The House was in the process of voting Tuesday on six tech-focused amendments (see 2207140070) to the FY 2023 omnibus appropriations package that includes funding for the FCC, FTC and Agriculture Department rural broadband programs (HR-8294) that the Rules Committee allowed for floor consideration Monday. The House voted 229-199 against three amendments in an en bloc package aimed at cutting down overall funding levels drawn from the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee’s bill. The measure proposes giving the FCC $390 million and the FTC $490 million (see 2206270061). Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., sought a 22% trim; Reps. Rick Allen, R-Ga., and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., separately proposed 5% cuts. Lawmakers still needed to vote on a proposal from Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., to bar FTC funding from being used to promulgate rules defining or describing unfair methods of competition under the FTC Act. Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., was also expecting a vote on his amendment to encourage the FTC to continue using its existing authority to protect consumers’ right to repair and hold accountable companies who engage in the anti-competitive conduct of limiting repairs by consumers.

Congressional leadership should move antitrust legislation that’s ready for floor action in both chambers, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Tuesday with the formal publishing of the committee’s October 2020 majority staff report on competition in the digital marketplace. “The report’s findings and recommendations clearly show that it is long-past time for Congress to enact meaningful updates to our antitrust laws to address the lack of competition in digital markets and the monopoly power of dominant platforms like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google,” Nadler said. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, the Open App Markets Act and the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act are “ready for votes today,” said House Antitrust Subcommittee Chair David Cicilline, D-R.I. House Antitrust Subcommittee Vice Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., spoke in support of her Ending Platform Monopolies Act.

The House Commerce Committee will mark up bipartisan privacy legislation Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The American Data Privacy and Protection Act (HR-8152) passed the House Consumer Protection Subcommittee unanimously. The latest version of the ADPPA is another good step, but the bill needs to be strengthened, said Center for Democracy & Technology CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens: “The private right of action still contains many limitations that will curtail individual enforcement, and the protections against retaliating against people who exercise their privacy choices have some loopholes that should be closed.” Public Knowledge highlighted the bill’s provisions giving the FTC authority to mandate a consumers’ right to opt out of targeted ads and a “do not collect” button, “which would allow individuals to get their data deleted from every data broker that has collected information about them.”

House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta and Rep. Bill Johnson, both Ohio Republicans, urged President Joe Biden Monday to “prioritize” naming an FCC inspector general nominee. David Hunt has been FCC IG since 2011, before Congress made the position Senate-confirmable via the 2018 Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act. Then-President Donald Trump repeatedly nominated Covington & Burling’s Chase Johnson as FCC IG, but the Senate failed to approve him before the end of 2020 (see 2012210055). Biden subsequently revoked Trump’s 2021 renomination of Johnson (see 2102050064). “Since enactment, this position has been vacant,” Rodgers and the other GOP lawmakers wrote Biden. “While the law provides that the existing IG may continue to perform these functions until a nominee is confirmed by the Senate, it has been over a year and a half since you took office without nominating a candidate.” The IG office “issued an advisory” in November that found some emergency broadband benefit providers were falsely claiming a child in a household attended a qualifying low-income school (see 2111220058). “Given the unprecedented funding made available to the FCC in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the increased potential for waste, fraud, and abuse, we ask that you expedite the nomination of a candidate to serve as the FCC’s IG,” the lawmakers said.

The House Rules Committee began considering proposed amendments Monday to the FY 2023 omnibus appropriations package that includes funding for the FCC, FTC and Agriculture Department rural broadband programs (HR-8294). The measure proposes giving the FCC $390 million and the FTC $490 million (see 2206270061). Several amendments target the FTC, but none aims to set new FCC policy riders (see 2207140070). House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Mike Quigley, D-Ill., highlighted “new language” in HR-8294 that removes an FCC barrier to broadcasters airing ads for cannabis products. The text is focused on “protecting FCC licenses for broadcasters advertising cannabis where it’s legal,” he said. The provision got criticism from some House Appropriations Republicans, including ranking member Kay Granger of Texas (see 2206270061). Appropriations Financial Services ranking member Steve Womack, R-Ark., criticized the proposed 30% increase in the FTC’s annual funding. Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., cited HR-8294’s proposed $560 million for USDA rural broadband programs, which is needed “as we continue to prioritize closing the digital divide.” A late amendment from House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott, D-Ga., and ranking member Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., proposes allocating $3 billion annually through FY 2030 for a permanent version of the ReConnect program, $300 million annually through the same period for USDA’s Innovative Broadband Advancement and Middle Mile programs, $150 million annually for the Community Connect Grants and Distance Learning and Telemedicine programs and $25 million annually for the Broadband Connections program.

