The House Commerce Health Subcommittee plans a Wednesday hearing on the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies for Health Act (HR-4189) and 14 other telehealth bills. HR-4189 and Senate companion S-2016 would make permanent a waiver of geographic restrictions on access to telehealth services, plus several temporary rules changes allowing expanded use of the technology Congress enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2006150032). “The pandemic opened our eyes to the many benefits telehealth services provide to patients,” said House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Health Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. “We want to ensure patients continue to have the choice whether to go to a doctor in person or use telehealth when appropriate and more convenient for them. At the same time, we must also be vigilant that technological innovations provide value for both patients and the Medicare program as a whole.” Also on the agenda: HR-134, Knowing the Efficiency and Efficacy of Permanent Telehealth Options Act (HR-1110), Telemental Health Care Access Act (HR-3432), Expanded Telehealth Access Act (HR-3875), Temporary Reciprocity to Ensure Access to Treatment Act (HR-5541), Helping Ensure Access to Local TeleHealth Act (HR-5611), Supporting Patient Education And Knowledge Act (HR-6033), Equal Access to Specialty Care Everywhere Act (HR-7149), Telehealth Modernization Act (HR-7623), HR-7711, Promoting Responsible and Effective Virtual Experiences through Novel Technology to Deliver Improved Access and Better Engagement with Tested and Evidence-based Strategies Act (HR-7856), Telehealth Enhancement for Mental Health Act (HR-7858), HR-7863 and draft Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel re-emphasized the potential impact of affordable connectivity program funding exhaustion in letters Tuesday to Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and other congressional leaders. Cantwell and other lawmakers are eyeing ways they can allocate stopgap funding that would keep ACP running through the rest of FY 2024. Congress approved the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act minibus spending bill last month without that money (see 2403280001). Rosenworcel warned lawmakers Tuesday that notices from the Universal Service Administrative Co. and ISPs warning participants that April would be the last month of a full ACP subsidy may be sent when many committee members "are at home in their districts and hearing from their constituents about the benefits of the ACP.” She attached data to each letter outlining “the number of enrolled ACP households in each state, territory, and congressional district.” Press reports about ACP participants’ reactions to the program’s potential end “echo" what the commission has heard "from ACP households directly, with many writing the agency to express their distress and fear that ending this program could lead them to lose access to the internet at home,” Rosenworcel said. “In what is perverse, both rural and Tribal communities will likely see new broadband deployment in remote areas” via funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, “but persistent challenges with cost -- absent the ACP -- may limit the ability of this investment to close the digital divide.” The FCC “remains ready to keep this program running, should Congress provide additional funding,” she said: “We have come too far to allow this successful effort to promote internet access for all to end.”

House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., said Wednesday she’s not running for reelection in November. “I always said I was not going to stay in Congress forever,” said Kuster, who chairs the centrist New Democrat Coalition. “I will continue serving the people of New Hampshire until the end of my term in January 2025. In the months ahead, I will use my time to help Congress build on the progress we have made and finish the job for the American people.” The six-term legislator is one of four House Communications members not seeking reelection. The others are John Curtis, R-Utah, and California Democrats Tony Cardenas and Anna Eshoo. Other House Commerce Committee members retiring after this Congress include panel Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. (see 2402080063), and Vice Chairman Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D.

Meta should increase transparency so the public can better understand how it’s censoring pro-Palestinian content on its platforms, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday. They claimed Meta lowered its threshold for removing content that violates policy from users in Palestinian territories after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook remove content when automated systems are 80% “certain a violation has occurred,” but Meta lowered the threshold to 25% for Palestinian users after the attack, the lawmakers wrote. In addition, Meta didn’t provide requested information in a December letter, they said: “It is imperative that Meta provide this information so the American people and their elected representatives can understand the impact of Meta’s policies on those communities and public debate.” Meta didn’t comment.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone (N.J.), Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui (Calif.) and 10 other subpanel Democrats urged NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson Tuesday "to continue to prioritize affordability in your administration of" the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program as the agency reviews states' plans for the money. The Democrats wrote Davidson days after Congress approved the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package without hoped-for stopgap money for the FCC's affordable connectivity program or Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403210067). "Access to internet service is meaningless to consumers if the cost of signing up is a barrier,” the lawmakers said in their letter. “Studies show that nearly half of all broadband non-adopters cited cost as the primary reason they did not have home internet service." The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which created ACP and BEAD, "includes separate affordability provisions that are specific to the BEAD program," the lawmakers said: "Congress decided to allocate BEAD funds to states and territories since they are best situated to determine the needs of their communities, but it did not change any existing authority to oversee broadband or pricing." NTIA has "administrative oversight and programmatic support responsibilities to ensure the funds would be spent consistent with Congressional intent, including the review and approval of proposals after significant consultation between the state or territory and NTIA," the Democrats said. "These are critical procedures for NTIA to follow in determining whether low-cost plans are in fact affordable for the areas and markets where they are proposed." It "would be a significant missed opportunity in the administration of BEAD if these affordability provisions are not exercised to their fullest to help middle-class and low-income Americans afford the cost of internet service, consistent with the statute," the lawmakers said. Congressional Republicans have criticized NTIA's reviews of state plans' affordability provisions as a form of rate regulation (see 2312180063).

