House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., criticized FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Friday for not providing “details or clarity on the structure or role” of the proposed new Space Bureau to handle all space-related issues (see 2211030032). House Commerce “is responsible for directing FCC action, and the agency needs to be open and transparent with the committee members about its efforts to regulate satellite communications,” Rodgers said: “Modernizing the FCC's satellite licensing rules and authorities will continue to be a top priority for” panel Republicans “to help usher in a new era of American innovation and investment in this growing sector.” She and House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., released the draft Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act in February, which would require the FCC to mandate limits on the amount of debris a licensed satellite plans to release, and issue rules on orbital parameters. The bill would set a one-year timeline for acting on a non-geostationary orbit system application and a 180-day deadline for a license renewal or modification application. It would require spectrum sharing and would sunset existing processing round interference protections by Dec. 31, 2026 (see 2202180044). The FCC didn't comment.

The Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA and four other groups urged leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees to pass the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act (S-5021), which would amend the Internal Revenue Code to say broadband grants enacted via either statute don’t count as “gross income” (see 2209290067). “The 117th Congress made historic investments in broadband infrastructure by allocating billions to programs” via the American Rescue Plan Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but “if Congress fails to act, grant recipients will be required to return as much as 21 percent of the broadband grants to the federal government in the form of taxes,” the groups wrote Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and their Republican ranking members, in a letter released Friday. That would leave “millions of Americans without access to the broadband they were promised. In addition to extending the expiring 100 percent expensing benefit, which would have a broader overall impact, Congress should exempt broadband grants from taxation as consistent with the ubiquitous deployment goals reflected in” ARPA and IIJA. The IRS previously “had the flexibility to act unilaterally to exempt some broadband grants from taxation,” including the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, the groups said: The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “changed the statute, declaring that all federal grants, including broadband grants, are taxable as income. With this change in statute, it is now incumbent upon Congress to act to free the ARPA and IIJA broadband grants from taxation and ensure all of the broadband grants awarded will be used to reach Americans with connectivity needs.” The other signers were NTCA, TIA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

The National Religious Broadcasters oppose the Identifying Propaganda on Our Airwaves Act (HR-9180/S-4713), which would undo the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s July NAB v. FCC ruling that vacated the commission’s requirement that broadcasters check federal databases to determine if entities leasing time on their stations are agents of foreign governments (see 2210170065). The measure “would add another hurdle to broadcasters’ already considerable regulatory compliance workload: conducting background checks on potentially dozens or hundreds of programmers to verify they are not foreign propaganda operations,” NRB said Thursday. “This law would have an especially burdensome impact on Christian broadcasters” because the “number of brokered programming clients” they deal with “is often abundant compared to that of an ordinary broadcaster.” HR-9180/S-4713 “has not yet attracted any additional cosponsors, and the bill’s late introduction makes it unlikely to pass before the end of the legislative session,” NRB said. The group remains concerned about the measure since the FCC unanimously approved an NPRM in October on updating the foreign ID rule to account for NAB v. FCC (see 2210060068).

The entry of Google, Apple and Amazon into the automotive industry “raises competition concerns,” and the FTC and DOJ should take “swift action,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote FTC Chair Lina Khan and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter Tuesday. Warren highlighted Apple’s new car infotainment system CarPlay, Google’s agreement with automotive partners to install its Android Automotive Operating System and Amazon’s autonomous driving systems and vehicle software. “To achieve this dominance, Google, Apple, and Amazon are leveraging their market power in the mobile operating system, digital app markets, and data infrastructure spheres to become the dominant players in the automotive sphere,” she wrote. “This expansion has potentially alarming implications for developers, workers, and consumers.”

Supporters of FCC nominee Gigi Sohn marked the one-year anniversary Wednesday of her original nomination to the post (see 2110260076) by lambasting Senate officials over her stalled confirmation process. President Joe Biden renominated Sohn in January, but she hasn’t advanced beyond a March 14-14 tied Senate Commerce Committee vote (see 2203030070). Her backers hope the Senate will confirm her during the upcoming lame-duck session (see 2209130065). The Senate “gets an ‘F’ in FCC” because Sohn “has been in limbo for a year now, preventing a deadlocked agency from passing crucial policies that would help people in the United States connect and communicate,” said Free Press Action Internet Campaign Director Heather Franklin. “For a year, Democratic leaders have dithered and delayed” amid “a smear campaign against” the nominee by communications sector opponents. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “has a chance to call this important vote as soon as Congress returns from the upcoming midterm elections,” Franklin said: “He should have the courage to take it.” It’s “long past time to vote on Ms. Sohn’s nomination and confirm her to the FCC, where she can put her decades of experience to work for American consumers,” said Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis. Fight for the Future supporters “should be just as furious with Schumer “and Senate Democrats for the inexcusable delay in confirming Gigi Sohn to the FCC” as they were when the commission rescinded its 2015 net neutrality rules, tweeted Director Evan Greer: “It has been an entire year. Get it done.”

