The House voted 341-82 Wednesday to pass a continuing resolution (HR-9747) that would maintain funding through Dec. 20 for the FCC, FTC, Commerce Department agencies and all other federal entities. The resolution's passage would avert a government shutdown that would otherwise begin after FY 2024 funding expires Monday. The Senate was expected to take up the measure Wednesday night. “It would be political malpractice to shut the government down” just weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. “I think everyone understands that.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Tuesday sent letters to Cox, Meta and Google seeking information about how Cox allegedly used “active listening” tools to monitor users’ smartphone conversations. Blackburn cited reports claiming Cox Media Group “admitted to investors that it listens to users’ smartphone microphones.” The report said that Cox in a presentation with investors, including Google and Meta, acknowledged using phone conversations to deliver targeted ads. “If this reporting is true, it confirms longstanding suspicions by many consumers that technology and media companies are violating their privacy for profit by marketing products that closely reflect key words or phrases from private conversations,” she said. Cox in a statement Wednesday said its businesses “have never listened to any conversations nor had access to anything beyond third-party aggregated, anonymized, and fully encrypted data sets that can be used for ad placement.” The reports are based on “outdated materials" for a product that CMG Local Solutions "no longer sells (although the product never listened to customers, it has long been discontinued to avoid misperception),” the company said. CMG Local Solutions, like other ad companies, offers tools that “include third-party vendor products powered by data sets sourced from users by various social media and other applications and then packaged and resold to data servicers,” said Cox. “Advertising data based on voice and other data is collected by these platforms and devices under the terms and conditions provided by those apps and accepted by their users.” The data can be sold to “third-party companies and converted into anonymized information for advertisers. This anonymized data then is resold by numerous advertising companies.” Meta said in a statement it doesn't use "your phone's microphone for ads and we've been public about this for years. We are reaching out to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data."

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., took GOP leaders’ criticism (see 2409190063) of Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in shaping NTIA’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program to the chamber floor Tuesday. Since mid-August, Thune and other GOP leaders have repeatedly pointed to Harris, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, as ultimately responsible for what they view as NTIA’s botched implementation of BEAD (see 2408130061. President Joe Biden tasked her with shepherding the broadband portion of his infrastructure spending proposal through Congress in 2021. BEAD and Harris’ “tenure as broadband czar” have “been nothing short of a disaster,” Thune said on the Senate floor. “It’s been nearly three years” since BEAD’s establishment via the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and it “has not connected a single household to the internet.” That delay is “a sad story of government inefficiency and progressivism run amok.” Thune pointed to NTIA’s decision to load “down the BEAD program with a liberal wish list of requirements that were never envisioned by Congress” as the ultimate cause. “I shudder to think what things would look like if [Harris] were in charge of the entire federal government” given what happened with BEAD.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, raised concerns Tuesday about reports that the FCC was on track to approve radio group Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of FCC foreign-ownership rules. This would allow Audacy to complete a bankruptcy restructuring that includes George Soros-affiliated entities purchasing its stock. An FCC official confirmed that all three FCC Democrats have voted for the item, while Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington are expected to dissent (see 2409170015). The FCC’s “must-vote” clock on Audacy’s request expired last week, but the agency hadn’t announced a final decision as of Tuesday afternoon. “No decision is final until the Commission releases it, which we have not,” a spokesperson said. Lee nonetheless reacted to a New York Post report that the FCC formally adopted the request. “Soros buys 200 radio stations weeks before the election,” Lee said on X. “FCC bypasses [the] review process to approve the purchase. What could go wrong?” The order would delay the foreign-ownership rules review until after the proposed bankruptcy restructuring rather than fully bypass it, as Lee claims. FCC’s consideration of the Audacy request came up briefly during a Thursday House Oversight Committee hearing (see 2409190063). Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., told Carr during the hearing he’s “extremely alarmed” that the FCC potentially could approve the request. It would give Soros, “a major donor” to Democrats, “a free pass to take control of hundreds of local radio stations, flooding the airwaves with leftist propaganda,” Langworthy said.

The House voted 257-125 Monday night to approve the Senate-cleared Building Chips in America Act (S-2228), sending it to President Joe Biden's desk. S-2228 would streamline federal permitting rules for projects that the 2021 Chips for America Act funded. It would in part make the Commerce Department the lead federal agency for conducting National Environmental Policy Act reviews for Chips for America Act projects and narrow the number of projects that would require those evaluations. The Senate approved the measure in December by unanimous consent. S-2228 lead sponsors Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, hailed the legislation's passage in the House. “This is a major step forward for our economy and national security,” Kelly said. “By preventing unnecessary delays in the construction of microchip manufacturing facilities, this bill will help maximize our efforts to bring this industry back to America, creating thousands of good-paying jobs and strengthening our supply chains.” Cruz called it “a crucial step in onshoring jobs and making our country less dependent on China for semiconductors critical to national defense.”

