The House Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing Tuesday on the Next Generation 911 Act (HR-6505) and six other public-safety communications measures, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday night. The newly refiled HR-6505 would appropriate an undefined amount of funding for next-generation 911 tech upgrades for FY 2026-30. NG911 advocates have been pressing Congress to identify a new funding source after Republican lawmakers decided against allocating future spectrum auction revenue for the tech upgrades in the July budget reconciliation package (see 2507080065).
Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons implied during an appearance Friday at the White House press briefing room that President Donald Trump would support the American Music Fairness Act (HR-861/S-326) if Congress passes it. The measure would levy a performance royalty on stations playing music on terrestrial radio. HR-861/S-326 is “a bipartisan bill that will get passed because [Trump] is very pro-artist,” Simmons told reporters. “America invented the music of the world in the first place, [but] we’re letting our artists” not get paid royalties for terrestrial radio transmissions of their music. Simmons was at the White House in conjunction with Trump’s planned presentation Sunday of the original lineup of Kiss musicians as Kennedy Center Honors recipients.
Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Wednesday night that a potential Netflix purchase of Warner Bros., “if it were to materialize, would raise serious competition questions -- perhaps more so than any transaction I’ve seen in about a decade.” Warner Bros. Discovery said in October that it was mulling unsolicited offers to buy just a split of WB or the entire company, even as it considers continuing to pursue division of WB and Discovery Global (see 2510210007).
Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., filed the Quashing Unwanted and Interruptive Electronic Telecommunications (Quiet) Act on Thursday to require all robocallers to disclose when a call or text message uses AI technology. The measure would require the disclosure to happen “at the beginning of the call or text message.” It exempts calls or text messages “sent using equipment that requires substantial human intervention to make or send” the communication. The bill would also increase Telephone Consumer Protection Act violation forfeiture penalties for AI-generated robocalls to “twice the maximum amount that may be imposed” under the statute. It would double the TCPA criminal fine as well.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation won’t include language to preempt states’ AI laws, amid ongoing concerns about proposals tying such a pause to funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program. President Donald Trump has been eyeing a draft executive order that could force NTIA to deny non-deployment BEAD funding to states with AI laws that the administration deems overly onerous (see 2511200057).
Former House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and three other lawmakers said Tuesday that they relaunched the congressional Wi-Fi Caucus. Joining Latta as caucus co-chairs are Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Rep. Troy Carter, D-La. The group cited support from the Consumer Technology Association, NCTA, the Wi-Fi Alliance, WifiForward, the Wireless Broadband Alliance and WISPA.
The House Commerce Committee is planning a meeting Wednesday to mark up the Communications Subcommittee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289) and six bipartisan connectivity bills that the subpanel advanced in November (see 2511180053). House Commerce said Monday night that the bills on the docket are the Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act (HR-1343), Facilitating the Deployment of Infrastructure With Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1588), Deploying Infrastructure With Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1665), Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Reviews Act (HR-1681), Standard Fees to Expedite Evaluation and Streamlining Act (HR-1731) and the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act (HR-6046).
The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing Dec. 2 to examine defending U.S. networks from “fraud, espionage, and sabotage,” the Commerce Committee said Friday. The hearing will also “examine how the federal government can enhance awareness and foster a culture of network security within the communications industry.” Robert Mayer, USTelecom's senior vice president of cybersecurity and innovation, is among those set to testify. Also on the witness list are Daniel Gizinski, Comtech's president of the satellite and space communications segment, and Jamil Jaffer, executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University's Scalia Law School. The panel will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
NCTA on Friday praised Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., for filing an upper chamber companion Thursday (see 2511200069) to the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act (HR-6046). The House Communications Subcommittee cleared HR-6046 Wednesday (see 2511180053).
The House voted 426-0 Wednesday night to pass its bill to repeal language in the package to end the government shutdown that allows senators to sue federal agencies for accessing their phone records without notice (HR-6019), as expected (see 2511190063). Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has been resistant to calls for the upper chamber to also pass HR-6019, despite House lawmakers’ complaints that the lawsuit language applied only to senators (see 2511130050). Thune added the provision to the shutdown bill following reports that the FBI and former Special Counsel Jack Smith accessed phone records of several Republicans without notice as part of the Arctic Frost probe of the Jan. 6 Capitol siege (see 2510170039).