The Senate Commerce Committee may have a public safety hearing Sept. 23, an APCO spokeswoman said. It’s expected that the hearing would discuss a bill (S-3756) by Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that would give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety. The committee didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday. A spokeswoman earlier had said the committee was considering a public safety hearing in the fall (CD Aug 25 p2).
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Adam Bender, Deputy Managing Editor for Privacy Daily. Bender leads a team of journalists and reports on state privacy legislation, rulemaking and litigation. In previous roles at Communications Daily, he covered telecom and internet policy in the states, Congress and at the FCC. He has won awards for his reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW). Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of multiple dystopian sci-fi novels. Keep up to date with Bender by reading his blog and following him on social media including Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn.
A markup on Universal Service Fund legislation may still be a ways off, telecom industry officials said after the House Communications Subcommittee set plans for a USF hearing next Thursday. The subcommittee plans to discuss but not mark up HR-5828 by Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., the subcommittee said Thursday. “The hearing could make a potential markup in subcommittee an easier lift,” but “I'm not sure there’s enough days left on the calendar,” said Vice President Paul Raak of the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance. “The hearing will provide a good opportunity for members of Congress and the FCC to hear the broad industry support the legislation has.” Boucher wants a subcommittee markup and probably will try to get one before the mid-term elections recess starting Oct. 8, but it’s unclear if there’s enough time, said another telecom industry official. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Room 2322, Rayburn House Office Building. It’s a hearing rather than a markup because the bill differs from a draft that got a hearing last December, a House staffer said. Getting the legislation to markup remains a priority for Boucher, but no date is set, the staffer said.
Cybersecurity still isn’t a priority for the U.S. government, and it may take a major attack to wake people up, cyberspace experts and industry executives said Thursday at the University of Nebraska College of Law’s Space and Cyber Conference. Some said a cyber attack could potentially cause as much havoc as an atomic bomb, at least in terms of damage to the economy.
Legislation is the best way to dispel uncertainty regarding net neutrality policy, but Congress doesn’t need to act right away, representatives of business associations said on a teleconference Thursday. Congress is unlikely to tackle the issue this year, they said. Policymakers should allow industry talks to continue meanwhile, they said.
Three Democratic co-sponsors of a proposed House resolution calling on Congress to decide the FCC’s regulatory authority over broadband hadn’t before publicly expressed reservations about reclassification. HRes-311 has been signed by 64 members. But 254 House members, including 81 Democrats, have publicly opposed commission reclassification of broadband services under Title II of the Communications Act. Resolution co-sponsors John Boccieri, D-Ohio, John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Ralph Hall, D-Texas, didn’t sign previous letters to the FCC about reclassification. Forty-three senators, including five Democrats, have publicly urged a congressional solution.
Largely dismissing an April plea from the U.S. Copyright Office to cast the Performance Rights Act (HR-848) in a more favorable light, GAO maintained that the bill would raise costs for broadcasters and boost revenue for the recording industry. A GAO report dated August 2010 and released Friday reached the same conclusion as a February preliminary report made public in June. That earlier version had prompted an April rebuke from the Copyright Office (CD June 8 p11).
September is expected to be busy for public safety issues in Washington, but time and funding concerns are working against passing any legislation this year, said public safety and telecom industry officials. Legislation to set up a $70 million NTIA grant competition for public safety communications devices (CD July 30 p5) may have a better shot than bills involving the D-block, they said. The House and Senate have introduced nearly identical bills, HR-5907 and S-3731, sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and neither has generated opposition.
"A well-grounded but flexible governance structure is critical to the future of public safety communications if it is to be national in scope, interoperable, and cost-effective,” said the Congressional Research Service in a report dated Wednesday. But such a governance structure “does not exist,” the Service said. Congress gave the FCC and Department of Homeland Security authority to act on behalf of public safety, but it “would appear that neither agency has the needed depth of experience or resources to develop and deploy a leading-edge broadband network in a timely, cost-efficient manner.” Public safety bills introduced so far would increase the FCC’s powers and responsibilities, placing Homeland Security in an advisory role, the Congressional Research Service said. “Governance of the public safety network at a national level would be dependant almost entirely on the FCC and its willingness to write and enforce regulations.” After 9/11, Congress passed several laws empowering Homeland Security, the service noted. “By choosing to focus on interim solutions, the Department seems to have passed on the opportunity to provide the needed leadership and planning to move public safety toward a next-generation communications network.” An FCC spokesman said the report “missed important aspects that would shed light on the considerable expertise that the FCC brings to this issue.” The report’s author didn’t talk to senior agency officials, he said. However, the paper “affirms much of what the FCC has been calling for over the last six months: a well-grounded, flexible governance system which does not currently exist.” The DHS didn’t comment.
Net neutrality would trade a supporter for an opponent if former HP CEO Carly Fiorina takes the seat of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in this November’s election. Political analysts consider Boxer’s seat to be at risk, and the telecom industry is watching the race closely (CD Aug 20 p5). “Carly opposes net neutrality and thinks government intervention and more regulation will not be helpful where the Internet is concerned,” a Fiorina campaign spokeswoman told us this week. In a speech last week to the Technology Policy Institute, Fiorina said it would be “bad public policy” for the FCC to reclassify broadband transport under Title II of the Communications Act. Meanwhile, a Boxer spokeswoman told us the Senate Commerce Committee member “strongly supports net neutrality and she believes the FCC has a role to play in ensuring an open Internet.” Boxer hasn’t commented specifically on reclassification. Boxer doesn’t plan to comment on that or any other proposal related to the FCC’s broadband authority until they are finalized for FCC rulemaking, a Senate staffer told us. In the 109th and 110th Congresses, Boxer was an original cosponsor of bills by Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, that would have given the FCC enforcement authority over net neutrality principles.
The Commerce Department plans a meeting Wednesday on public safety broadband, an NTIA spokeswoman confirmed. The event, which isn’t a public forum, is “part of an ongoing outreach effort by the Administration to discuss with stakeholders what’s needed in order to develop a nationwide, interoperable wireless broadband network for public safety,” she said. “This meeting in particular will be to learn more about some of the technical requirements necessary for such a network as well as some of the applications today that are being utilized to serve public safety.” The meeting isn’t about the D-block, a source said. Attendees may include the White House Chief Technology Officer, the Commerce and Justice Departments, and senior executives from network operators and broadband vendors, said wireless industry analyst Andrew Seybold in a blog post dated Aug. 23. It doesn’t appear that any public safety officials have been invited, he said.