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., pressed AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and 10 other major ISPs on reports “that some providers may not be adhering to the requirements” of the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and emergency broadband benefit (EBB) enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The other ISPs drawing Pallone’s scrutiny are: Altice, Charter, Cox, Dish Network, Excess Wireless, Frontier, Lumen, Maxsip, Q Link and T-Mobile. “These reports detail problems customers have faced, including either having their benefits initiated, transferred to a new provider, or changed to a different plan without their knowledge or consent,” Pallone said in letters to the 13 ISPs’ top executives. “Other customers have reported a delay in the application of the benefit or a requirement to opt-in to future full-price service, which has resulted in surprise bills that have been sent to collection agencies. There have also been reports of aggressive upselling of more expensive offerings, requirements that customers accept slower speed service tiers, and other harmful and predatory practices.” Congress “explicitly outlined requirements designed to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, maximize the enrollment of eligible households, and ensure that consumers are protected in the process,” he said: “Importantly, Congress incorporated lessons learned in the emergency implementation of EBB to fully inform the creation of ACP, including by enhancing safeguards to preserve program integrity and ensuring that ACP would truly benefit consumers and not leave them vulnerable to predatory schemes or misleading practices.” Pallone wants information from the ISPs by Nov. 9 about their practices, including the number of beneficiaries they have signed up, the number of complaints they have received regarding the programs’ administration and their processes for resolving complaints. "We look forward to responding to the Chairman’s questions, and we remain committed to helping make broadband more affordable for millions of American households,” an AT&T spokesperson said. "Charter’s significant participation in the EBB and ACP programs has helped millions of families gain access to reliable and affordable, high-speed in-home internet; and builds on our broader, ongoing commitment to increasing connectivity by promoting broadband availability, adoption and affordability for all," a spokesperson said. Excess is "working diligently with government officials and other stakeholders to root out improper activities," a spokesperson said. The other ISPs didn’t comment.

The FTC needs more top-level security clearances to combat data security threats, particularly from foreign attackers, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Tuesday. Only four FTC staffers have top secret clearance, and that doesn’t include the FTC chair, commissioners or the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Wyden said, noting the agency gave his office this information. He wrote a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. The agency announced data security allegations Monday against online alcohol marketplace Drizly and CEO James Cory Rellas. “The U.S. government cannot protect Americans’ privacy and U.S. national security from the serious threat posed by sophisticated foreign hackers if the FTC does not have a seat at the table,” Wyden said.

Meta’s alleged collection of sensitive user health information without consent through tracking apps raises concerns, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg Thursday. Warner cited allegations against Meta Pixel, a tracking tool he said “sends Meta a packet of data whenever a user clicks a button to schedule a doctor’s appointment -- without the knowledge of the individual making the appointment.” He asked Zuckerberg a series of questions about what sensitive information is collected, how it's used in targeted ads, safeguards against inappropriate data use from third parties and how Meta complies with related laws. “Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools as doing so is against our policies," Meta said in a statement. "We educate advertisers on properly setting up Business tools to prevent this from occurring. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect.”

President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that creates a training program for federal employees buying and managing AI technology. Introduced by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the Artificial Intelligence Training for the Acquisition Workforce Act (S-2551) is supposed to help federal employees better understand ethical and national security risks associated with AI. The new program will “train our procurement professionals about the ins and outs of AI so they can discern which AI systems are useful to the government and which are not,” said Portman.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel outlined all the commission’s "pending" and "expected" rulemakings and expected declaratory rulings issued via delegated authority, in response to a query from House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., but didn’t directly address the GOP leader’s warning that the agency not "continue to exceed Congressional authorizations." Rodgers advised the FCC and FTC in September against going further than Congress mandated because of the "limitations" on their authority highlighted in the Supreme Court's June West Virginia v. EPA ruling (see 2209290062). The FCC “takes seriously the responsibilities entrusted to it by Congress under the law, including the efforts identified in your letter ‘to expand connectivity to all Americans, regulate broadcast stations and’” MVPDs “‘in the media marketplace, limit the transmission of illegal robocalls, preserve the capability for reliable 911 and emergency alerting services, and remove untrusted communications equipment and services from U.S. communications networks,’” Rosenworcel said in a letter to Rodgers released Tuesday. “In the absence of any specific Commission order, the Bureaus and Offices generally do not have delegated authority to issue notices of proposed rulemaking.” Depending “upon the nature of the particular matter, and based on the comments received on these petitions, these may be addressed by a Bureau or Office,” Rosenworcel said: The FCC “cannot predict whether or when any of these petitions will be acted upon.”