The House Commerce Committee unanimously advanced the Future Uses of Technology Upholding Reliable and Enhancing Networks Act (HR-1513) and three communications equipment security measures Wednesday, as expected (see 2403190062). Also on the agenda: the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act (HR-820), Countering CCP Drones Act (HR-2864) and Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security Act (HR-7589). HR-820 would require the FCC to publish a list of communications companies with agency licenses or other authorizations in which China and other foreign adversaries’ governments hold at least a 10% ownership stake (see 2210250067). HR-1513 would direct the FCC to establish a 6G task force that provides recommendations about ensuring U.S. leadership in developing that technology’s standards. HR-2864 would add Chinese drone manufacturer Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) to the FCC’s covered entities list. HR-7521 would direct the Commerce Department to “specify what transactions involving routers, modems, or devices that combine a modem and a router are prohibited” under a 2019 executive order by then-President Donald Trump’s that barred transactions involving information and communications technologies that pose an “undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of” U.S.-based communications services (see 1905150066). “China poses a serious threat to America's national security across the board, including to our critical communications infrastructure,” said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., during the committee meeting. “We know that the [Chinese Communist Party] will utilize every tool at its disposal to exploit vulnerabilities in our communications networks, which is why this committee has taken decisive action in these areas. Failure to address these exceedingly complex threats not only jeopardizes our economic competitiveness and national security, but also risks ceding ground to an adversarial power intent on undermining American leadership.” The four bills “will help protect American networks from security threats, while also allowing our country to remain a global leader in communications technology,” said panel ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. He singled out HR-1513, which “will help us understand the potential risks to best protect our networks and strengthen the technologies designed.”

The Free State Foundation believes Republicans' use of Congressional Review Act authority in their resolution of disapproval to undo the FCC’s digital discrimination order (H.J.Res. 107/S.J.Res. 64) is "a "necessary and proper" means of scuttling the commission's "unlawful" action. The CRA "provides a means for Congress to rein in overreaching administrative agencies that have abused their authority," FSF tweeted. Republicans face long odds of enacting H.J.Res. 107/S.J.Res. 64 because it's unlikely any Senate Democrats will back the measure and President Joe Biden would probably veto it (see 2402260001). The digital discrimination order faces multiple legal challenges, now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2403140042).

The Senate Commerce Committee confirmed plans Friday for a March 21 spectrum policy-focused hearing, as expected (see 2403140044). Ahead of the hearing, panel chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was eyeing a set of slimmed-down spectrum legislative proposals the Congressional Budget Office evaluated at her request, including a potential five-to-seven-year reauthorization of the FCC’s auction authority (see 2403140066). Cantwell was doubtful Thursday those proposals would be ready for inclusion in a coming FY 2024 “minibus” appropriations package to provide additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403150063). The March 21 hearing “will focus on how a coordinated and comprehensive approach to domestic spectrum policy is critical to U.S. national security,” Senate Commerce said. “A unified approach will enable the [U.S.] to lead internationally, which will help counter threats like those from Huawei and ZTE.” Renewing the FCC’s mandate, “engaging in fact-based spectrum decision-making, and investing in dynamic spectrum sharing and other technologies will ensure the [U.S.] leads in spectrum use policy that protects the nation’s critical national security and economic competitiveness missions,” the panel said. Open Radio Access Network Coalition Executive Director Diane Rinaldo, a former acting NTIA administrator, is among those set to testify. Also on the docket: WifiForward Executive Director Mary Brown; Hudson Institute Center for the Economics of the Internet Director Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican former FCC commissioner; University of Notre Dame professor Monisha Ghosh; and Center for Strategic Studies senior fellow Clete Johnson. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. CTIA praised plans for the hearing. The group is “committed to working with Congress to incorporate the key missing piece to successful legislation and that is the inclusion of specific targets for auctioned spectrum. Every prior multi-year extension of FCC authority -- in 1997, 2006 and 2012 -- included specific amounts of spectrum for auction that now power our world-leading networks. Failing to include specific direction now risks setting us back half a decade or more and foreclosing critical opportunities to make new 5G spectrum available, which is critical to our national and economic security.”

Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (Texas) and 18 other Senate Republicans are pursuing a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to undo the FCC’s digital discrimination order that mirrors a January House measure (H.J.Res. 107), as expected (see 2402260001). The digital discrimination order faces multiple legal challenges, now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2403140042). “Despite admitting there’s ‘little to no evidence’ of discrimination by broadband companies, the Biden administration has plowed ahead with government-mandated affirmative action and race-based pricing for broadband,” Cruz said Thursday. “The only beneficiaries of the FCC’s Orwellian ‘equity’ plan are overzealous government regulators who want to control the internet. This resolution will roll back FCC Democrats’ unlawful power grab.” The other Republican co-sponsors include Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune (S.D.). Cruz, Thune and other Republican senators urged the agency in November to reconsider the then-draft rules (see 2311130059). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters Thursday she has “confidence in” the FCC’s digital discrimination rules “and that our work is consistent with” authorizing language in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Thursday introduced legislation that would require police to get a warrant before accessing U.S. communications obtained through foreign intelligence surveillance authorities. The Security and Freedom Enhancement (Safe) Act would require a warrant for law enforcement to access data obtained through Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702, which expires April 19. Law enforcement could still run queries without obtaining a warrant under the proposal.

