Spectrum policy may need to be more “inclusive,” said a Congressional Research Service report (http://bit.ly/1a1gcUy). “Many policy makers and Members of Congress are concerned, for example, that the current structure of auctions to assign spectrum licenses does not provide enough opportunities for competition or new entrants into mobile communications markets,” said the report, by telecom policy specialist Linda Moore. She also wrote a CRS report on FirstNet and the relevant issues it poses for Congress. “In addition to monitoring progress in building the new broadband network for public safety, Congress may want to consider reviewing the role of commercial networks in emergency response and recovery,” CRS said (http://bit.ly/1hCsUxc). “Once commercial communications lines are compromised because of infrastructure failures, interdependent public safety networks are threatened and the ability to communicate vital information to the public is diminished. New policy initiatives may be needed to identify critical gaps in communications infrastructure and the means to fund the investments needed to close these gaps.” CRS questioned the governance of FirstNet and the manner in which it’s housed within NTIA. Both reports, which CRS doesn’t publicly release, are dated March 12.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., blasted Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable, citing net neutrality fears, in a letter to the Justice Department Wednesday. The approximately $45 billion deal requires the approval of U.S. antitrust authorities and the FCC. “I am very concerned that Comcast could use its clout in the broadband market to dictate the content consumers receive and the prices they pay, and these concerns are only intensified by Comcast’s proposal to acquire Time Warner Cable,” Franken wrote. “With more than 20 million customers, Comcast already is the nation’s dominant Internet service provider, controlling about a quarter of the national broadband market and a much higher percentage of the market in many of the local areas in which it operates. By acquiring Time Warner Cable, Comcast would extend its reach substantially, covering millions of additional customers. This would give Comcast even more leverage to manipulate Internet traffic to serve its own corporate interests.” Franken emphasized the importance of net neutrality and that the acquisition “could disrupt this balance of power, resulting in higher costs and fewer choices for consumers” when it comes to the open Internet. Franken is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans a hearing on the proposed deal April 2 at 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen. Comcast has said the transaction would be good for consumers and merits approval. The deal “will bring millions more Americans under the Open Internet rules as soon as our deal closes,” a Comcast spokeswoman said. “We fully expect that the FCC will have in place Open Internet rules that will apply to all companies by the time our current condition from the NBCUniversal deal expires in 2018. That condition was always meant as a bridge to enforceable rules that would be applicable to all companies in the industry.” Comcast always backed the net neutrality rules since they were proposed, the spokeswoman added.

Comments on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization were still coming in to the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday. That committee’s Democratic and Republican leaders had last month asked for answers to several questions on STELA reauthorization, initially setting a deadline of Monday for responses. But snow in Washington caused the committee to postpone the deadline by one day, industry and committee officials said, and several filed Tuesday. Dish and DirecTV filed and released joint comments Monday (CD March 18 p8); other commenters include the American Cable Association, TiVo, the Washington Technology Project and Public Knowledge. Those comments have not been publicly posted. STELA will expire at the end of the year unless Congress reauthorizes it.

Independent TV network Veria Living has begun to air significant concerns about the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal, CEO Eric Sherman told us. He met in Washington with Justice Department officials March 10 and Democratic and Republican staff from the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday. “This was not a courtesy meeting,” Sherman said of the hour-long Justice conversation, a sentiment he repeated about his meeting in the Dirksen building with congressional staff that lasted about as long. Justice had several lawyers at the table and “a long list of questions,” he added. “They were very serious.” Sherman advocated for the position of independent networks that provide original content, with grave concerns laid out about any Comcast/TWC deal and the resulting market power concentration that would follow. He urged against the deal unless there are “carefully worded conditions” applied to it, protecting independent networks, he said. “It’s a very scary situation.” Comcast has defended the proposed deal as good for consumers and argued it merits approval from Justice and the FCC. Congressional staff asked Sherman what a consent decree in the Comcast/TWC deal should look like, he said: “They asked us to suggest language.” Sherman has offered to testify at Senate Judiciary’s April 2 oversight hearing on the deal, slated for 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen, whether just for Veria or potentially on behalf of independent networks overall. He also recounted a “chance meeting” with Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., on the first train ride into Washington. Franken, a Senate Judiciary member and critic of the deal, warned of Comcast’s lobbying power and influence in Washington and “was sympathetic” to Veria Living’s concerns, Sherman said. “We're definitely fighting an uphill battle here, but one we need to be fighting.” Both Justice and Senate Judiciary gave the impression of welcoming other meetings on these issues, Sherman said: “They were very anxious, ‘Send all your friends our way.'”

Senators should file campaign finance reports electronically, just as House members already do, said several McClatchy newspapers and the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) in editorials Sunday and a Monday news release (http://bit.ly/1gvyPS3). “It’s so easy,” said CRP. “It’s so effective. And, thanks to a bipartisan bill that’s been introduced in the Senate, it could easily become law.” CRP referred to the Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, which Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., introduced more than a year ago (http://bit.ly/OwjmuY). The bill has 30 Democratic cosponsors, six Republican cosponsors and two independent cosponsors.

