Adam Bender

The White House may brief Hill staffers Friday on President Barack Obama’s recent spectrum announcement related to the National Broadband Plan, Hill and industry officials said. The same day, House and Senate Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee staffers are expected to meet with industry about spectrum issues in the third of a series of discussions about updating the Telecom Act. Massachusetts Democrats Rep. Ed Markey and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry are preparing major spectrum bills to complement the White House effort (CD June 29 p1). Their legislation may surface within the next two weeks, a wireless industry official said. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, plans next week to offer his amendment to FCC budget legislation that would stop the commission from using Congressional funding to increase Internet regulation, his spokesman said Tuesday. “The amendment is still being drafted, but [Culberson] plans to offer it at the yet-to-be scheduled markup sometime next week” of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, the spokesman said. Culberson previewed the proposed amendment at the subcommittee’s June hearing and again in an op-ed Monday (CD July 13 p8).

Cybersecurity is a legislative priority for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., his spokeswoman said. He and Senate committee chairmen hope to introduce and vote on a comprehensive bill this September, Senate staffers said. Challenges remain, including working out differences between two major bills by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and getting approval from Republicans and the House, said Senate and industry officials. Negotiations over the next three to four weeks will be critical, said an aide.

Comcast made new diversity commitments relating to the NBC Universal deal, including a promise to put $20 million into a venture capital fund. In a letter to Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and statements Thursday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing in Chicago, Comcast executives emphasized increasing the presence of blacks and other minorities in employment and programs. The concessions came after criticisms by Rush and other members of Congress, as well as civil rights groups, of a lack of diversity at the two companies. Meanwhile, a new coalition, mostly of long-time foes of the deal, has formed.

President Barack Obama unveiled $795 million in broadband grants and loans the morning after the House appropriators passed an amendment to take back $602 million in available broadband money. The latest batch of awards was matched by $200 million in outside investment, and will benefit 685,000 businesses, 900 healthcare facilities, 2,400 schools and “tens of millions of Americans,” the White House said.

It was “more of the same” in the second Hill talk among House and Senate Commerce Committee staffers and about 30 outside parties interested in updating the Telecom Act, said attendee Andrew Schwartzman, senior vice president of the Media Access Project. The gathering, held behind closed doors Friday morning in the Russell Senate Office Building, was a follow up to a June 25 meeting hosted by the House (CD June 28 p1). All attendees from the previous week except Sprint Nextel and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation returned.

House Communications Subcommittee leaders met Thursday with ISPs and others about narrow legislation on network neutrality and the FCC’s broadband jurisdiction. Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., invited Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and most of the companies that talked to the FCC behind closed doors (CD June 25 p8) on June 21, Boucher said. Attendees included AT&T, Verizon, NCTA, Google and the Open Internet Coalition, industry officials said.

Industry endorsed digital goods tax legislation introduced late Wednesday by House Communications Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. The bill (HR-5649) would set up “a uniform national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services,” Boucher said on the House floor late Wednesday. The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would cover digital music, movies and games, as well as the electronic delivery of professional, educational and health care services.

A former FCC political appointee who got a career job at NASA in 2008 was listed in a GAO report released Tuesday which was critical of the practice known as “burrowing.” Unlike political appointments, career jobs don’t end at the end of an administration. “Burrowing,” or moving to a career job from a political post, isn’t necessarily wrong, but “Federal agencies must use appropriate authorities and follow proper procedures in making these conversions,” GAO said. The NASA/FCC listing wasn’t among cases marked by GAO in the report as possibly inappropriate. The appointee, although not named by GAO, was identified as a “deputy chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau” who joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston sometime between May 1, 2005 and April 30, 2009, GAO said. The individual made $158,800 at the FCC and $158,500 at NASA, GAO said. Those details match those of the Johnson Center’s current director of external relations, Ellen Conners, who joined in 2008 after leaving a post as deputy Enforcement Bureau chief. Conners previously served two years as chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board under former President George W. Bush. A GAO spokesman declined to name the person, and Conners didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The House Communications Subcommittee approved Internet accessibility legislation in a voice vote Wednesday afternoon, with a manager’s amendment by Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. Boucher said he hoped to offer another manager’s amendment later to address “remaining points of difference,” including those related to video description rules. Meanwhile, disabilities rights advocates were upset after learning the amendment cut out a provision that would subsidize broadband services and equipment for people with disabilities.