House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., plans to speak on various technology and telecom topics Sept. 18 during a Hudson Institute event. She will join Robert McDowell, a former Republican FCC commissioner and visiting fellow at Hudson, for a noon-1 p.m. discussion at the institute’s Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center at 1015 15th St. NW. “As net neutrality, the future of Internet governance, and spectrum auctions continue to make headlines, Congresswoman Eshoo is in the middle of it all as a key player,” the Hudson invitation said, saying Eshoo will share her thoughts on those issues (http://bit.ly/1pOLgmH). Earlier this year, McDowell and Eshoo had tried to schedule such a discussion, formerly more focused on net neutrality, but had to postpone on multiple occasions.

The House Small Business Committee is eyeing Sept. 17 for a hearing on FCC matters, a Hill aide told us Thursday, saying it may be at 1 p.m. In the final days of July, the aide had said committee members wanted to hold such a hearing, citing a variety of possible topics, including net neutrality, broadband deployment, media consolidation and universal service policy (CD July 28 p11). Industry officials had told us then that Small Business had invited FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to testify at a September oversight hearing. Small Business hasn’t announced any hearings for that week.

House Democrats, ex-government officials and dozens of technology, civil liberties and media organizations told the White House and Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) they're concerned about surveillance activities authorized under executive order 12333. In a letter sent Aug. 29 and released Tuesday, the group urged the White House to declassify all legal opinions concerning surveillance authorized under 12333. The group argued “many” of these surveillance activities “involve communications that are protected by the U.S. Constitution, and all implicate international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is a party.” PCLOB has said it plans to review 12333 in its next report (CD July 24 p4).

The spokesman for TVFreedom took an ax to the Senate Local Choice proposal for the second day in a row Wednesday, accusing the proposal’s pay-TV industry backers of contradictions, considering their past statements about a la carte TV models. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., circulated Local Choice last month and say they want to attach it to Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation. TVFreedom represents broadcasters, including NAB. “Similar itemized pricing and channel distribution models have been widely criticized by the cable and satellite TV industry in the past,” the spokesman wrote in a Wednesday blog post (http://bit.ly/1nxc7yc). “In fact, the pay-TV lobby has collectively dismissed such proposals as unproven business models that would create uncertainty in the marketplace and result in increased costs for consumers.” TVFreedom had posted a blog post Tuesday questioning whether Local Choice would benefit consumers, prompting a strong defense of Local Choice from American Cable Association President Matt Polka (CD Sept 3 p13). Wednesday, the TVFreedom spokesman referred to ACA as Local Choice’s “biggest cheerleader” and accused Local Choice of reflecting poor economic wisdom. “What the pay-TV lobby is really attempting to do under Local Choice is decrease the number of subscribers who watch local broadcast TV on their systems, giving them a market advantage to pull in more advertising revenues over broadcast TV stations,” the TVFreedom spokesman said. He called for “robust public dialogue” on Local Choice rather than rushing it through STELA reauthorization this year. “This will lead to many local TV stations setting their channel rates at unattractively higher prices in an attempt to make up for lost pay-TV viewers and, subsequently, lost advertising revenues,” he said. Meanwhile, Institute for Liberty President Andrew Langer showered praise on Local Choice, which “would inject real competition and consumer choice into a broadcast industry that is currently dominated by crony capitalism,” he wrote in a Daily Caller op-ed (http://bit.ly/1tu7vzG). “This is a major step in the right direction as real competition could lower cable prices; not to mention end the combative negotiation structure that currently harms consumers with blackouts.” Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology Executive Director Fred Campbell reshaped one of his August blog posts (CD Aug 29 p7) into a Wednesday op-ed for The Hill (http://bit.ly/1t0On8L), arguing there’s a “direct link between the Local Choice proposal and net neutrality” philosophically and urging Thune to “kill the proposal” to stay ideologically consistent.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper approve of the Senate version of the USA Freedom Act (S-6585), they told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in a letter released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1w7hHwh) by the Center for Democracy & Technology. The letter was dated Tuesday and responds to Leahy’s late August request for their views. The legislation “preserves essential Intelligence Community capabilities,” they wrote, saying the surveillance overhaul bill would give more checks and balances and give the public more confidence in the government. “This support from our leaders on national security strongly confirms that we can advance privacy protections without sacrificing our safety,” CDT President Nuala O'Connor said in a statement.

