The House Small Business Committee plans a broadband hearing Wednesday at 1 p.m., a committee spokesman confirmed Thursday. Small businesses are expected to testify on how broadband creates jobs and helps the economy.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress divided sharply on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to cement the commission’s broadband authority. (See separate story in this issue.) Democrats stood by the FCC chairman, while Republicans accused him of partisanship. The GOP called reclassification -- even lightly applied -- a mistake. House and Senate Commerce Committee Chairmen Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., urged Genachowski on Wednesday to pursue “all viable options,” including reclassification (CD May 6 p1).
The House Commerce Committee approved a prepaid calling card bill by voice vote at a Wednesday markup. HR-3993, sponsored by Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., would require disclosure of provider information, the card’s number of minutes or dollar value, per-minute rates, fees and charges, time period limits and expiration dates, and refund and recharge policies. It would also require the FTC to prosecute violations. A manager’s amendment passed by voice vote Wednesday makes a technical edit to give the FTC “flexibility to limit the required disclosures on advertising and promotional material,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. “Many calling cards today have numerous hidden costs and fail to deliver the full number of advertised minutes.” The bill is the result of bipartisan work and would “prevent fraud and abuse in the prepaid calling card industry” and “provide consumers with accurate and understandable information about rates, fees, terms, and conditions,” he said. Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, backed the bill: “Consumers should not have to draw a flow chart to know how many minutes they'll actually get on a prepaid calling card.”
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski knows how to cement the commission’s authority over broadband without reclassifying it under Title II of the Communications Act, a senior commission official said late Wednesday in an e-mail sent to reporters by an agency spokeswoman. He won’t say what it is until Thursday, the spokeswoman told us. The e-mail came a few hours after Democratic Commerce Committee leaders urged the FCC to consider “all viable options,” including reclassifying broadband, in the wake of the Comcast decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The House Communications Subcommittee may hold a broadband adoption hearing on May 13, industry officials said Monday. The hearing would be the latest in a series on the National Broadband Plan. A subcommittee spokeswoman didn’t comment.
A draft version of long-awaited privacy legislation by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., would require more notification of consumers before collection of personal information. The bill would also expand FTC authority over online advertising practices. Boucher and Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., worked together on the draft and unveiled it Tuesday. Industry groups may raise concerns about the burden to comply, said Kristen Mathews, a privacy attorney with Proskauer.
A discussion draft of privacy legislation by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., will be circulated for comment Tuesday, Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said in a written statement Monday. The draft “most likely” will surface Tuesday morning, agreed a separate House staffer. Stearns said he worked with Boucher on the long-awaited bill. “Although I do not support all of the provisions in the draft, I look forward to getting back comments to improve the bill and then hopefully advance it through the committee process,” he said. Stearns said the draft bill was “based upon earlier privacy legislation” that he developed in the 109th (2005-07) Congress -- the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, which was introduced but never passed.
The House is thinking about letting its members use Skype to connect with constituents. But the VoIP service will have to pass a security test first. At Republican leaders’ urging, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., this week asked the House Administration Committee and the chamber’s chief administrative officer to look into the matter. “The Speaker wants Members to be able to use the latest technologies to communicate with their constituents,” said a spokesman. Pelosi asked the committee and the administrative officer “to further explore whether Skype can be utilized in a manner that will not compromise the House information security infrastructure and policies that were implemented in 2006.” Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio was one of six top House Republicans who signed a letter to Pelosi and Administration Committee Chairman Robert Brady, D-Pa., on the subject April 19. “Under current House rules … lawmakers wishing to communicate with their constituents by video are forced to spend considerable taxpayer funds to rent teleconferencing equipment that employs older technology because they are barred from using Skype and similar state-of-the-art tools, which are virtually free,” he said. “As many businesses have discovered, Skype can be used safely on enterprise networks, such as those used by the Members of Congress,” said Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s senior director of government and regulatory affairs.
A Universal Service Fund revamp and additional public funding are needed to bring broadband to small businesses and encourage adoption, top government and broadband industry officials said Tuesday. At a hearing of the Senate Small Business Committee, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said high prices, sparse availability and low digital literacy are the largest barriers keeping broadband from small businesses. And NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling called continued funding in fiscal 2011 critical to ensuring a successful broadband stimulus program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., is “making progress” on introducing his universal service fund bill and marking it up in the subcommittee, he said. The bill still has “a ways to go,” the House Communications Subcommittee chairman told us Monday. “We're looking for ways to control” the cost and size of the USF, while maintaining sufficient funding for rural carriers that depend on fund payments, he said. The bill is to be co-sponsored by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb.