The Fiscal Responsibility Act debt limit measure (HR-3746), which the House and Senate are to consider this week, includes language that would rescind “unobligated” COVID-19 emergency funding for the FCC and Agriculture Department Rural Utilities Service enacted as part of the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2003270058). The 2020 law allocated $200 million to the FCC “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, including to support efforts of health care providers to address coronavirus by providing telecommunications services, information services, and devices necessary to enable the provision of telehealth services during” the federal government’s COVID-19 emergency period. The statute allocated $25 million to RUS’ Distance Learning, Telemedicine and Broadband Program to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, for telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas.” HR-3746 would allow Congress to continue making advance appropriations for CPB even as it temporarily bars them for most other programs. The measure would leave nondefense spending levels largely at the same level in FY 2024 as lawmakers enacted in December for FY 2023, though Congress hasn’t passed any appropriations legislation for FY24. The House will vote on HR-3746 Wednesday. Its prospects for passage remained uncertain amid resistance from some members of both parties. The Senate would have to act on the measure before June 5, the day the federal government is expected to hit the current debt ceiling.

The House Communications Subcommittee will hold its AM radio hearing (see 2305230047) June 6, the Commerce Committee said Monday. The panel will "examine the role of AM radio following reports that it may be removed in certain vehicles," Commerce said. House Communications Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, will eye whether he will favor pursuing legislation to mandate automakers to keep AM radio technology in future vehicles, like the AM for Every Vehicle Act (HR-3413/S-1669). The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration needs to be transparent about its promotion of surveillance technology in foreign markets, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Friday. He submitted a series of questions to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, asking how the ITA is taking steps to “prevent such technology sales from harming human rights.” He noted ITA informed his office in 2022 it “promoted the sale of surveillance technology, but declined to share which products it promoted, or which foreign markets it targeted.” In March, ITA told his office it “issued a new policy to restrict promotion of surveillance products, but refused to share that policy without a formal letter,” according to Wyden. “Given the Administration’s stated interest in limiting the human rights abuses made possible by these technologies, ITA must be transparent about its past and current promotion of these technologies abroad,” he wrote to Raimondo. He’s seeking answers about how ITA works with companies and the legal restrictions on such action. The department didn’t comment.

The House Homeland Security Committee is seeking a briefing on Chinese state-sponsored malicious cybersecurity activity against American critical infrastructure networks, Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said Thursday in a joint statement with House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, NSA and FBI released a joint cybersecurity advisory with agencies in Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. Wednesday. The advisory detailed how China has been using “legitimate network administration tools” to blend into local networks and “avoid identification by many endpoint detection and response (EDR) products, and limit the amount of activity that is captured in common logging configurations.” China’s goal is to steal intellectual property and sensitive data from organizations around the world, said CISA Director Jen Easterly. The House Homeland Security Committee is “extremely concerned” about the malicious activity, particularly activity in Guam, where there are heightened threats to the U.S. military, said Green and Garbarino: “We will request a briefing to better understand the scope of this activity and the resources needed to defend against any renewed threat. Congress must do everything it can to empower and equip CISA to support critical infrastructure owners and operators to defend their networks.”

Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan endorsed the House Commerce Committee-approved Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565) Wednesday in a letter to bill lead sponsors panel Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The measure, which House Commerce advanced Wednesday on a 55-0 vote (see 2305240069), would renew the FCC’s auction authority through Sept. 30, 2026. It proposes to allocate up to $14.8 billion in future auction proceeds for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and up to $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. “Each of these actions are vital to U.S. competitiveness and national security,” Donovan wrote Rodgers and Pallone. “The lack of spectrum auction authority for the FCC and a strong spectrum pipeline clearly harms CCA members and the customers they serve. Several CCA members are also extremely impacted by the lack of full funding needed” to reimburse providers participating in the rip and replace program. “Beyond the Congressionally-created national security mandate to participate in” rip and replace, “impacted carriers (and the customers and roaming consumers their networks serve) are in imminent jeopardy of network failures and face hard decisions to ‘rip’ but not ‘replace’ due to extreme funding constraints,” Donovan said: The FCC’s upcoming July 15 “deadline to submit a reimbursement claim, triggering the one-year statutory completion timeframe, the continuity of reliable wireless, including emergency services, is at stake in many parts of rural America.”

