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.

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).

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).

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., became the latest lawmaker to back reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service. He sent an Aug. 22 letter, not released online, to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler expressing “strong support for net neutrality rules that guarantee a free and open Internet.” Reclassification is seemingly “the best and clearest way” to do that, Levin said. “We must continue to have rules that protect the Internet from becoming a tiered system favoring some over others, as such an outcome would stifle innovation.” Wheeler has repeatedly pointed out this year that no net neutrality rules currently exist and said he wants to protect the open Internet through the agency’s ongoing rulemaking. Industry stakeholders and congressional Republicans have resisted reclassification, saying it could stifle investment and innovation.

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.

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.

CBS Radio rejected American Television Alliance (ATVA) advertising promoting the Local Choice Senate proposal, ATVA said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1ql8zSX). ATVA, a coalition of pay-TV companies, Public Knowledge and others, recently kicked off a national ad campaign in favor of Local Choice (CD Aug 27 p7), which broadcasters have vehemently opposed. All 50 state broadcaster associations attacked Local Choice, in a Thursday letter to Senate Commerce Committee leaders (CD Aug 28 p10). Four radio stations rejected ATVA’s ads, all owned by CBS: KMOX(AM) St. Louis, WCCO(AM) Minneapolis, KXNT(AM) North Las Vegas and KDKA(AM) Pittsburgh. “CBS’s actions are certainly unethical and deserve the attention of Congress,” an ATVA spokesman said in a statement. “It’s definitely not in the public interest to cut off voices because CBS disagrees with them. Broadcasters are stifling debate the same way they stifle innovation.” A spokeswoman for CBS Radio confirmed that it has not accepted the ATVA ad and told us the ads did not meet CBS Radio’s standards, declining to comment further or say why. NAB declined comment on the CBS Radio rejection. CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason is on the NAB Executive Committee, and NAB has outlined many concerns about Local Choice and opposed attaching it to Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization. ATVA had posted its Local Choice radio ad online earlier this week (http://bit.ly/1tWlWJP). “For America’s TV viewers, there may soon be a new reason to celebrate -- a simple idea called Local Choice could bring an end to programming blackouts,” the one-minute spot said. “With Local Choice, viewers also get to choose which local broadcast channels they want and clearly see on their monthly bill exactly how much these local channels cost. Local Choice will put an end to the back and forth negotiations between broadcasters and cable and satellite companies.” The ad, featuring the sounds of cheering and fireworks, asked listeners to contact lawmakers to back Local Choice.

A three-minute Senate video unveiled this week (http://bit.ly/1lbW9gX) promoting the Local Choice proposal, backed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., is the product of both senators, contrary to some media reports that framed only Commerce Republicans as responsible. The video was first uploaded to the Commerce Republicans’ YouTube page, followed by uploading to the Commerce Democrats’ YouTube page. The video, which features text and spoken word explaining Local Choice, “was a joint effort by Chairman Rockefeller and Ranking Member Thune to educate people on their proposal,” a spokeswoman for Thune told us. “Both the Chairman and Ranking Member’s staff have met and will continue to meet with the staff of other committee members to brief them on the proposal.” The Local Choice proposal seeks to end TV blackouts and is expected to be attached to Commerce’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation, a move broadcasters have opposed (CD Aug 27 p7).

State broadcaster associations from all 50 states savaged the Local Choice proposal, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules and attempt to end TV blackouts. They objected in a National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations letter dated Thursday and expected to be sent Wednesday to the proposal’s authors -- Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., who had circulated the proposal earlier this month. The letter is the latest volley in a lobbying war with the American Television Alliance, a group of several pay-TV companies that launched a national advertising campaign in favor of Local Choice in recent days (CD Aug 27 p7). The American Television Alliance has now posted its newspaper (http://bit.ly/1qLc4zn) and radio (http://bit.ly/1tWlWJP) ads on its website. “If adopted, the proposal will unjustifiably eliminate television broadcasting’s longstanding statutory right of retransmission consent and unfairly single out the free, over-the-air, local television broadcast industry for mandatory ‘a la carte’ treatment,” the state broadcaster associations said, saying Local Choice “will very negatively impact television broadcasters and all of the nation’s viewers.” They “strongly oppose” including Local Choice as part of Commerce’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation, expected to be unveiled in September. Local Choice “will destroy localism, including the backbone of our nation’s Emergency Alert System, by denying fair compensation to broadcasters without providing consumers, who continue to complain loudly about the monthly cost of pay-television service, with any meaningful choice or relief,” the broadcasters said. Local Choice would mean “less resources to invest in newsrooms, journalists, and local programming and perhaps even fewer broadcaster outlets to cover local affairs and emergencies in the future” and it would “chill the willingness of broadcasters to cover controversial issues of public importance.” It could chill “the journalistic and editorial decisions of every station” and throw “the economics of the nation’s local television broadcast system into chaos,” the letter said. Mandated a la carte pricing would “increase prices, decrease programming diversity, and result in fewer -- not more -- choices for consumers,” state broadcasters said, worrying it could “upend the network-affiliate relationship with potentially devastating consequences for the networks, for their affiliates and for the financial markets.” There’s also a good chance Local Choice “will likely become the slippery ‘a la carte’ slope that broadly upsets a vibrant and functioning video marketplace.” The state broadcaster associations listed several questions and considerations, asking about what would happen to existing retrans deals and how pay-TV providers would be held accountable. They asked about how Local Choice would affect reverse compensation agreements, which are tied to retrans fees. They plan to visit Senate Commerce members in Washington and in home offices to “further demonstrate our strong concerns,” they added.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., will face off against Ed Gillespie, a political strategist and Warner’s Republican Senate opponent in the November mid-term elections, on technology issues Sept. 8. The Northern Virginia Technology Council and Microsoft are co-hosting a debate between the two, framing it as a technology town hall, at the Microsoft offices in Reston, Virginia. “The forum will provide technology business leaders an opportunity to learn about the candidates’ views related to technology and business policy,” the event registration page said (http://bit.ly/1AUS5Wl). “During the forum, the candidates will be introduced while on stage together before appearing separately to answer questions from a panel of technology business leaders and participate in audience Q&A.” Northern Virginia Technology Council Board Chairman Sudhakar Kesavan will moderate, and event panelists will include Microsoft Vice President-Government Affairs Fred Humphries. Warner is the favored candidate in the election, according to the Rothenberg Political Report.