The House Communications Subcommittee plans May hearings on the FY 2025 budget requests for the FCC and NTIA, the Commerce Committee said Friday. President Joe Biden in March proposed $448 million for the FCC in FY25 and $65 million for NTIA (see 2403110056). The FCC hearing, set for May 7, would happen less than two weeks after the commission is expected to vote in favor of net neutrality rules that largely mirror a rescinded 2015 order. House Communications Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, previously predicted the subpanel would hold more hearings on the FCC’s net neutrality actions (see 2404180058). The NTIA hearing will happen May 15.

Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., filed dueling bills Friday to cut off federal money for NPR and “any successor organization” in response to recent claims of pro-Democratic political bias at the broadcasting network. Both lawmakers named their bills the Defund NPR Act. Tenney’s legislation would also direct CPB to claw back advance allocations for NPR for fiscal years 2024, 2025 and 2026 to “reduce the public debt.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is also eyeing legislation to kill NPR's federal funding. The network has drawn increased ire from conservative media organizations over its disciplining of now-former editor Uri Berliner for publishing an essay criticizing the organization for appearing to stray into open advocacy against former President Donald Trump and other conservatives. Berliner resigned Wednesday after NPR suspended him without pay for five days. NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who took that job March 25, has been a focus of criticism in the wake of Berliner’s resignation and her own past support for President Joe Biden’s 2020 election over Trump. NPR “has been a liberal propaganda machine for years” and Congress shouldn’t appropriate it “another dime,” Banks said in a Fox News opinion piece. “American taxpayers should not be forced to fund NPR, which has become a partisan propaganda machine,” Tenney said. Congress allocated CPB $535 million in advance funding for FY 2026 as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package Biden signed in March (see 2403210067). House Appropriations Committee Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to end CPB's advance funding as part of FY24 spending legislation (see 2307140069). Biden is proposing to increase CPB’s advance funding to $595 million for FY 2027 (see 2403110056), while the House Republican Study Committee wants to fully end that allocation. Past attempts to end NPR's part of CPB federal funding have failed, including a bid during the FY24 cycle by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas (see 2311030069).

Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., said during a Thursday Punchbowl News event he will “very shortly” roll out a resolution aimed at allowing 5G innovation in the U.S. to “continue” amid uncertainty about when Congress will restore the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. “There is incredible interest from my colleagues” in both parties for the resolution, he said. Joyce remains hopeful that Congress still has a chance to renew the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority “by the end of the year” despite more than a year of stalled progress in talks aimed at reauthorizing the mandate as part of a broader legislative package (see 2404110059). Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others are shopping new spectrum proposals in hopes of jump-starting the talks (see 2403210063). Restoring the FCC’s authority not only is positive … for anyone who logs on, it’s positive for industry because competition can continue to occur,” said Joyce, a House Communications Subcommittee member. “It’s what’s needed worldwide so that we can” be as dominant on 5G as the U.S. was with 4G. “We’re gonna lose out to China if we don’t have that reauthorization.” He pointed to enactment of his 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act in late December to give the FCC temporary authority to issue 2.5 GHz band licenses that T-Mobile and others won in a 2022 auction (see 2312200061) as an example of Congress being able to quickly move on airwaves issues when necessary. “We have a very short window … to get this completed,” Joyce said.

The Senate’s debate over reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was expected to extend into Friday, with several senators trying to alter language from the House-passed FISA bill. FISA and surveillance authorities under Section 702 are set to expire at midnight Friday. The chamber voted 67-32 to advance FISA on Thursday, taking the first of three procedural votes needed to move to final passage. “We obviously don’t have a lot of time left,” Schumer said, adding that his plan was for final passage Thursday. “Members should expect we’ll have votes tomorrow” if there’s not a final result Thursday. Several senators, including Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Rand Paul, R-Ky.; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., are opposed to the House-passed bill due to privacy concerns. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., filed an amendment that would add a warrant requirement for intelligence agencies seeking to access communications from American citizens. An effort to add a warrant requirement failed in the House 212-212 last week (see 2404120044). “We need to add the warrant requirement,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told us Thursday. Wyden filed an amendment to strike language from the House Intelligence Community, which privacy hawks say would expand agencies’ access to information from virtually any device. The language from House Intelligence is broad and “deliberately, badly written,” said Hawley. The House bill could sweep in data from landlords who provide Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi maintenance professionals, said Hawley. He said he’s ok with FISA lapsing if it means the Senate is able to better protect privacy. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said opponents are mischaracterizing the language. The “telecom world has changed since 2008,” he said, citing the development of cloud computing and data centers. “You have to update your definitions. I think that’s what [House Intelligence] tried to do.” If the Senate opts to alter the House bill through amendments, the program “goes dark,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Wireless ISP Association members were on Capitol Hill Wednesday for meetings with more than 50 Senate and House members and their staffs, the group said. The association's message was that its members “bring reliable broadband to 10 million Americans in rural, under-resourced and Tribal areas, making lives there better, safer and more prosperous,” WISPA said: “As Washington works to eradicate the digital divide, those programs have a far better chance of achieving their goals where WISPs are involved.” WISPA noted there are some 2,700 WISPs in the U.S. “WISPs offer cost-effective, competitive, and innovative service options in areas which have been left behind by legacy providers or large national corporations,” WISPA said.