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Friday, following a government report detailing new abuses, he will oppose reauthorization of the intelligence community’s surveillance authority unless there are major changes. DOJ and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released declassified documents Friday detailing unauthorized surveillance of Americans related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. According to the documents, the FBI did backdoor searches on groups ranging from Black Lives Matter protesters to Jan. 6 rioters. “The FBI says that they have instituted new procedures to make this kind of abuse impossible,” said Nadler. “They have made that promise before. Without significant changes to the law to prevent this abuse, I will oppose the reauthorization of this authority." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also condemned the abuse: “These abuses have been going on for years and despite recent changes in FBI practices, these systematic violations of Americans’ privacy require congressional action. If Section 702 is to be reauthorized, there must be statutory reforms to ensure that the checks and balances are in place to put an end to these abuses.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., led filing Wednesday of the AM for Every Vehicle Act to require automakers to maintain AM radio in new vehicles at no additional charge. The measure would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a rule mandating AM radio access in new vehicles. It would also require automakers that sell vehicles without AM radio before the NHTSA rule takes effect to clearly disclose that lack of access. Markey pressed automakers in December on whether they would include AM receivers. Other lawmakers have also weighed in on the issue recently, including a group of more than 100 House members led by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio (see 2305150063). Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas is the lead GOP sponsor of the bill's Senate version. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and three other Commerce members are co-sponsors. Four lawmakers are co-sponsors of the House version: Tom Kean, R-N.J.; Rob Menendez, D-N.J.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; and Bruce Westerman, R-Ark. NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said the measure “ensures that the tens of million Americans who depend on AM radio for news, entertainment and critical safety information each month can continue to have access to this reliable communications medium. As the backbone of the Emergency Alert System, AM radio is instrumental in promptly disseminating vital information across all mediums during crises, ensuring that communities remain safe and well-informed.”

Members of the Wireless ISP Association will be on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a “fly-in” lobbying day, a spokesperson said. Members of the National Association of Tower Erectors are also taking part and the NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program is expected to “figure prominently” in the discussions, the spokesperson said. The group emphasized the role wireless could play in the BEAD program (see 2302090063).

The House Communications Subcommittee plans to vote Wednesday on a new proposal from Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., to temporarily restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through June 30, plus 27 bills aimed at eliminating communications deployment permitting barriers, the panel said Monday. Rodgers’ legislation comes two months after the FCC’s mandate expired amid a Senate impasse (see 2303090074) over her House-passed bill to renew the authority through May 19 (HR-1108) and an alternative extending it through Sept. 30 (S-650). All four FCC commissioners and other communications policy stakeholders renewed their push for Congress to resurrect the remit (see 2304190069). House Communications members during an April hearing divided along party lines on the Winning the International Race for Economic Leadership and Expanding Service to Support Leadership Act (HR-3279) and the other 26 other bills on the Wednesday markup. The markup session will begin at 1 p.m. or 30 minutes after a Wednesday House Commerce Health Subcommittee meeting ends, whichever is later, in 2123 Rayburn.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and 101 other House members wrote Ford and nine other automakers Monday urging them not to remove AM radio receivers from electric vehicles. Latta and the other House members sent the letters to automakers that previously responded to a December inquiry from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that they would be removing AM receivers and to those that didn’t respond. The other automakers are BMW, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo. Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., pressed the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week on how removal of AM receivers would affect the emergency alert system (see 2305110068). “AM radio has more than 45 million listeners each month, and our constituents rely heavily on it for emergency alerts and local news, information, and weather” forecasts, Latta and the other lawmakers said in the Monday letters. “For rural Americans, the importance of having access to AM radio in their car or truck is particularly important. When Internet connectivity and cell phone service is limited or unavailable, these residents do not have as many options to access emergency information as those living in more densely populated areas. AM radio stations are often our constituents’ ‘go to’ source for information in times of crisis. We cannot deprive them of that free, life-saving resource.” The lawmakers want the automakers to respond by May 26. NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said the House members "understand the critical role that AM radio plays in disseminating vital information to the public, particularly in times of emergency. Tens of millions of Americans listen to AM radio each month for its local and diverse content and we applaud these lawmakers for their commitment to their constituents who depend on AM."