The House passed the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731) Thursday on a 355-63 vote, confirming industry lobbyists’ expectations that the Department of Homeland Security-centric bill would be the more popular of the two cybersecurity information sharing bills that faced -- and, as expected, passed -- House scrutiny this week (see 1504200047). The House passed the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560) Wednesday 307-116 (see 1504220066).
The House passed the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560) Wednesday on a 307-116 vote, the first of two cybersecurity information sharing bills the House was to consider this week. HR-1560 would offer liability protections for information sharing to many federal agencies except the Department of Defense and the NSA. The National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731), set for a House vote Thursday, would establish the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center as the main federal civilian hub for information sharing. Industry lobbyists said earlier this week that they believed both bills were likely to pass (see 1504200047).
Major tech companies reported mixed Q1 lobbying spending in filings due Monday -- Google and several other companies reported significant increases, while Facebook and Microsoft reported year-over-year spending declines. Industry groups generally reported year-over-year decreases in their lobbying spending, though some groups reported steady spending. Other telecom and tech sector stakeholders reported similarly mixed lobbying results, with both Sprint and T-Mobile saying in their filings that they spent less on lobbying during Q1 this year than the previous year (see 1504200042).
Prospects remain good for two cybersecurity information sharing bills to pass the House later this week, but there’s still potential for a contentious debate over privacy and liability protection aspects of the bills, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us. The House is expected to vote on the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560) on Wednesday and the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731) on Thursday, said the office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. The House Intelligence Committee-passed HR-1560 focuses on private sector sharing with U.S. intelligence agencies, while the House Homeland Security Committee-passed HR-1731 would establish the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center as the main federal civilian hub for information sharing. Both bills contain liability protection for companies that participate in the sharing programs the bills would establish.
The Fair Play Fair Pay Act (HR-1733) is likely to play a major role in the House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing copyright law review, but its chances of success past the committee level remain questionable despite a push to neutralize arguments against the bill, industry lawyers told us. House Judiciary IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the bill Monday (see 1504130056). HR-1733 would require most terrestrial radio stations to begin paying performance royalties and would require digital broadcasters to begin paying royalties for pre-1972 sound recordings. The bill would also require satellite broadcasters to pay royalties at market rates.
Telecom and tech industry executives said the federal government should address issues that executives believe will be fundamental to the tech sector’s continued growth, including cybersecurity, privacy and patent reform. The federal government “needs to adjust dramatically” on those issues and do so at a faster pace than they have in the past, said Cisco CEO John Chambers during a joint 1776-TechNet event Wednesday.
The House Homeland Security Committee unanimously approved the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731) Tuesday, making it the third cybersecurity information sharing bill passed out of a House or Senate committee since the beginning of the year. Leaders of the House and Senate Homeland Security and Intelligence committees have said they want a combined bill that marries elements of HR-1731, the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560) and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754). HR-1560 and S-754 are companion bills that focus on information sharing between the private sector and the U.S. intelligence community, while HR-1731 focuses on establishing the Department of Homeland Security and its National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) as the main portal for private sector-to-government cyber information sharing. An industry lobbyist told us the House intends to vote on HR-1560 by April 23, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Tuesday that S-754 is among a set of bills he wants to bring up for a full Senate vote “in the near future.”
California Public Utilities Commissioner Mike Florio’s filing Friday suggesting the CPUC reject the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal further unsettles the commission’s review of the merger, industry observers in the state told us. Florio said in his alternate proposed decision rejecting the deal (see 1504100049) that Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer’s proposed decision approving Comcast/TWC with 25 conditions (see 1502170059) can’t effectively mitigate “adverse consequences” posed by the merger. Comcast “does not have a good record of abiding” by CPUC-imposed conditions and the company has contested all 25 conditions in the Bemesderfer draft, Florio said.
House Judiciary IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., plan to officially introduce the Fair Play Fair Pay Act Monday during an event sponsored by artist advocacy group musicFIRST. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., is the bill's other co-sponsor. The bill’s provisions are likely to reflect the provisions Nadler highlighted during a Recording Academy event in February, when he discussed his plans to introduce an omnibus package of previous music licensing legislation aimed at expanding the payments of performance royalties, music industry experts and attorneys said in interviews Friday. Broadcasters and digital media groups, which have opposed attempts to extend performance royalty requirements, said they don’t believe the bill is likely to advance further than previous attempts to address the issue.
The Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force’s March 13 request for comment on possible cybersecurity issues the IPTF should address through multistakeholder work is a continuation of its earlier work on cybersecurity issues, industry stakeholders told us. The IPTF’s reopening of its cybersecurity work shows that Commerce is seeking ways to explore cyber items not directly addressed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework, stakeholders said. NIST is one of the federal agencies that the IPTF comprises. The IPTF said in its request for comment (see 1503160059), published in the March 19 Federal Register, that it seeks input from industry stakeholders on cyber-related topics that veer away from securing critical infrastructure sectors while also complementing federal initiatives like the NIST framework that focus on those sectors. Comments are due May 18 (see 1503190059).