The House passed the Eliminating Barriers to Rural Internet Development Grant Eligibility Act (HR-1752) Monday night by a 375-20 vote. The House cleared the measure in 2021 also (see 2111040067). It would ease access to Economic Development Administration grants for broadband projects, allowing the agency to award the money to public-private partnerships and consortiums.

The Senate voted 63-33 Friday afternoon to invoke cloture on the motion to concur on the House-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 appropriations minibus package (HR-4366), which includes cutting annual funding for NTIA and other Commerce Department agencies but a slight increase for the DOJ Antitrust Division (see 2403060062). The cloture vote set up a final vote on the measure as soon as Friday night, but there could be a delay because some Republican senators are seeking floor votes on proposed amendments. Commerce and other federal agencies covered in the minibus would see their appropriations lapse after midnight if the Senate didn't approve HR-4366 by that time.

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and more than two-dozen others, including former aides to ex-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, believe House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) and other congressional GOP leaders should “swiftly hold NTIA accountable” for “weaponizing” the broadband equity, access and deployment program. NTIA appears to be violating language in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that bars rate regulation in the BEAD program by forcing "a $30 per month mandate on all states that participate,” Norquist and the others wrote in a letter to Republican leaders released Thursday. NTIA is instead instituting a “price fix by proxy” that rejects state BEAD applications "until the desired price point is included,” they added. The rate regulation opponents cited NTIA’s rejection last year of the Virginia Office of Broadband’s Volume 2 application “because ‘the low-cost option must be established in the Initial proposal as an exact price or formula.’” Virginia “has proposed multiple compromises between their desired market-driven approach to middle class affordability and NTIA’s preferred $30 per month mandate, but all have been rejected,” Norquist and the others told the GOP lawmakers, including House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (Texas). “NTIA may try to hide behind the fig leaf of state-level cut-outs, but their repeated rejections of reasonable alternatives betray their agenda,” the letter said. NTIA’s actions are “a direct violation of federal law” and run counter to Administrator Alan Davidson’s promise during a December House Communications Subcommittee hearing (see 2312050076) “that his agency would not require rate regulation” of BEAD participants. House Commerce Republicans renewed their rate regulation concerns to NTIA later that month (see 2312180063). NTIA didn’t immediately comment.

President Joe Biden should “refocus on the real harms of Big Tech” during his State of the Union address, including “monopoly power and surveillance capitalism as a business model,” Fight for the Future said Thursday. Biden’s speech was set to begin at 9 p.m. EST. The president “should say clearly that he does not support slashing” the DOJ Antitrust Division’s appropriation for FY 2024, FFTF said. The Senate was expected to vote as soon as Thursday afternoon on the House-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act FY24 appropriations minibus package (HR-4366), which allocates DOJ Antitrust $233 million (see 2403060062). That’s more than 3% above what the agency received for FY 2023 but 28% less than what the Biden administration requested (see 2303130070). The White House has already said it supports the overall minibus. Biden should “call for strong privacy and antitrust legislation rather than legislation that will enable an increase in censorship and the expansion of surveillance,” FFTF said. “What we need are policies that regulate surveillance, not speech, and design, not content. We also need antitrust actions to break up monopolies to ensure there is space for privacy-preserving or community-owned platforms and tools to grow. We’d like to hear” Biden "champion ... antitrust enforcement by supporting agencies and giving them the tools and budget they need to do their jobs.”

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., on Wednesday blocked a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for unanimous consent on a trio of child-online-safety-related bills. On the Senate floor, Graham had the bipartisan support of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo. They sought passage of the Earn It Act, the Stop Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (Stop CSAM) Act and the Shield Act (see 2402060084). However, Wyden objected to passage of the Earn It Act and the Stop CSAM Act because they would “weaken” encryption standards by exposing social media companies to liability for securing messages. Weakening encryption will allow child predators to better track and exploit victims, said Wyden. Meanwhile, Booker objected to the Shield Act, a Klobuchar and Cornyn bill that would establish criminal liability for individuals who share or threaten to share intimate content without consent. Sextortion scams resulted in at least 20 victims, including children, dying by suicide in 2022, Klobuchar noted. Booker said he shares the goal of holding criminals liable, but the bill would create “unintended consequences.” The N.J. Democrat said he’s working with Klobuchar on changes in the bill but didn’t specify his concerns on the floor. There’s no disagreement these bills attempt to address the harm caused by “people who are evil to their core," said Wyden, but he said there’s disagreement about how to address that. Wyden said Congress should pass his legislation increasing resources for investigators and prosecutors (see 2402270069). In addition, Wyden said he agrees child abuse is a “horrible plague on the internet,” and criminals need to be “hunted down and locked up.”