The House Commerce Committee unanimously advanced the Future Uses of Technology Upholding Reliable and Enhancing Networks Act (HR-1513) and three communications equipment security measures Wednesday, as expected (see 2403190062). Also on the agenda: the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act (HR-820), Countering CCP Drones Act (HR-2864) and Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security Act (HR-7589). HR-820 would require the FCC to publish a list of communications companies with agency licenses or other authorizations in which China and other foreign adversaries’ governments hold at least a 10% ownership stake (see 2210250067). HR-1513 would direct the FCC to establish a 6G task force that provides recommendations about ensuring U.S. leadership in developing that technology’s standards. HR-2864 would add Chinese drone manufacturer Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) to the FCC’s covered entities list. HR-7521 would direct the Commerce Department to “specify what transactions involving routers, modems, or devices that combine a modem and a router are prohibited” under a 2019 executive order by then-President Donald Trump’s that barred transactions involving information and communications technologies that pose an “undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of” U.S.-based communications services (see 1905150066). “China poses a serious threat to America's national security across the board, including to our critical communications infrastructure,” said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., during the committee meeting. “We know that the [Chinese Communist Party] will utilize every tool at its disposal to exploit vulnerabilities in our communications networks, which is why this committee has taken decisive action in these areas. Failure to address these exceedingly complex threats not only jeopardizes our economic competitiveness and national security, but also risks ceding ground to an adversarial power intent on undermining American leadership.” The four bills “will help protect American networks from security threats, while also allowing our country to remain a global leader in communications technology,” said panel ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. He singled out HR-1513, which “will help us understand the potential risks to best protect our networks and strengthen the technologies designed.”

The Free State Foundation believes Republicans' use of Congressional Review Act authority in their resolution of disapproval to undo the FCC’s digital discrimination order (H.J.Res. 107/S.J.Res. 64) is "a "necessary and proper" means of scuttling the commission's "unlawful" action. The CRA "provides a means for Congress to rein in overreaching administrative agencies that have abused their authority," FSF tweeted. Republicans face long odds of enacting H.J.Res. 107/S.J.Res. 64 because it's unlikely any Senate Democrats will back the measure and President Joe Biden would probably veto it (see 2402260001). The digital discrimination order faces multiple legal challenges, now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2403140042).

The Senate Commerce Committee confirmed plans Friday for a March 21 spectrum policy-focused hearing, as expected (see 2403140044). Ahead of the hearing, panel chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was eyeing a set of slimmed-down spectrum legislative proposals the Congressional Budget Office evaluated at her request, including a potential five-to-seven-year reauthorization of the FCC’s auction authority (see 2403140066). Cantwell was doubtful Thursday those proposals would be ready for inclusion in a coming FY 2024 “minibus” appropriations package to provide additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403150063). The March 21 hearing “will focus on how a coordinated and comprehensive approach to domestic spectrum policy is critical to U.S. national security,” Senate Commerce said. “A unified approach will enable the [U.S.] to lead internationally, which will help counter threats like those from Huawei and ZTE.” Renewing the FCC’s mandate, “engaging in fact-based spectrum decision-making, and investing in dynamic spectrum sharing and other technologies will ensure the [U.S.] leads in spectrum use policy that protects the nation’s critical national security and economic competitiveness missions,” the panel said. Open Radio Access Network Coalition Executive Director Diane Rinaldo, a former acting NTIA administrator, is among those set to testify. Also on the docket: WifiForward Executive Director Mary Brown; Hudson Institute Center for the Economics of the Internet Director Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican former FCC commissioner; University of Notre Dame professor Monisha Ghosh; and Center for Strategic Studies senior fellow Clete Johnson. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. CTIA praised plans for the hearing. The group is “committed to working with Congress to incorporate the key missing piece to successful legislation and that is the inclusion of specific targets for auctioned spectrum. Every prior multi-year extension of FCC authority -- in 1997, 2006 and 2012 -- included specific amounts of spectrum for auction that now power our world-leading networks. Failing to include specific direction now risks setting us back half a decade or more and foreclosing critical opportunities to make new 5G spectrum available, which is critical to our national and economic security.”

Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (Texas) and 18 other Senate Republicans are pursuing a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to undo the FCC’s digital discrimination order that mirrors a January House measure (H.J.Res. 107), as expected (see 2402260001). The digital discrimination order faces multiple legal challenges, now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2403140042). “Despite admitting there’s ‘little to no evidence’ of discrimination by broadband companies, the Biden administration has plowed ahead with government-mandated affirmative action and race-based pricing for broadband,” Cruz said Thursday. “The only beneficiaries of the FCC’s Orwellian ‘equity’ plan are overzealous government regulators who want to control the internet. This resolution will roll back FCC Democrats’ unlawful power grab.” The other Republican co-sponsors include Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune (S.D.). Cruz, Thune and other Republican senators urged the agency in November to reconsider the then-draft rules (see 2311130059). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters Thursday she has “confidence in” the FCC’s digital discrimination rules “and that our work is consistent with” authorizing language in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Thursday introduced legislation that would require police to get a warrant before accessing U.S. communications obtained through foreign intelligence surveillance authorities. The Security and Freedom Enhancement (Safe) Act would require a warrant for law enforcement to access data obtained through Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702, which expires April 19. Law enforcement could still run queries without obtaining a warrant under the proposal.