Li Zhou

Civil Rights Groups Question Lifeline Changes

The National Hispanic Media Coalition, Color of Change, NAACP and the Benton Foundation are among the organizations concerned about proposed changes to the Lifeline program, which is on the docket for the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming open meeting. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai -- who has long called for reforms to deter waste, fraud and abuse in Lifeline -- is seeking a vote at the agency’s Nov. 16 meeting on a major overhaul of the program, which subsidizes phone and broadband service for the poor.

The Senate just passed the $1.9 trillion stimulus package. Here’s what’s in it.

The Senate — following a grueling vote-a-rama on March 5-6 — has finally approved a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill, bringing it one step closer to becoming law. The House is slated to take up the Senate version of the bill shortly and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature. Included in the bill is a provision that establishes a $7.6 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, to be implemented by the Federal Communications Commission, to expand internet connectivity to students and teachers during the pandemic.

Sen Amy Klobuchar enters 2020 election ready to take on Big Tech

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) joined the 2020 Democratic race, separating herself from the pack by talking up her efforts to take on big tech. “We need to put some digital rules into law when it comes to people’s privacy. For too long the big tech companies have been telling you ‘Don’t worry! We’ve got your back!’ while your identities are being stolen and your data is mined,” she said during her launch. “Our laws need to be as sophisticated as the people who are breaking them.” Sen.

Will Sen Murkowski Support Net Neutrality?

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) isn’t ruling out the possibility of bucking her GOP colleagues and voting for the Democrats’ Congressional Review Act net neutrality measure. “Senator Murkowski has not taken a firm stance on the CRA,” said her spokeswoman. “But CRA or not, she believes a bipartisan, legislative solution would be the best path to ensure certainty within the industry.” This answer would seem to put her in the “undecided” column alongside Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).

Keeping Lifeline for the Living

The Federal Communications Commission is already taking steps to nix the dead enrollees in the agency’s low-income subsidy program known as Lifeline following a revelation from Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO) that 47,942 deceased individuals were signed up between 2014 and October 2017. In July 2017,  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai directed the Universal Service Administrative Company, the nonprofit that manages the subsidies, “to take specific, immediate steps to mitigate waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program, including enrollment and subscribership of the deceased,” a FCC spokesman said.

Sen Ed Markey: Net Neutrality Vote in May

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), the chief sponsor of a measure to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of the net neutrality rules via the Congressional Review Act (CRA), says he envisions it hitting the floor in May 2018. “We’re going to file it right after the break and then we expect sometime in the middle of May to have it on the Senate floor,” said Sen Markey. He didn’t say whether he had secured the elusive 51st vote to pass the CRA resolution in the upper chamber on a simple majority.

Chairman Walden: President Trump Receptive on Broadband

During a House Commerce Committee markup, multiple Democrats harped on the lack of dedicated broadband money in the White House infrastructure proposal. “Will this committee take the lead?” asked Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT). Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), who was among lawmakers meeting with President Donald Trump on infrastructure, reassured Rep Welch that he has “got this one” adding that he “made that very case” at the White House. "I was encouraged there is some money, at least allegedly put aside in the proposal,” Chairman Walden said.

Net Neutrality Backers Want Rep Coffman on CRA

Rep. Mike Coffman’s position that using a Congressional Review Act resolution to restore Obama-era network neutrality rules is a “non-starter” because it defers to agency rulemaking is not sitting well with net neutrality advocates.

Rep Coffman Says No Way to CRA

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), who opposed the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of the network neutrality order, said he would not support efforts to restore the Obama-era rules via the Congressional Review Act. “The CRA is a non-starter for me as it defers again to agency rulemaking,” Rep Coffman said at the Incompas policy summit .

OSTP Staffing Update

Roughly half of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) consists of Trump administration hires. More than 20 new people have joined the office since the start of President Donald Trump’s term.

Is your software racist?

Google’s Translate tool “learns” language from an existing corpus of writing, and the writing often includes cultural patterns regarding how men and women are described. Because the model is trained on data that already has biases of its own, the results that it spits out serve only to further replicate and even amplify them. It might seem strange that a seemingly objective piece of software would yield gender-biased results, but the problem is an increasing concern in the technology world.

Chairman Blackburn Sides With President Trump on Broadband

House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) isn’t joining fellow rural state lawmakers in pushing for dedicated funding for broadband in the infrastructure package. She wants to focus on bills to streamline permitting and clear away regulations impeding new networks, and attach them to the infrastructure legislation. “I want to see how much bipartisan support we can end up building for simplifying this process,” she said.

Senate receives notice of FCC net neutrality repeal

Apparently, the Senate has now received official notice of the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality repeal. That procedural development is important because it could be the first step to triggering a 60-day clock for Congress to undo the FCC’s decision. (That is, 60 legislative days.) The Senate’s 47 Democrats and two independents plus Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) have said they would support such a maneuver, using the Congressional Review Act. That’s 50 votes, still one vote short of the number needed for approval in the Senate. 