The Local Choice proposal is no boon to consumers, argued the spokesman for TVFreedom in a blog post Tuesday. TVFreedom, a coalition including NAB, has slammed the Senate proposal, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules to end TV blackouts, since its initial circulation last month. “This proposal unfairly singles out only one kind of programming -- local TV stations -- for regulatory distribution mandates,” the TVFreedom spokesman wrote (http://bit.ly/1pFo0r7). “News flash: there will be no real savings for consumers under Local Choice. Viewers will continue to pay for their expensive cable programming bundle, and under this proposal will be forced to pay extra fees to access and manage their local broadcast TV station lineup as part of their pay-TV service.” The American Television Alliance (ATVA), consisting of some pay-TV industry stakeholders, has lobbied heavily for the proposal and bought several ads to promote it. The TVFreedom spokesman accused “the Washington pay-TV lobby” of “manufacturing a crisis regarding broadcast TV blackouts” and attacked the premises on which Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and John Thune, R-S.D., based their Local Choice proposal. Those lawmakers -- heads of the Commerce Committee -- say they plan to address Local Choice through Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, with markup expected Sept. 17. American Cable Association President Matt Polka shot back at TVFreedom, in an op-ed for The Hill. “Ironically, given the chance to salute an idea that took its name seriously, TVFreedom.org, a front group of the National Association of Broadcasters, has been nothing but hostile to the Rockefeller-Thune Local Choice proposal, slinging a lot of social media mud since the proposal first surfaced,” Polka wrote (http://bit.ly/1qYu75e), setting out to “debunk” what he considers falsehoods about Local Choice. “Unfortunately, TV Freedom.org prefers to engage in mythmaking, planting one fiction after another in the media, hoping fear and confusion will kill an adroitly crafted bipartisan idea that so clearly represents positive change for the forces of real TV freedom.” ACA belongs to ATVA. Tim Himmelwright, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications director-communications and public affairs, also wrote an op-ed for the Express-Times newspaper in Easton, Pennsylvania, praising Local Choice, at times echoing directly the language of ATVA (http://bit.ly/1lxe6Xn).

The House Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing on FCC management and spending Sept. 17, it said Tuesday. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in a statement, said “this hearing will help us learn more about the commission’s processes and results, which will inform our work moving forward, including on a #CommActUpdate,” the ongoing legislative effort to overhaul the Communications Act. Witnesses will include FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins and Inspector General David Hunt, the subcommittee said.

Two candidates in a highly watched House Silicon Valley congressional race will debate Oct. 6. Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., will face off on that day against Democrat Ro Khanna, an attorney who was deputy assistant secretary of Commerce during President Barack Obama’s first term, a Honda campaign spokesman told us. Khanna has racked up many endorsements and significant fundraising money from the technology industry. Honda defeated Khanna in the California 17th District open primary election earlier this year but as the top two candidates in that open primary, they will compete against one another in the November general election. The Huffington Post and San Jose State University will host the 75-minute debate. Both candidates have emphasized tech and telecom issues such as net neutrality (CD June 4 p13).

The philosophy behind the Senate’s Local Choice proposal is inherently the same as the one behind net neutrality rules, said Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology Executive Director Fred Campbell in a Wednesday blog post, citing what he sees as a potential contradiction for Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., one of Local Choice’s backers. Thune, an opponent of net neutrality rules, floated the Local Choice proposal earlier this month with Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Local Choice would overhaul retransmission consent rules and try to end TV blackouts, creating an a la carte model for broadcast stations. “Thune’s embrace of the intellectual basis for the ‘Local Choice proposal’ -- which inherently distrusts market negotiations between the operators of cable ‘pipes’ and content providers -- represents a tipping point in the battle over net neutrality,” Campbell said (http://bit.ly/1C73vI3). “If Thune doesn’t believe market negotiations are capable of producing fair outcomes for pay-TV customers with respect to television content, how does he plan to justify relying on the free market to produce fair outcomes for Internet content?” Local Choice “would also play directly into the hands of net neutrality advocates, who have always wanted to eliminate the opportunity for market negotiations between cable ‘pipes’ and the providers of Internet content,” Campbell said. Rockefeller and Thune indicated they'll attach Local Choice to their Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation next month, sparking a frenzy of lobbying in recent weeks.

Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., posted a campaign ad video Thursday to emphasize his fight against government surveillance. The one-minute video showed clips of him speaking against government surveillance of phone and Internet records, along with some narration by Udall. “I've helped force their spying on Americans out into the open,” Udall said during the ad (http://bit.ly/1AYoqvo). “As Coloradans, our rights include the freedom to be left alone.” Udall, a member of the Intelligence Committee, is seeking re-election to his Senate seat against Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.