Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Todd Young, R-Ind., led 26 other senators in pressing the FCC to expedite rollout of the ATSC 3.0 Next Gen TV standard. The FCC is unlikely to vote soon on a draft report and order to extend the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements indefinitely (see 2303130068). “The Next Gen TV standard is essential to the continued vitality and competitiveness of local television broadcasters’ free, local, and trusted service in our communities,” Schatz and the other senators said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released Wednesday. “More than 60% of Americans have access to Next Gen TV,” but streaming platforms have the potential to supplant broadcast in markets where broadcasters haven’t upgraded. That means “broadcasters’ proven, decades-long investment in local news content will be undermined and, most important, viewers will lose a competitive option that is available for free over the air,” the senators said: “A successful ATSC 3.0 transition should be a priority of the FCC going forward to ensure that local broadcasters can continue to best serve their communities as a trusted source of local news. Just as the FCC has successfully championed other innovative technologies like 5G, Wi-Fi, and the 2009 digital TV transition, we believe” the commission should “take an active role in addressing the complex -- but imminently solvable -- questions posed by the transition from ATSC 1.0” to 3.0. “We’ve received and are reviewing the letter,” an FCC spokesperson emailed. NAB hailed the letter, with Curtis LeGeyt saying the FCC’s “championing of ATSC 3.0 is critical to ensure a successful transition to this groundbreaking technology.”

A bill that would allow news organizations to negotiate with the tech industry for compensation when platforms like Google and Facebook host news content was reintroduced Friday. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., refiled the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (see 2212060065) with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. Co-sponsors include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The committee passed the bill on a 15-7 vote last Congress. Public Knowledge restated its opposition to the bill Friday: The JCPA’s “elaborate antitrust exemption” will “only serve to compound the biggest challenges in our news and information landscape: consolidation of power, distance and disengagement of news conglomerate owners from the communities they serve, and the rampant spread of misinformation on the internet,” said Senior Policy Analyst Lisa Macpherson. News/Media Alliance Executive Vice President Danielle Coffey said: “Emerging technologies such as AI are making it even more clear the need for compensation when content creators may soon see even less return than what they receive today. The cost of inaction is simply too great to ignore any longer.” "Local news outlets -- including local television and radio stations -- are at the mercy of a handful of Big Tech gatekeepers whose anticompetitive terms devalue our content when it is increasingly accessed online," said NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt in a release Friday. "This legislation would level the playing field by enabling fair negotiations and increased investment in local newsrooms."

Bipartisan legislation introduced Thursday by Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, attempts to eliminate “conflicts of interest” that allowed platforms like Google and Facebook to “manipulate ad auctions and impose monopoly rents on a broad swath of the American economy,” as expected (see 2303070070). Sponsors of the Advertising Middlemen Endangering Rigorous Internet Competition Accountability (America) Act include Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; JD Vance, R-Ohio; and John Kennedy, R-La. The bill bars digital ad companies “from owning more than one part of the digital ad ecosystem if they process more than $20 billion in digital ad transactions.” Conflicts of interest are so “glaring” in ad markets that “one Google employee described Google’s ad business as being like ‘if Goldman or Citibank owned the NYSE,’” said Lee. “This lack of competition in digital advertising means that monopoly rents are being imposed upon every website that is ad-supported and every company -- small, medium, or large -- that relies on internet advertising to grow its business.” He noted a similar bill introduced in the 117th Congress, the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act, had the support of groups including Heritage Action for America and Public Knowledge. “There is nothing American about Congress dictating the size, shape and structure of competitive businesses,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers. “Gerrymandering rules around one group of businesses for the benefit of another is neither good competition policy nor responsible economic policy.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., refiled the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Modernization Act Thursday to update the 2010 Calm Act's bar on excessively loud TV ads. The measure, which Eshoo and Whitehouse first filed last year, would extend the 2010 law's excessively loud ad bar to streaming services and would strengthen the FCC's ability to investigate and enforce violations. The measure would require a study analyzing the existing law's effectiveness in moderating ad loudness. The FCC Media Bureau at Eshoo's behest sought comment in 2021 on whether the FCC needs to update its existing Calm Act implementation rules (see 2104200001). ACA Connects and NCTA argued the FCC doesn’t need to change its rules because existing enforcement is working as intended (see 2106040065). “Since the law was enacted, new popular streaming services have recreated the practice of loud ads because the old law doesn't apply to them, and consumers continue to complain about loud ads on broadcast, cable, and satellite TV,” Eshoo said in a statement. “We're updating the legislation for the benefit of consumers who are tired of diving for the mute button at every commercial break, regardless of what platform they use.” Eshoo’s office cited support from Consumer Reports.