Sinclair Seeks Insight on Top 4 Review

Sinclair Broadcast Group representatives met with Federal Communications Commission officials to suss out what the agency will consider in reviewing broadcaster ownership of more than one top-rated TV station in a local market.

The End of the Issa Era

The rest of the world may know Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) best as a vocal and spirited antagonist of Hillary Clinton over the Benghazi situation, but, for some, Issa’s long tenure in Congress evokes some different memories. For one thing, it was Rep Issa who, back in the winter of 2011, first issued the call to stop the Stop Online Piracy Act, on the grounds that it would break the internet’s basic functioning; fans of the internet came running, and stop SOPA they did. For another, Issa’s also been a key congressional proponent for modernizing the US patent system.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Thune Hopes Republicans Stay Away From Net Neutrality CRA

Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-SD) said he’s “hopeful” Republicans steer clear of the Congressional Review Act resolution to reverse the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) became the first GOP lawmaker to support the measure from Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) has indicated that he’s considering the proposal.

Trump's Broadband Assist

The Trump administration is eyeing multiple “work streams” to help speed along broadband deployment, the National Economic Council’s Grace Koh told reporters: easing the permitting process on federal lands; letting towers built on federal lands also include infrastructure from telecom companies; and using dark fiber agencies have deployed to help rural providers through interconnection agreements.

Which Republicans could be swayed on net neutrality?

Which Republicans could be likely targets in garnering support for a Congressional Review Act resolution that would undo the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality? Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a swing vote who has said she does not support FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s moves; Dean Heller of Nevada; Orrin Hatch of Utah; John McCain of Arizona; and Bob Corker of Tennessee.

FCC Rejects New York AG Efforts in Comment Quest

Federal Communications Commission General Counsel Thomas Johnson said the agency must “respectfully decline” requests from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as part of the AG’s investigation into the fraudulent use of names on comments in the net neutrality rollback proceeding. Johnson said revealing the logs of IP addresses for some comments raises “significant personal privacy concerns” and could also endanger the security of the commission’s comment system.

FCC Defends UHF Discount

The Federal Communications Commission told the DC Circuit Court of Appeals it was reasonable to reinstate the so-called UHF discount in April because it is “inextricably intertwined” with the 39 percent national audience reach limit imposed on broadcasters. Remember, the UHF discount allows broadcasters to count half the reach of UHF TV stations when calculating adherence to that 39 percent limit.

FEC Pushes Tech Giants for Comment

Federal Election Commission member Ellen Weintraub issued personal requests to FacebookGoogle and Twitter to submit a comment aimed at helping inform a rulemaking the FEC is doing on internet ad disclosures. Commissioner Weintraub notes the urgency, since the comment deadline is Nov 9.

The New Democratic Mix on Senate Commerce Committee

The Senate Commerce Committee is adding a few new Democratic faces, according to a list released by incoming-Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Here’s a rundown of who’s staying and going, assuming the full Democratic Caucus ratifies the moves next month:
Staying : Ranking Member Bill Nelson (FL), Maria Cantwell (WA), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Brian Schatz (HI), Ed Markey (MA), Cory Booker (NJ), Tom Udall (NM) and Gary Peters (MI).
Leaving: Joe Manchin (WV) and Claire McCaskill (MO).
New: Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Sens.-elect Tammy Duckworth (IL), Maggie Hassan (NH) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV).

Chairman Walden’s Chief of Staff to Depart

House Commerce Committee Chairman-to-be Greg Walden (R-OR) is losing his longtime chief of staff. Brian MacDonald, Walden's top aide for the last 18 years, announced that he's set to start a new chapter and relinquish his role by the end of December 2016. MacDonald was a key architect of Walden's bid for the Commerce Committee gavel. "He is one of the hardest-working, most professional, and loyal chiefs on the Hill," Chairman Walden said. MacDonald's goodbye announcement said that Lorissa Bounds will be his replacement in Walden's personal office. No word yet on his next steps.

Could Trump bring back the Fairness Doctrine?

President-elect Donald Trump tweeted his critique of the newest “Saturday Night Live” sketch about him, calling out the show for being "biased" — and for not dedicating enough time to skewering both sides (presumably) of the political spectrum. “I watched parts of @nbcsnl Saturday Night Live last night. It is a totally one-sided, biased show — nothing funny at all,” he wrote, adding, “Equal time for us?"

If that sentiment sounds familiar, it’s because the idea of requiring television programs to provide “equal time” for opposing political viewpoints was a key tenet of the Fairness Doctrine, an extinct Federal Communications Commission policy introduced in 1949. It held that television and radio stations with FCC-issued licenses needed to air both perspectives when shows addressed controversial issues like politics. The Fairness Doctrine was discontinued in 1987 and its language was officially erased from the books in 2011. The push against resurrecting the policy has come from both sides of the aisle, with former FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski arguing that it could “chill” free speech and Republicans expressing concerns that such regulations would put an end to programs like right-wing talk radio. The FCC continues to have an Equal Time rule, which ensures that a competing political candidate can get even exposure on a radio or television program if they want it. As Alec Baldwin pointed out in a response to Trump’s tweet, that rule does not apply to elected officials.