The House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology plans a field hearing on “Expanding Broadband Access and Capabilities to Small Businesses in Rural New York.” The hearing will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Orleans County Legislature, 3 South Main St., in Albion, N.Y. The hearing will “examine access to broadband in rural communities and the role of the federal government in expanding these capabilities to small businesses,” the subcommittee said. Witnesses are NTCA Assistant General Counsel Jill Canfield; Kendra Lamb, owner of Lamb Farms, testifying for the New York Farm Bureau; Mark Meyerhofer, Time Warner Cable director-government relations for northeast and western New York; and Frontier Communications New York Manager-Government Relations Craig Miller. Subcommittee Chairman Chris Collins, R-N.Y., is leading the hearing. It won’t be streamed online, his spokesman told us.

Congress must establish a new Church Committee to tackle questions about government surveillance, said 16 former staffers associated with the first Church Committee established in the 1970s and named for its chairman Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, signing a Monday letter (http://bit.ly/OpaFmz) directed at Congress. It should “create a Church Committee for the 21st Century -- a special investigatory committee to undertake a thorough, and public, examination of current intelligence community practices affecting the rights of Americans and to make specific recommendations for future oversight and reform,” the letter said. “Such a committee would work in good faith with the president, hold public and private hearings, and be empowered to obtain documents.” Surveillance now “dwarfs” that of the ‘70s, they said. Signatories included former chief counsel Frederick Schwarz. At the start of last month, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced a resolution calling for such a select committee (http://bit.ly/1dh2gao).

The Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act should be permanently reauthorized and include major tweaks to the video marketplace, Dish and DirecTV told the Senate Commerce Committee leadership in a letter Monday. Democratic and Republican committee leadership had asked several questions of industry in February, requesting responses no later than Monday. These two companies asked for several changes to STELA, which expires at the end of 2014 unless it’s reauthorized. Congress should ban “joint sales agreements and other collusive methods used by broadcasters” and authorize the FCC “to impose baseball-style arbitration and a standstill so the programming stays up while the parties arbitrate their dispute; or, alternatively, permitting the importation of distant signals during retransmission consent disputes,” they said, also urging Congress to prevent broadcasters from blocking online content to broadcast subscribers of multichannel video programming distributors during disputes. Encourage broadcast programming to be unbundled at both wholesale and retail levels, they added. “Broadcasters abuse their retransmission consent rights during negotiations, using brinksmanship tactics and blackouts to extract ever-greater fees from MVPDs, with no end in sight,” Dish and DirecTV said in a 94-page response, much devoted to appendices. “Blackouts happen when companies like DIRECTV and DISH try to fight back and reject broadcasters’ unreasonable price demands, which often involve rate increases of several hundred percent. Retransmission consent fees raised $758 million for broadcasters in 2009. They hit $3.3 billion in 2013. They are expected to reach $7.6 billion in 2019.” They said retrans blackouts increased by a thousand percent since Congress had passed STELA, which they called “the perfect vehicle” for making video marketplace changes. Broadcasters have long argued for a clean reauthorization of STELA that doesn’t include such broad changes to the video marketplace. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., had introduced the Consumer Choice in Online Video Act, S-1680, last fall, and the committee leadership asked whether its elements should be considered as part of STELA reauthorization. Dish and DirecTV noted “beneficial” provisions in the bill, but “several provisions appear to impose additional, unwarranted regulation on MVPDs,” the two companies said. “One such provision would prohibit many exclusive arrangements -- even those between distributors without market power and unaffiliated programmers.” STELA must pass through the Commerce and Judiciary committees in both chambers, and the House Communications Subcommittee leadership released its first draft of legislation earlier this month.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., again committed to ensuring the FCC develops wireless 911 location accuracy standards. “Thanks to my calls for action, last month the FCC approved a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding 911 calls,” Pryor told emergency responders associated with the Find Me 911 Coalition at a Little Rock, Ark., fire station Monday, according to prepared remarks. “This is a good start, but our work’s not done yet. I'll continue to work closely with my colleagues and the FCC to ensure we address this problem. I won’t give up until our neighbors and friends are able to receive the help they need in times of emergency.” Pryor mentioned a recent subcommittee hearing he held on the topic and his urgings to the FCC that the agency act: “We want our 911 systems to receive accurate location data from all callers, regardless of whether those callers place the call from a landline or wireless phone, from a rural community or urban area, or from inside or outside of a building."

Two Senate Republicans want the FCC to move forward on the USF’s $100 million Remote Areas Fund. Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire wrote a letter, dated Thursday, to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, saying: “If implemented correctly, RAF could potentially provide the most rural areas of the country, including the most rural parts of New Hampshire and Missouri, with access to advanced broadband services” (http://1.usa.gov/1fAJvU9). “We are encouraged that the Commission’s recent IP transitions item included a commitment to address the challenges of providing service to the most remote, unserved areas of the country by the end of 2014,” wrote Ayotte and Blunt. “Please provide us an update as to how the Commission plans to implement the $100 million annual RAF portion within the Universal Service Fund this year."