The Senate Commerce Committee plans a Tuesday executive session that will include votes on three telecom and broadcasting bills: the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act (S-1541), Next Generation Telecommunications Act (S-3014) and Low Power Protection Act (S-3405). S-1541 and the similar Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act (HR-2489) would bar communications providers from receiving site commissions earned by prisons and other confinement facilities (see 2104160067). S-3014 would create a group to advise Congress on 6G and other next-gen wireless technologies (see 2110200066). S-3405 would require the FCC to open a new filing window during which qualifying low-power TV stations could apply for and receive Class A status (see 2112210058). The markup will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.

A new cyber incident reporting law signed by President Joe Biden is a “significant step” in helping combat potential cyberattacks from foreign adversaries, said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Tuesday (see 2203110052). Biden signed it into law with passage of the government funding package. It requires critical infrastructure owners and operators to report to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within “72 hours if they are experiencing a substantial cyberattack and within 24 hours of making a ransomware payment.”

A Democratic bill announced Wednesday would allow antitrust enforcers to automatically block transactions valued at more than $5 billion. Introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act would allow the FTC, DOJ and state attorneys general to unwind anticompetitive deals dating back to 2000, if the acquisition resulted in a market share larger than 50% of any relevant market or if it brought “material harm” to the competitive process. Tech industry groups opposed the proposal. “Instead of arbitrarily barring certain transactions, Congress should instead provide the resources necessary for the FTC and DOJ to do the job they are charged with: protecting competition and consumers,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers. For “emerging businesses looking to be acquired, this bill would compel them to either raise prices, lower quality, or lay off workers to remain competitive,” said NetChoice CEO Steve DelBianco.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., hailed the FCC putting into effect its disclosure requirements for broadcasters airing foreign sponsored content (see 2203150077). The rules, which Eshoo said Tuesday the agency adopted “at my urging,” still face a broadcaster-led legal challenge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. As Russian President Vladimir Putin “wages a brutal war against Ukraine, any Russian attempts to broadcast their propaganda is unacceptable,” Eshoo said. “I call on every station broadcasting Russian Sputnik (RT) under existing agreements to voluntarily come into compliance before the regulations require them to do so.” NAB asked its members earlier this month to stop broadcasting Russian state media (see 2203010067).

President Joe Biden signed the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package (HR-2471) Tuesday that includes funding increases for the FCC, FTC, NTIA and other tech-related federal agencies (see 2203090068), the White House said. His approval of the package averted a government shutdown that was to begin Tuesday night, when an existing continuing resolution was to expire.

Congress should consider approaches that avoid regulating “particular types of content” when legislating online child safety, the Congressional Research Service said in a report released Monday. Laws restricting the “provision of expressive material” could face First Amendment issues, and laws targeting “specific categories of speech based on its content are subject to the demanding strict scrutiny standard of judicial review,” the report said. Congress tried to criminalize the “provision of internet content” for minors, but courts “applying the strict scrutiny standard have struck down these statutes as unconstitutional,” the report said. CRS noted two potential examples of bills seeking to regulate child internet use without banning a particular type of content: the Kids Internet Design and Safety Act and the Protecting the Information of our Vulnerable Children and Youth Act.

CTIA Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann and Jayne Stancavage, Intel global executive officer-product and digital infrastructure policy, are among those set to testify at a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on 5G and spectrum management (see 2203090074), the House Commerce Committee said Friday. Also on the witness list: Cisco Senior Director-Government Affairs Mary Brown, Public Knowledge Government Affairs Director Greg Guice and HTC Chief Executive-Corporate Strategy and Analytics Von Todd, a member of the Competitive Carriers Association’s board. The partly virtual hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package (HR-2471) that includes funding increases for the FCC, FTC, NTIA and other tech-related federal agencies (see 2203090068), a White House spokesperson said Friday. The Senate voted 68-31 Thursday to pass HR-2471 and cleared a continuing resolution (House Joint Resolution 75) to extend federal funding through Tuesday on a voice vote in case Biden doesn't sign the omnibus package before an existing CR expired Friday night.

The Senate passed its version of cyber incident reporting legislation Thursday as part of the bipartisan funding deal (see 2203100074). Introduced by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the Cyber Incident Reporting Act would “require critical infrastructure owners and operators to report to [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] within 72 hours if they are experiencing a substantial cyberattack and within 24 hours of making a ransomware payment.”

A bipartisan group of senators filed a bill Thursday meant, they said, to “prevent China from stealing intellectual property from American companies through their corrupt court system.” Introduced by Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; and Rick Scott, R-Fla., the Defending American Courts Act targets China’s use of anti-suit injunctions, which “limit the ability of American companies to file or maintain claims related to patent infringement in U.S. courts or the International Trade Commission.” The bill bans “bad actors” from seeking review of the relevant patent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and “if they are found to have infringed the patent, the bill requires certain presumptions that make enhanced damages and attorney fees more likely.”