The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed report on the Financial Services Subcommittee-cleared measure to fund the FCC and FTC in FY 2022 seeks further work on changes to USF contribution rules and wants additional study of how municipal broadband can expand connectivity access. The committee was still considering the underlying bill late Tuesday afternoon. Dueling panels of telecom policy officials disagreed on how lawmakers should translate into legislation the $65 billion broadband component in a bipartisan infrastructure package framework President Joe Biden endorsed last week (see 2106240070).
FTC confirms Chair Lina Khan names three officials, who have been advisers to Commissioner Rohit Chopra, to new posts: Holly Vedova as acting director, Competition Bureau; Sam Levine for acting director, Consumer Protection Bureau; and Erie Meyer is the agency’s chief technologist and policy adviser to Khan ... Covington & Burling taps Brian Nester, ex-Sidley Austin, as partner, Patent Litigation Practice; his telecom and chip clients included Intel, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung.
The House Judiciary Committee wrapped up the previous day’s markup Thursday by passing its sixth antitrust bill aimed at Big Tech competition (see 2106230063). The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act (HR-3843), passed 29-12. Republicans voting yes: House Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck, Colo., and Reps. Matt Gaetz, Fla.; Chip Roy, Texas; Victoria Spartz, Ind.; and Burgess Owens, Utah. The State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act, passed 34-7. Republicans voting no on HR-3460: Darrell Issa, Calif.; Tom McClintock, Calif.; Thomas Massie, Ky.; and Michelle Fischbach, Minn. Democrats voting no: Zoe Lofgren, Eric Swalwell and Lou Correa, all from California. The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act, passed 25-19. Republicans voting yes: Buck, Gaetz and Owens. Democrats voting no: Lofgren, Swalwell and Correa. HR-3826, the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, passed 23-18. Republicans voting for HR-3849: Buck, Gaetz and Dan Bishop, N.C. Democrats voting no: Lofgren, Swalwell and Correa. The American Choice and Innovation Online Act, passed 24-20. Republicans voting for HR-3816: Buck, Gaetz and Owens. Democrats voting no: Lofgren, Swalwell, Correa and Greg Stanton, Ariz. The Ending Platform Monopolies Act (HR-3825) passed 21-20. Republicans voting yes: Buck and Gaetz. Democrats voting no: Lofgren, Swalwell, Correa and Stanton. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters there was “concern on both sides of the aisle about the consolidation of power of the tech companies, and this legislation is an attempt to address that.” Republicans plan to introduce alternative legislation to hold Big Tech accountable, said House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio: “Rather than address Republican concerns of bias and censorship on the internet, Democrats spent the last two days pushing radical antitrust legislation that will systematically change the United States economy.”
The House Judiciary Committee passed bills aimed at Big Tech competition. Members from both parties in interviews defended the committee’s decision to move forward with Wednesday’s markup, despite industry's calls for delay (see 2106220061). The committee was deliberating four other pieces of legislation at our deadline.
The refiled Broadband Reform and Investment to Drive Growth in the Economy Act drew criticism last week. S-2071, billed as a bipartisan alternative to infrastructure proposals, would allocate $40 billion for broadband (see 2106150089). The measure “ignores the massive amount of money that the federal government has allocated, but not spent” via the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, emergency broadband benefit program and Emergency Connectivity Fund, said TechFreedom General Counsel James Dunstan Friday: “Then there’s the $360 billion in the last stimulus bill, potentially all of which could be used for broadband. The spreadsheet on NTIA’s BroadbandUSA website shows almost 100 different federal projects with money” available. The Free State Foundation also slammed S-2071. Incompas CEO Chip Pickering and Mignon Clyburn, co-chair of the new BroadLand campaign for the group, said the bill's refiling "sends a strong message to the rest of the world that the United States will indeed be ready for the jobs of tomorrow."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, bowed the Facilitating American-Built Semiconductors Act Thursday. It would create a 25% tax credit for chipmaking investments. “The supply of everything from computers to cars is affected by these shortages, and the way to fix this problem is to bring chip manufacturing back to” the U.S., Wyden said. The Semiconductor Industry Association praised the bill.
