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March 2016

Statement of Commissioner Pai on the D.C. Circuit Staying the FCC's Inmate Calling Rate Regulations for a Third Time

On March 23, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit yet again stayed the Federal Communications Commission’s inmate calling rate regulations. The ruling comes on the heels of the latest judicial reversal of the FCC in this proceeding. Just two weeks ago, that same court stayed the rate regulations that the agency sought to impose on inmate calling services.

Nonetheless, the Commission issued a Public Notice claiming that these regulations—and specifically, their application to intrastate rates—would take effect anyway. The court’s decision March 23 cut this end-run short. Over the past three weeks alone, the FCC’s decisions have been rebuffed three times in court; rejected in extraordinary fashion by a large, bipartisan group of Senators; and rebuked sharply by Members of the House from both parties. At some point, even this agency has to acknowledge that the law isn't an invitation to semantic chicanery and good government isn’t discretionary.

Agenda for March 2016 FCC Meeting

The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on March 31 on the subjects below:

Video Description: Implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (MB Docket No. 11-43): The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on proposals to expand the amount of and access to video described programming, for the benefit of consumers who are blind or visually impaired.

Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization (WC Docket 11-42); Telecommunications Carriers Eligible for Universal Service Support (WC Docket No. 09- 197); and Connect America Fund (WC Docket No. 10-90): The Commission will consider a Third Report and Order, Further Report and Order, and Order on Reconsideration to comprehensively restructure and modernize the Lifeline program to efficiently and effectively connect low-income Americans to broadband, strengthen program oversight and administration, and take additional measures to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.

Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and other Telecommunications Services: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on a proposed framework for ensuring that consumers have the tools they need to make informed choices about how their data is used and when it is shared by their broadband providers.

CBO Scores the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act

The Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2015 (S 1916) would make certain skilled nursing facilities eligible for grants under the Universal Service Fund’s (USF’s) Rural Health Care (RHC) program. The Universal Service program is administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and is intended to promote the availability of telecommunications services at affordable rates. The cash flows of the USF appear in the budget as direct spending (for amounts distributed from the fund) and as revenues (for fund collections).

CBO estimates that enacting S 1916 would increase direct spending by $197 million over the 2017-2026 period and result in increased revenue collections of $215 million over the same period, resulting in an estimated net reduction in the deficit of $18 million. CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have no significant discretionary costs. Pay-as-you-go procedures apply because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending and revenues. CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits by more than $5 billion in one or more of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.

Writers Guild of America West: Minorities Lag in TV Programming Boom

TV production volume has exploded, more than offsetting the loss of jobs on the theatrical side, but that bounty has not trickled down to the minority media, according to a new report released by the Writers Guild of America, West, which found minority media earnings for TV writers was still over $25,000 less than their white counterparts. A 2014 report (based on 2012 data) on Hollywood writers, which the union represents, found modest gains for minorities and women and more than modest gains for older writers in TV.

The just released 2016 Hollywood Writers Report was described by WGAW as "a mixture of slow, forward progress; stalls; and reversals" on the diversity front. “The Guild has watched for years as the progress made by our industry has, in essence, flatlined," said WGAW president Howard A. Rodman. "Today’s report makes it emphatically clear that our Guild needs not just to mirror a broken system, but to work to change it.” Women were in the first category, having made small gains in employment and earnings, but still not achieving parity. But for minority TV writers, "any advances in employment share and relative earnings have stalled since the previous report," WGAW said, with only slight gains in film. Older writers continue to do well, as top writers have aged into the category. Writers 51 to 60 are the highest paid in TV.

How a DDoS campaign became an act of cyberwar

In September 2012, US banking websites started picking up floods of fake traffic. It was a denial-of-service (DDos) campaign, waged more or less weekly. It went on for month after month, always hitting in the middle of the week, during normal business hours. Under other circumstances, it could have been taken as a hacktivism campaign, akin to similar actions from Lulzsec or other Anonymous branches. The attacks were all simple floods of traffic, nothing sophisticated or technically demanding. While they certainly made life difficult for a number of network managers, the end result was never more serious than a service interruption in customer-facing online banking sites.

But as it turned out, this flood of traffic was coming from Iran, which pushed this DDoS campaign onto the world stage. US attorneys unsealed an indictment against seven Iranians for "Cyber Attacks against the US Financial Sector." According to the indictment, the attacks were carried out on behalf of the Iranian government and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a prime example of the politics of cyberwar. One of those attackers had claimed credit for a previously reported infiltration of a small dam in upstate New York, making these the first public charges for digital attacks on critical US infrastructure.

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