. Subcommittee Chair Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., urged the Commerce Department to be “cyber obsessed,” in an appropriations hearing last month (CD March 23 p16). The subcommittee’s House counterpart plans to mark up its own Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bills Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Room H-140, Capitol Building.
The FCC should carefully consider broadcaster concerns as the commission moves forward with an order requiring public political files to be posted online, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday. Speaking at a Catholic University conference, Clyburn outlined an agenda for the rest of the year including work on spectrum, USF reform and accessibility. Clyburn and a later wireless industry panel urged rules to spur competition in the mobile market.
Collaboration on cybersecurity inside and outside the U.S. is key to securing cyberspace globally, administration and international officials said Tuesday at a Georgetown University conference. White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt urged all agencies of the U.S. government to work together to enhance the nation’s cybersecurity posture. Defense and State department officials told a later panel that all nations must work together to stabilize cyberspace.