The House Oversight Subcommittee will host a hearing April 19 on the “role of data brokers in the digital economy,” the House Commerce Committee announced Wednesday. The hearing is to start at 2 p.m. in 2322 Rayburn.

The House Communications Subcommittee plans an April 19 hearing on 32 bills aimed at streamlining permitting processes to aid broadband deployment, many of which House Commerce Committee Republicans filed during the last two Congresses when they were in the minority (see 2006250068). "To close the digital divide and further America’s leadership in next generation broadband and wireless networks, we need effective reforms to accelerate the build out of high-speed connections and boost U.S. competition," said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio. "These bills ... will help streamline permitting delays, make an immediate difference for communities across the country, and encourage investment in faster, more affordable communications services for Americans." Filed bills on the docket include the Broadband Incentives for Communities Act (HR-1241) and Community Broadband Act (HR-2552). The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.

FTC Chair Lina Khan’s “refusal” to provide documents on agency action against Twitter after Elon Musk bought the platform is “unacceptable,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Wednesday, issuing a subpoena (see 2303100065). The committee is authorized to oversee agency actions on protection of trade and commerce “against unlawful restraints and monopolies” to aid in legislative activity, said Jordan. “The FTC respects the important role of congressional oversight," an agency spokesperson said Wednesday. "We have made multiple offers to brief Chairman Jordan’s staff on our investigation into Twitter. Those are standing offers made prior to this entirely unnecessary subpoena.”

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks urged Congress to “fully fund” the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program amid its current $3.08 billion shortfall. Lawmakers proposed in a scuttled December spectrum legislative package to use some proceeds from future sales of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and other frequencies to provide the additional rip and replace money (see 2212190069). The Chinese government’s use of spy balloons over the U.S. this year should be “the catalyst for us to eliminate the threat of Chinese government intelligence operations already imbedded in our telecommunications infrastructure once and for all,” Peters and Starks wrote Thursday in a Hill opinion piece. The $3.08 billion shortfall “no doubt is a significant expense. But the cost of failing to secure our networks is orders of magnitude higher.” If “the shortfall goes unaddressed” by July 15, “the FCC will be required to reimburse rip and replace projects at only 40 cents on the dollar,” which “will mean in some cases indefinite delays in securing our networks and the rationing of wireless service across rural America,” Peters and Starks said: “Compounding this issue is the fact that for providers who can’t afford to rip and replace without a higher subsidy, they will lose” USF access, forcing “rural communities to live with a disastrous choice: insecure services ripe for surveillance or no service at all. That is unacceptable.”

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Health Subcommittee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith, R-Va., sought information from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Wednesday on its implementation of the 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The GOP leaders noted in a letter to SAMHSA Administrator Miriam Delphin-Rittmon that the agency got $282 million in federal funding for 988 during FY 2022, but “the national suicide hotline crashed late last year.” Rodgers and the other lawmakers want SAMHSA to give them information by April 18 on why it sought additional 988 funding after having spent an initial $105 million on the hotline by December 2021 and why the Dec. 1 outage of the system happened (see 2301260041) “after all the financial support.” The House Commerce Committee unanimously advanced the 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act (HR-498) in March in response to the outage. It would amend the 2020 National Suicide Hotline Designation Act to require improved coordination and reporting on potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the 9-8-8 lifeline, with the goal of mitigating future cyberattacks and preventing disruption of services. SAMHSA didn’t comment.

Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Todd Young, R-Ind., led 26 other senators in pressing the FCC to expedite rollout of the ATSC 3.0 Next Gen TV standard. The FCC is unlikely to vote soon on a draft report and order to extend the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements indefinitely (see 2303130068). “The Next Gen TV standard is essential to the continued vitality and competitiveness of local television broadcasters’ free, local, and trusted service in our communities,” Schatz and the other senators said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released Wednesday. “More than 60% of Americans have access to Next Gen TV,” but streaming platforms have the potential to supplant broadcast in markets where broadcasters haven’t upgraded. That means “broadcasters’ proven, decades-long investment in local news content will be undermined and, most important, viewers will lose a competitive option that is available for free over the air,” the senators said: “A successful ATSC 3.0 transition should be a priority of the FCC going forward to ensure that local broadcasters can continue to best serve their communities as a trusted source of local news. Just as the FCC has successfully championed other innovative technologies like 5G, Wi-Fi, and the 2009 digital TV transition, we believe” the commission should “take an active role in addressing the complex -- but imminently solvable -- questions posed by the transition from ATSC 1.0” to 3.0. “We’ve received and are reviewing the letter,” an FCC spokesperson emailed. NAB hailed the letter, with Curtis LeGeyt saying the FCC’s “championing of ATSC 3.0 is critical to ensure a successful transition to this groundbreaking technology.”