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., plan to file their Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act before the start of the Senate August recess in a bid to renew Democrats’ push for legislation to restore the FCC’s rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules. The measure, which was circulating in draft form Monday, would reinstate the FCC’s 2015 reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., is leading work on a House companion, lobbyists told us. Markey and Wyden are prioritizing the bill now because of the Senate’s stalled confirmation process for FCC nominee Gigi Sohn (see 2206230066), which has meant the tied 2-2 commission hasn’t been able to proceed on any matter that's unlikely to get the support of at least one of the two GOP commissioners, lobbyists said. “It is more clear than ever that broadband internet is an essential utility,” a Markey spokesperson emailed. Markey “firmly believes” the FCC’s “authority should reflect that, so it can fulfill its obligations to the public by reinstating net neutrality rules, protecting consumers, and taking other critical steps to create a just digital future.” The FCC’s “rollback of net neutrality” under former Chairman Ajit Pai “was a huge loss for competition and privacy,” a Wyden spokesperson said. Wyden “still believes that net neutrality is the foundation of an open internet that works for everyone -- not just Big Cable and big incumbents.” Congress “should pass the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act and confirm Gigi Sohn to the FCC without further delay,” said Free Press Vice President-Policy Matt Wood in a statement. “It’s time for Senate leadership to end this senseless delay and get the agency back to full capacity.” It “was only during the Trump administration that the FCC … disavowed any authority to fulfill its congressional mandate to ensure all Americans have access to communications services,” said Public Knowledge Director-Government Affairs Greg Guice. “This legislation is more than just a bill for net neutrality. It will reinstate” the FCC “with the authority to promote policies to help consumers access broadband … as well as promote competition and public safety while strengthening the resiliency of these networks during disasters.” U.S. “broadband customers have waited far too long for Congress to step up and codify the important net neutrality principles that broadband providers already follow today,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. “But let’s be clear: any such legislation cannot and must not be a backdoor for government to regulate prices and degrade the consumer internet experience.” Any “potential government effort to regulate prices under the cover of net neutrality would hurt consumers, slow investment and stifle competition,” he said.

The House passed the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-7900) Thursday with a package of telecom and tech-focused amendments (see 2207140070) on a bipartisan 329-101 vote. Approved amendments to the measure included ones to require more DOD transparency on its implementation of its 2020 spectrum sharing strategy and modifications to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s remit. The House also voted 405-20 to pass the Promoting U.S. International Leadership in 5G Act (HR-1934), which would direct the secretary of state to assist in enhancing U.S. leadership at international standards-setting bodies that handle 5G and other telecom issues (see 2206210048). Lawmakers originally debated the measure on the floor in June (see 2206210048).

Bipartisan children’s privacy legislation is in line for a Senate Commerce Committee markup, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday, as expected (see 2207080053). “Not next week but maybe something after that,” Cantwell said Thursday in response to our question on Capitol Hill about the Kids Online Safety Act from Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and ranking member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “I think after that you might see that bill” marked up, Cantwell said.

TikTok must provide all documents and communications about its relationship with Chinese parent company ByteDance and its data-sharing practices (see 2206280064), House Republicans wrote the company Thursday, launching an investigation into TikTok’s handling of American user data. House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer, R-Ky., said: “Data collected by TikTok on U.S. users, such as browsing and search history, biometrics, location data, and other metadata, would be a massive national security risk in the hands of” Chinese Communist Party intelligence. TikTok didn’t comment.

The $52 billion Chips Act incentive package embedded in both the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and America Competes Act now before House and Senate conferees “has become a bit of a political football,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. “We’ve made it super-clear” to the House and Senate leadership that if the Chips Act funding is not approved, “I will change my plans” to invest $20 billion in Ohio to build two Intel semiconductor fabs on a 1,000-acre campus just east of Columbus (see 2201210041), Gelsinger told a Washington Post webinar Tuesday. The Europeans "have moved forward very aggressively” on a package of incentives for the semiconductor industry that's in "the final stages of approval," said Gelsinger. “I think it’s embarrassing that the U.S. started this process a full year before the Europeans, and the complex, 27-member-state Europeans have moved forward more rapidly. It’s just implausible.” Intel is emphasizing to House and Senate leaders that "there are real-time consequences" if the Chips Act funding "doesn't pass," said Gelsinger. "I will make the decision to delay our project in Ohio. We're going to go ahead in Ohio, but the speed and the size is dependent on U.S. industrial policy to make this happen, and that's embodied in the Chips Act."