A reshuffle of the House Appropriations Committee’s leadership has shifted Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, to be Financial Services Subcommittee chairman, new panel Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Thursday night. The subcommittee handles federal funding for the FCC and FTC. Former Financial Services lead Steve Womack, R-Ark., now heads the Transportation Subcommittee. Cole took the House Appropriations gavel last week, replacing now-former Chair Kay Granger, R-Texas. Cole said Friday that Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt to end advance federal funding for CPB as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069), will remain chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., will continue to chair the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is pressing the Commerce Department over NOAA’s proposal for creating the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of central California amid concerns over “new regulatory impediments” to permitting undersea fiber cable installations in that area. He noted NTIA’s role in implementing $48.2 billion in connectivity money from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and contrasted that with NOAA’s evaluation of the Chumash NMS, which “envisions adding additional layers of dated bureaucratic red tape to the existing permitting process.” NOAA has acknowledged “‘several U.S. agencies have legal authority to regulate the laying and maintenance of cables off our nation’s shores,’ in addition to state regulatory requirements,” Comer said Friday in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “Despite NOAA’s admission,” the 2011 undersea cable permitting policy the agency “proposes to use for the permitting of undersea internet cables in the Chumash Heritage NMS … has been so onerous that the Committee could not identify a single example of a new undersea communications cable deployed in an NMS governed under the policy.” Some “of the designated NMS sites across the U.S. protect areas that undersea cables might seek to simply avoid,” but “the proposed designation of the Chumash Heritage NMS would fill the last gap off the California coast already utilized by numerous cables for trans-Pacific connectivity,” Comer said: “Substantial cost increases for internet infrastructure connecting the U.S. West Coast to Asia and U.S. Pacific territories, delays, and new maintenance restrictions created by imposition of the 2011 permitting guidance under the Chumash Heritage NMS designation, if left unaddressed, will seemingly occur if NOAA moves forward without mitigating onerous requirements that empower bureaucrats but offer little benefit to marine environments.” NOAA “has proposed substantial revisions to its Chumash Heritage NMS designation as a concession to facilitate undersea electrical cables for offshore wind energy projects” but has “invested little time or effort into analyzing the impact of the designation on existing and potential future use of areas for undersea fiber-optic cables,” he said. Comer pressed Commerce to brief House Oversight about how NOAA and NTIA evaluated the Chumash designation’s impact on undersea cables. NOAA “will review the letter and answer the congressman through official channels,” a spokesperson emailed us.

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said Thursday she has appointed Rep. Randy Weber (Texas) as Communications Subcommittee vice chair. The post has been vacant since former Vice Chair Buddy Carter (Ga.) relinquished it in January to become Environment Subcommittee chairman (see 2402290054). Weber was among nine Republicans who joined House Commerce last year (see 2301110046). Rodgers also slightly reshuffled House Commerce subcommittees’ GOP rosters. Mariannette Miller Meeks (Iowa) joined House Communications, while Troy Balderson (Ohio) is leaving the subpanel. John James (Mich.) and Jay Obernolte (Calif.) will join the Innovation Subcommittee, while Rick Allen (Ga.) and Greg Pence (Ind.) will leave the subpanel. The reshuffling follows the January departure (see 2401020056) of former House Communications member Bill Johnson, R-Ohio.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers Tuesday introduced the House version of the Kids Online Safety Act (see 2401300086). House Innovation Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., introduced KOSA with Reps. Kathy Castor, D-Fla.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Kim Schrier, D-Wash. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., authored the Senate version, which the Senate Commerce Committee approved in July (see 2207270057). Castor also joined a bipartisan effort in introducing the House version of another Senate Commerce-passed kids’ safety bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). Castor introduced the bill with Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich. The House Commerce Committee is set to consider the bills and the American Privacy Rights Act (see 2404080062) at a legislative hearing Wednesday. “It is time for Congress to come together on comprehensive data privacy and security standards that put Americans back in control of their information online," House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said in a joint statement with ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

House Republicans on Wednesday tanked a procedural vote that would have allowed debate on legislation reauthorizing intelligence agencies’ surveillance authority (see 2404090055). Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats in voting down a rule that would have allowed the lower chamber to consider reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the statute. The House voted 193-228 against the measure. That followed a Wednesday post from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who urged members to “KILL FISA,” claiming it was used to interfere with his campaign. Republicans voting against the rule included Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Chip Roy (Texas). House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Wednesday that Trump is “not wrong, of course. They abused FISA.” He noted, however, that reforms in the proposal would create criminal and civil penalties for documented abuse. The Trump administration relied on Section 702 to “kill terrorists,” Johnson said. Section 702 is set to expire April 19.