The House passed the Undersea Cable Control Act (HR-1189) Monday on a voice vote under suspension of the rules, as expected (see 2303270063). The measure would require the State Department to develop a strategy to “eliminate the availability to foreign adversaries,” including China, “of goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables.” It would also mandate the U.S. seek bilateral agreements with allied nations to bar exporting technology to foreign adversaries that would support undersea cables. It’s important the U.S. not allow foreign adversaries “to catch up to us in any way whatsoever, especially China,” said lead HR-1189 sponsor Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla. Undersea cables are “a backbone” for international digital communications, “things you don’t want China getting ahold of.” The U.S. “derives significant benefits from its leading position in global” undersea cable networks, but “in recent years Chinese companies” heavily subsidized by the Chinese Communist Party “started investing heavily in owning and supplying” those cables, Mast said: “This is not just an economic issue” because a bigger Chinese presence in undersea cables will make the network “unsecure” and “they weaponize all forms of telecommunication that they can.”

It’s “critical that Congress fully renew” Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during FISA reauthorization, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Senate Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing Tuesday. Civil liberties advocates from both parties in both chambers of Congress have pushed to end the practice of warrantless searches of Americans’ mobile devices (see 2303150069). Section 702 “provides fast, reliable and specific insights” that enhance law enforcement’s understanding of foreign and domestic threats, Mayorkas told the committee.

The House was set to vote as soon as Monday night on the Undersea Cable Control Act (HR-1189) under suspension of the rules. The measure would require the State Department to develop a strategy to “eliminate the availability to foreign adversaries,” including China, “of goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables.” It would also mandate the U.S. seek bilateral agreements with allied nations to bar exporting technology to foreign adversaries that would support undersea cables. HR-1189 lead sponsors Reps. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Andy Kim, D-N.J., cited the entry of a Chinese surveillance balloon into U.S. airspace earlier this year as an impetus for filing the bill.

Reps. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., refiled the Next Generation 911 Act Friday in a bid to boost emergency service tech upgrades. The bill, which formed the basis for NG-911 language leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees included in the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act proposal they failed to attach in December to the FY 2023 omnibus appropriations measure (see 2212190069), would allocate $15 billion for the tech upgrades. “Over 85 percent of Americans now own a smartphone, and our 9-1-1 call centers aren’t equipped with the most up-to-date technology to respond to text messages or images from smartphones,” Eshoo said. “Our bill provides much needed funding for states and local communities to bring their 9-1-1 infrastructure into the 21st Century.” NG-911 “will begin saving lives in our communities the moment it is deployed,” Hudson said. The measure “would be a vital step in ensuring that all states and communities have access to the benefits of NG9-1-1, regardless of zip code,” said National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes, saying NENA will "work with all members of Congress to ensure this important legislation is passed and fully funded as soon as possible.” Eshoo’s office also cited support from the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies and Public Safety Next Generation 9-1-1 Coalition.

Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and 13 other Senate Republicans urged the Commerce Department Wednesday to "reverse" what they view as "superfluous and partisan provisions" in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Feb. 28 notice of funding opportunity for $39 billion in incentives for U.S. semiconductor manufacturers allocated from the 2022 Chips and Science Act (see 2207280060). The NOFO called for “applications for projects for the construction, expansion, or modernization of commercial facilities for the front- and back-end fabrication of leading-edge, current-generation, and mature-node semiconductors.” Many of the NOFO’s “grant criteria … will have the opposite effect of Congress’s intent” and “instead make domestic chip production more expensive, less competitive, and reliant on taxpayer subsidies over private investment,” said Cruz and the others in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The NOFO also includes “extraneous environmental-social-governance (ESG) requirements that seek to enact progressive policies that had been previously rejected by Congress. These policies include liberal wish list items, many of which were removed” from the Inflation Reduction Act budget reconciliation package enacted last year “because they did not have the votes to pass at even a simple majority in the Senate. To claim that these provisions are integral to the ‘national security mission’ of the CHIPS Act and will ‘[result] in lower costs’ defies reason.” The Republican senators sought the removal of provisions mandating on-site child care at covered facilities and encouraging grant recipients to use project labor agreements. They also faulted NOFO provisions they say embellish the definitions of what should satisfy some Chips and Science Act requirements aimed at hiring “economically disadvantaged individuals,” increasing community investment and prohibiting grantees from using award funding for dividend payments or stock buybacks. NIST didn’t comment.

Big Tech is “knowingly and willfully fueling a youth mental health crisis,” and Congress should pass legislation to strengthen protections for children, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Wednesday, a day before TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to testify before the House Commerce Committee (see 2301300028). Markey said he plans to reintroduce the Children and Teen’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., (see 2105110052).