A bill that would allow news organizations to negotiate with the tech industry for compensation when platforms like Google and Facebook host news content was reintroduced Friday. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., refiled the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (see 2212060065) with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. Co-sponsors include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The committee passed the bill on a 15-7 vote last Congress. Public Knowledge restated its opposition to the bill Friday: The JCPA’s “elaborate antitrust exemption” will “only serve to compound the biggest challenges in our news and information landscape: consolidation of power, distance and disengagement of news conglomerate owners from the communities they serve, and the rampant spread of misinformation on the internet,” said Senior Policy Analyst Lisa Macpherson. News/Media Alliance Executive Vice President Danielle Coffey said: “Emerging technologies such as AI are making it even more clear the need for compensation when content creators may soon see even less return than what they receive today. The cost of inaction is simply too great to ignore any longer.” "Local news outlets -- including local television and radio stations -- are at the mercy of a handful of Big Tech gatekeepers whose anticompetitive terms devalue our content when it is increasingly accessed online," said NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt in a release Friday. "This legislation would level the playing field by enabling fair negotiations and increased investment in local newsrooms."

Bipartisan legislation introduced Thursday by Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, attempts to eliminate “conflicts of interest” that allowed platforms like Google and Facebook to “manipulate ad auctions and impose monopoly rents on a broad swath of the American economy,” as expected (see 2303070070). Sponsors of the Advertising Middlemen Endangering Rigorous Internet Competition Accountability (America) Act include Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; JD Vance, R-Ohio; and John Kennedy, R-La. The bill bars digital ad companies “from owning more than one part of the digital ad ecosystem if they process more than $20 billion in digital ad transactions.” Conflicts of interest are so “glaring” in ad markets that “one Google employee described Google’s ad business as being like ‘if Goldman or Citibank owned the NYSE,’” said Lee. “This lack of competition in digital advertising means that monopoly rents are being imposed upon every website that is ad-supported and every company -- small, medium, or large -- that relies on internet advertising to grow its business.” He noted a similar bill introduced in the 117th Congress, the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act, had the support of groups including Heritage Action for America and Public Knowledge. “There is nothing American about Congress dictating the size, shape and structure of competitive businesses,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers. “Gerrymandering rules around one group of businesses for the benefit of another is neither good competition policy nor responsible economic policy.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., refiled the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Modernization Act Thursday to update the 2010 Calm Act's bar on excessively loud TV ads. The measure, which Eshoo and Whitehouse first filed last year, would extend the 2010 law's excessively loud ad bar to streaming services and would strengthen the FCC's ability to investigate and enforce violations. The measure would require a study analyzing the existing law's effectiveness in moderating ad loudness. The FCC Media Bureau at Eshoo's behest sought comment in 2021 on whether the FCC needs to update its existing Calm Act implementation rules (see 2104200001). ACA Connects and NCTA argued the FCC doesn’t need to change its rules because existing enforcement is working as intended (see 2106040065). “Since the law was enacted, new popular streaming services have recreated the practice of loud ads because the old law doesn't apply to them, and consumers continue to complain about loud ads on broadcast, cable, and satellite TV,” Eshoo said in a statement. “We're updating the legislation for the benefit of consumers who are tired of diving for the mute button at every commercial break, regardless of what platform they use.” Eshoo’s office cited support from Consumer Reports.

The House passed the Undersea Cable Control Act (HR-1189) Monday on a voice vote under suspension of the rules, as expected (see 2303270063). The measure would require the State Department to develop a strategy to “eliminate the availability to foreign adversaries,” including China, “of goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables.” It would also mandate the U.S. seek bilateral agreements with allied nations to bar exporting technology to foreign adversaries that would support undersea cables. It’s important the U.S. not allow foreign adversaries “to catch up to us in any way whatsoever, especially China,” said lead HR-1189 sponsor Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla. Undersea cables are “a backbone” for international digital communications, “things you don’t want China getting ahold of.” The U.S. “derives significant benefits from its leading position in global” undersea cable networks, but “in recent years Chinese companies” heavily subsidized by the Chinese Communist Party “started investing heavily in owning and supplying” those cables, Mast said: “This is not just an economic issue” because a bigger Chinese presence in undersea cables will make the network “unsecure” and “they weaponize all forms of telecommunication that they can.”