Broadcast advertising revenue is improving as jurisdictions reopen, streaming services are putting increasing pressure on MVPDs, and sports betting is on the rise as a category, panelists told S&P's Kagan Media Summit. Core ads are “set up for a growth streak,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley on Thursday. “Habits picked up during the pandemic are likely to have lasting effects on video consumption,” said Kagan's Deana Myers.
Semiconductor Industry Association CEO John Neuffer was unfazed by criticism of fully funding the Chips Act to promote long-term leadership and resilience in U.S. chipmaking -- as last week’s White House supply chain report recommended (see our report here). This won't become a handout to wealthy chip companies and will be the incentive the industry seeks to boost U.S. standing in global semiconductors, he said. The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260) cleared the Senate last week by “a very strong bipartisan vote” with $52 billion in U.S. chipmaking and R&D incentives, he told an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar Wednesday. “Now the battle goes to the House, and we’re very optimistic that something good is going to come out of that, so that the president will have a bill to sign.” The way that Chips Act funding in S-1260 is structured, “sure, there’s going to be grants involved, but there’s going to be far more investments required from private sector players,” said Neuffer. “These are solid companies that have to have a lot of capital to be able to do these kinds of investments.” The most “leading-edge” fabs cost $30 billion to build, he said. No policymaker should “adopt a goal of decoupling” U.S. chip production from global supply chains that are heavily concentrated in East Asia, said Neuffer. He cited a September SIA-Boston Consulting Group report.
Don’t count out the U.S. from again becoming a chipmaking powerhouse, reported the Hinrich Foundation Tuesday. Despite higher costs and lack of “large-scale local manufacturing ecosystems,” semiconductor production looks set to return to the U.S., it said. “This is a testament to the primacy of geopolitics over markets and the role of techno-nationalism in shaping the future.” Reshoring chip manufacturing to the U.S. won’t be easy due to the lack of a domestic manufacturing base and “the dearth of highly skilled labor required for complex chip manufacturing,” it said. But recent developments, including Intel’s $20 billion investment to expand operations in Chandler, Arizona, with two new foundries (see 2103240011), signal the U.S. “can arrest the free-fall of its chip manufacturing ability despite there still being a lot of ground to recover.”
The U.S. hasn't done a good job responding proportionately to cyberattacks, House Homeland Security Committee ranking member John Katko, R-N.Y., told an American Enterprise Institute webinar Friday: "The bad guys don't take you seriously unless you whack the hell out of them." Diplomacy doesn't work because countries that enable attacks understand only strength and power, which the U.S. isn't projecting, he said. Until recently, cyberattacks had little visible public impact, but the Colonial Pipeline hack let people see the disruption that stopped them from buying gas, he said. Katko criticized President Joe Biden's budget request for the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, saying it doesn't appear to match Biden's rhetoric on cybersecurity. Information-sharing in the cybercommunity is in its infancy, and the U.S. needs better reporting of cyber incidents, Katko said. One key issue is how to encourage the private sector to share information without worrying about lawsuits and immunity from liability, he said. Colonial Pipeline, SolarWinds and other incidents show malefactors are ratcheting up attacks and have figured out that going for critical infrastructure is "where the rubber meets the road." Asked about possible regulation, Katko said it's under discussion. One idea would be to require companies to certify in SEC 10-K filings they're adhering to cybersecurity best practices. Katko has floated legislation aimed at beefing up cybersecurity standards in the critical infrastructure industry, and said such other measures could be rolled out sector by sector. Lack of chips is also a serious threat the U.S. must address by bringing some manufacturing home, he said. Asked what responsibility industry bears to balance security with new technologies such as 5G and quantum computing, the lawmaker sought standards. U.S. companies paid $350 million in ransomware payments in 2020, up 171% from 2019, said AEI Resident Fellow Klon Kitchen.