June 2015

The 2016 presidential election has already unleashed more than $1 million in negative ads, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of federal campaign finance filings. Only 515 more days until Election Day. In the meantime, expect the price of presidential mudslinging to rapidly hit eight, then eventually nine figures, as the already crowded race for the White House escalates.

To date, nearly all of the negativity has been directed at Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who announced her candidacy in mid-April. In June alone, Clinton has been attacked by the Republican National Committee and a host of other conservative groups, including the Stop Hillary PAC and the Citizens United Super PAC. “Getting in early was the only way to go given the enormity of the opposition,” said Dan Backer, treasurer of the Stop Hillary PAC.

A broad group of 61 interest groups has sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler advocating for the FCC to adopt a Lifeline low-income program for broadband in 2015. The letter also makes broad recommendations about how that program should be structured. The move comes just a week before the FCC is expected to adopt a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) about a Lifeline broadband program. In the letter the groups propose five principles they say should guide the FCC’s work to modernize the Lifeline program, including:

1. The Lifeline program should provide sufficient resources and be designed so that all eligible households can receive the support they need to afford high-quality broadband.
2. The program should support Internet connectivity of sufficient capacity to provide access to digital education and social services, healthcare, applying for jobs, performing job-related functions, doing homework, accessing “diverse and independent media,” reaching out for emergency services and participating in “civic discourse.” The letter points to the 10 Mbps downstream/ 1 Mbps upstream target speed established for the Connect America Fund broadband deployment program as an example of a speed target.
3. Choice and competition. Low-income recipients of Lifeline funding should be able to use any qualified provider and the FCC should “adopt mechanisms that will increase users’ knowledge of their choices.”
4. The Lifeline program should be structured to support continuous innovation. The letter argues, for example, that the program should offer financial incentives to provide above-average services or achieve program objectives such as high participation rates and that states should be offered incentive grants for finding the best ways to centralize eligibility databases, boost enrollment, improve efficiency and reduce fraud.
5. Efficiency, transparency, accountability. The commission should continue enforcement actions. Additionally the letter states that “we hope to see reports on successful carriers and states, data on participant choices, . . . enrollment numbers and more.

[The Benton Foundation was a co-signer of the letter]

The Senate has unanimously passed the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2015 (S 253). That is the bipartisan bill that consolidates eight separate FCC reports to Congress, including the FCC's Sec. 706 report, into a single report on the state of the communications marketplace. It also gets rid of some outdated reports, including one on competition to the telegraph. The bill, introduced by Sen Dean Heller (R-NV) and co-sponsored by Se. Brian Schatz (D-HI), is the Senate version of a House bill that passed 411 to zip in February. Had the bill passed in the exact same form in the Senate, it could then have gone to the President's desk, but apparently there was a small change to the bill related to an international data report and some other changes that will require the House to vote the Senate bill. Among the main differences, according to s Senate source speaking on background, were:

• The Senate bill retains the annual report on broadband deployment required by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
• Retains the cable rates report, though going forward it will be produced every two years (as part of the larger communications marketplace report required by the bill), rather than each year
• Would not subject the FCC to a 2-year score card where it has to document and defend its activities
• Includes language sponsored by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that would retain the FCC’s International Broadband Data Report, including that report in the larger communications marketplace report required by the bill.

It is unclear whether the changes, and others said to be in the bill, will mean any hiccup in swift House passage, like having to conference the two bills.

Hundreds of identify theft specialists at call centers in three states are starting to field inquiries from federal employees affected by the massive data breach that’s costing taxpayers $21 million to notify victims and protect their data. In the 72 hours since a private company the government hired under an emergency contract began e-mailing and sending letters to 4 million current and former federal workers, the customer service staff at call centers in Texas, Utah and South Carolina are already answering questions from anxious callers.

“The current call volumes we’re experiencing are expected for a cybersecurity incident of this proportion,” said Patrick Hillmann, a spokesman for Washington-based Winvale Group, but under company policy he would not say what those volumes are. Winvale signed a $20.7 million contract with the Office of Personnel Management on June 5 to start notifying victims of the intrusion by hackers from China, the largest breach of federal employee data in recent years. A week before the breach was made public June 4, OPM had issued a solicitation to identify companies that specialize in identity theft protection. The June 2 award was signed two days before the hack, of a database with employee information going back three decades, was made public.