House and Senate sponsors of Internet accessibility bills hope to pass the legislation this year. At a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said he aims to have S-3304, which he co-sponsored with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., ready for President Barack Obama’s signature this year. Kerry said he hopes to address concerns raised by USTelecom “in the next few days.” Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has a similar bill in the House (HR-3101), agreed in testimony that the bill should be passed this year.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
The three legislators most likely to be the next House Commerce Committee Republican leader have been active on telecom in the Communications Subcommittee. Current Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, could have to relinquish his post after the November election due to a House GOP caucus rule limiting Republicans to three two-year terms at the top of committees, whether the party is in the majority or minority. Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., wants the job, his spokesman said. Telecom industry lobbyists said Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and John Shimkus, R-Ill., may have a better shot.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is drafting spectrum legislation related to the National Broadband Plan goal of freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years for wireless broadband, a Markey spokesman told us Tuesday. He didn’t give more details.
Though time is quickly running out for the 111th Congress, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told us Tuesday he intends to push forward with a proposal to examine whether the Telecom Act needs to be rewritten. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., conceded in a separate interview that time is short.
Congress will develop proposals to update the Communications Act, Democratic Commerce Committee leaders in both houses said Monday. The process will be headed by House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and their Senate counterparts Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and John Kerry, D-Mass. Telcos, broadcasters and Public Knowledge were among those who backed the effort at our deadline.
House Oversight Committee leaders seemed poised at a hearing Thursday to act to accelerate government agencies’ transition to Networx. That’s a General Services Administration program under which federal agencies can buy telecom, network and information services. Agencies must sign on to the program by June 2011, the expiration date for the GSA’s old telecom program, FTS2001. The transition is behind schedule for several reasons, said government and industry officials.
Legislators urged tightened security of veterans’ health and financial information at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In a House Veterans Affairs Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans grilled department officials on steps they're taking to prevent breaches. Roger Baker, chief information officer of the department, admitted weaknesses but cited progress shifting the department’s culture to preclude future threats.
House Communications Subcommittee leaders want to engage industry on net neutrality and adopt a consensus proposal as law, even as the FCC moves to make rules on its own. Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., wants to legislate based on industry consensus, he said at a subcommittee broadband adoption hearing and a conference of the Computer & Communications Industry Association. At the hearing, Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said he’s “100 percent behind” Boucher in the belief that Congress should get involved. But some other legislators questioned the speediness of doing net neutrality on Capitol Hill.
Expanding Lifeline and Link-Up programs to spur broadband adoption by those who can’t afford it should be part of comprehensive Universal Service Fund revamp legislation, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. At a hearing on the FCC’s adoption recommendations made in the National Broadband Plan, Boucher said he wants to work with Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., to integrate her adoption-focused USF bill with his own comprehensive USF bill. Boucher urged the FCC to accelerate its process to finalize details on an intended pilot program, saying the time frame for introducing his bill with Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., is “fairly near term.”
The long-awaited satellite TV reauthorization easily passed the House in a voice vote Wednesday. The bill (S-3333), which would reauthorize direct broadcast satellite distant-signal licenses until through 2014, passed the Senate last week, and now only needs the president’s signature to become law. Democrats and Republicans praised the bill on the House floor before the vote, and there were no objections. After it passed, Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., who was presiding over the House, was heard commenting to an aide, “That was smooth.” The license was originally set to expire at the end of last year, and several extensions had been required.