The House approved the Future Uses of Technology Upholding Reliable and Enhancing Networks Act (HR-1513) Wednesday on a lopsided 393-22 vote. The measure would direct the FCC to establish a 6G task force that provides recommendations about ensuring U.S. leadership in developing that technology’s standards. The House originally intended to consider HR-1513 last week (see 2409060053). HR-1513 lead sponsor House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., hailed approval of the measure. “We stand at a crossroads for the future of global innovation leadership” and the “economic and national security stakes in the race to 6G couldn’t be higher,” she said in a statement. “For the [U.S.] to stay the gold standard in wireless communications technology, we need to look forward and convene our best and brightest innovators to map the road ahead.” HR-1513 “will accelerate us down this path, making a crucial down payment on American leadership by taking steps forward as this technology evolves.” The House approved the Senate-passed Launch Communications Act (S-1648) Tuesday night on a voice vote (see 2409160056). The measure, which the Senate passed in October, and House-approved companion HR-682 would require that the FCC streamline the authorization process for commercial launches’ access to spectrum (see 2307260037).

NATOA, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and two more local government groups reinforced their opposition (see 2311060069) to the House Commerce Committee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-3557) Wednesday. House Commerce last year advanced the measure, a package of GOP-led connectivity permitting revamp measures, without Democratic support (see 2305240069). NCTA and nine other communications industry groups urged House leaders last month to defeat the measure before the end of this Congress (see 2409050035). HR-3557 “represents an unprecedented and dangerous usurpation of local governments’ authority to manage public rights-of-way and land use,” NATOA and the other groups said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. The National Association of Counties and National League of Cities also signed. They noted the bill “favors a model for local permitting that unfairly constrains local input and threatens to undo significant local coordination efforts that have occurred across the country to prepare and act upon this historic moment in federal broadband infrastructure investment.” In “return for these gifts, the bill imposes no obligations on cable, wireless, and telecommunications companies to provide broadband to ‘unserved’ and ‘underserved’ Americans and, further, passes on the real cost of deployment to already overburdened American households,” the groups said: “That such flawed legislation has moved as far as it has may be attributed to the fact” House Commerce moved HR-3557 “without the benefit of local government testimony nor insights and consequences of the proposed fundamental changes to our nation’s telecommunications policy and rights-of-way authorities.”

House Administration Committee ranking member Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., offered “strong support” Monday for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's embattled AI political ad disclosures NPRM (see 2407250046). Morelle and other House Democrats previously supported the proposal during an event last week but indicated they would like the FCC to go further on AI regulation if Congress can delegate that authority to the agency (see 2409110065). “I commend the [FCC] for taking this necessary step towards regulating the use of AI in political communications, as the absence of effective guardrails presents a clear and present danger to the information ecosystem in the upcoming election,” Morelle said in a letter to Rosenworcel that we obtained. He would also back the FCC engaging in “future rulemaking to regulate this technology in political communications.” The “current lack of regulation that specifically addresses political advertisements could easily be exploited by candidates for office and dark money groups attempting to confuse and manipulate voters,” Morelle said: Political “candidates have already attempted to manipulate voters by using AI” and its use “in campaign advertisements will only increase” as the Nov. 5 election approaches. “The American public deserves to know whether the political advertisements they see on television or hear on the radio have been manipulated by generative AI,” he said. “Campaign-related disclosures, like those in the Proposed Rule, are critical to ensuring that voters” are fully informed. “Deterring the untoward use of AI by bad actors for political gain during this and future election cycles requires a whole-of-government approach, and I hope that other agencies will soon follow.”

The House plans to vote as soon as Tuesday night on the Senate-passed Launch Communications Act (S-1648) under suspension of the rules. The measure, which the Senate passed in October, and House-approved companion HR-682 would require the FCC to streamline the authorization process for commercial launches’ access to spectrum (see 2307260037).

The House Innovation Subcommittee plans a Sept. 19 hearing contrasting current and past FTC practices with an implied aim of criticizing Chair Lina Khan's role in the alleged changing of commission norms. Subpanel Republicans criticized Khan's actions during a July hearing focused on the FTC's FY 2025 budget request (see 2407090044). The Sept. 19 hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn, the Commerce Committee said Thursday night. The FTC’s monthly meeting is set for 11 a.m. the same day. The commission “has a long, bipartisan history of protecting consumers, without unduly burdening legitimate business activity,” said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Innovation Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla. “Unfortunately, in recent years, we have seen the Commission take a different approach when it comes to its historical norms.” That perceived “shift raises questions on its preparation for rulemakings, its retention of staff, and the long-term impact on its effectiveness in sustaining court challenges,” the GOP leaders said: “We look forward to a conversation with experts on how the FTC’s departure from its traditional standards is affecting Americans in their daily lives, consumer safety, and American businesses across the country.”