The FCC has announced the membership of the rechartered Intergovernmental Advisory Committee in a public notice and news release Monday. Composed of elected officials from municipal, county, state and tribal governments, the IAC is focused on advising the FCC on telecom issues that affect those entities. “These local, county, state, and Tribal leaders offer the Commission valuable perspectives on how we can work together to connect the American people,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in the release. The IAC has 30 new and returning members, including Chair and Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist (D) and Vice Chair Marshall Pierite, who is chairman-CEO of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. The group also includes the governors of North Carolina, Wisconsin and South Carolina, the mayors of Washington, D.C.; Pasadena, California; and North Miami, Florida, and numerous other public officials. The first IAC meeting will be held on April 18.
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The California Privacy Protection Agency could open formal rulemaking in July on draft regulations related to cybersecurity, risk assessments, automated decision-making and updating privacy rules, CPPA General Counsel Phillip Laird said Friday. The rulemaking would likely conclude in 2025, he said at a partially virtual meeting. Before the rulemaking starts, CPPA plans a “roadshow” across California to engage with and encourage broad public participation, he said. The board discussed revised, pre-rulemaking proposals on the latter three issues, which privacy experts say could affect many industries, including communications and the internet (see 2312060021). It gave staff a green light to move ahead on the cybersecurity rules last December (see 2312080064), but this summer’s rulemaking would take up all four items as a package. Recent CPPA revisions tightened automated decision-making draft rules, McDermott Will privacy lawyers David Saunders and Cathy Lee blogged March 1. For example, the definition of automated decision-making “in the last iteration was so broad so as to include calculators or even spreadsheet formulas,” they said. Board member Alastair Mactaggart raised that concern at a December meeting. The current draft “expressly excludes ordinary technologies … so long as they are not used in a manner that replaces human decision-making. Ambiguity remains, however, as to what happens if one of the excluded technologies is used to facilitate human decision-making.”
The California Public Utilities Commission voted 4-0 at its open meeting Thursday to adopt changes to the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband public housing account and tribal technical assistance program (docket R.20-08-021). CPUC Commissioner Matthew Baker, appointed Feb. 16, recused himself from the vote because he was previously director of the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office, which participated in the proceeding. The order, as revised March 4, includes clarifying that public housing broadband grant recipients should provide free service without government subsidies, among other things (see 2401290059). "To meet our goal to close the digital divide and provide equal opportunity to all Californians, we need to make sure that we can allocate funds in an efficient manner that can meet the needs of our diverse communities,” said Commissioner Darcie Houck, who was assigned to lead the docket. "This decision has been in the works for a long time and is a product of extensive engagement with a diverse group of stakeholders and community groups.” It’s important that public housing receives free broadband service, said President Alice Reynolds as she supported the order.
Maryland could be the next state that makes prison phone calls free, but only if lawmakers accept the proposal’s expected costs, estimated at $7.4 million. The state’s House Judiciary Committee mulled a no-cost prison calls bill (HB-1366) at a Thursday hearing, two days after the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee heard testimony on a companion bill (SB-948).
Former Rep. Brad Carson, D-Okla., and Eric Gastfriend, DynamiCare Health co-founder, formally launch Americans for Responsible Innovation advocacy group focused on emerging technologies including AI, with Carson as president; Gastfriend as executive director; Douglass Calidas, ex-office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., as senior vice president-government affairs; Canoe Collective’s Kristina Banks as chief operating officer consultant; and Sanice Arrington, also Canoe Collective, as human resources manager … C-SPAN announces departures of co-CEOs Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain this year, with Kennedy, also chief financial officer, retiring in May and Swain’s departure date not determined; network names Vice President Matt Deprey to replace Kennedy as CFO …
The News/Media Alliance supported an Illinois bill requiring tech platforms to pay media companies usage fees, ahead of a state Senate Executive Committee hearing planned for Wednesday. The Illinois bill (SB-3591) by state Sen. Steve Stadelman (D) would require big tech companies like Meta and Google to pay news publishers a journalism usage fee to use local news content. The California Assembly passed a similar bill (AB-886), but it stalled last year in the Senate (see 2307060034). “The dominant tech platforms share our publishers’ content, keeping our readers on their platforms and showing them ads, while generating tremendous revenue off of our content with no return to news publications,” said News/Media Alliance CEO Danielle Coffey in written remarks. “This broken marketplace must be addressed through government action.”
The California Public Utilities Commission delayed a vote on making permanent a state LifeLine foster youth pilot that was planned for Thursday. CPUC staff delayed the item in docket R.20-02-008 to the March 21 meeting, said a Monday hold list. The delay isn’t surprising since the commission last week sought comments by this Friday on a revised proposed decision (see 2402290056). The commission still plans on considering an order Thursday modifying California Advanced Services Fund broadband public housing account and tribal technical assistance program rules (see 2401290059).
Industry widely opposes the FCC's proposal to adopt additional reporting requirements for providers as part of the commission's efforts to combat digital discrimination. Commissioners sought comment on an NPRM proposing to adopt annual reporting and internal compliance program requirements following a November order adopting rules to curb discrimination (see 2401310052). Comments were posted Tuesday in docket 22-69. Consumer advocates and state officials urged the FCC to adopt the proposed requirements and establish an Office of Civil Rights within the commission.
AT&T is collaborating with the FCC and other regulators in the wake of the recent widespread wireless network outage (see 2402220058), AT&T Chief Operating Officer Jeff McElfresh said during a Morgan Stanley financial conference Monday. McElfresh also confirmed that the loss of affordable connectivity program (ACP) funding won’t be a major financial hit for the carrier, while AT&T is poised to gain connections through the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program.
The California Public Utilities Commission sought comment by March 8 on a revised proposed decision to establish a permanent California LifeLine foster youth program. Replies are due March 13, Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Wang said in an email ruling Thursday. The CPUC postponed voting on the item at its Feb. 15 meeting (see 2402150067). Among other changes, the revised proposal clarifies that non-minors in extended foster care could participate in the program until they turn 21. Responding to concerns that no service provider may participate in the program after the current pilot expires, the CPUC said it would encourage but not require providers to offer free devices and chargers. “We will also remove requirements for service providers to configure devices,” it said. It also won’t require providers to provide special plans in certain circumstances.