press release

In his final State of the Union Address and subsequent weekly address, President Barack Obama set a bold goal—every American student should have the opportunity to learn computer science (CS). Since the President’s call to action, strong momentum for CS education has been growing at all levels of government and in the private sector. Twelve states have taken concrete policy steps to expand CS education—and there are now 31 states that allow CS to count towards high school graduation. More than 100 organizations have already pledged more than $250 million to support CS education. To mark this progress, and celebrate new commitments in support of the President’s initiative, the White House is hosting a summit on Computer Science for All. Key announcements being made include:

More than $25 million in new grants awarded from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to expand CS education
A new CSforAll Consortium of more than 180 organizations, which will connect stakeholders with curriculum and resources, as well as track progress towards the goal of Computer Science for All
New commitments from more than 200 organizations, ranging from expanded CS offerings within the Girl Scouts of the USA that could reach 1.4 million girls per year, to Code.org supporting professional development for 40,000 additional teachers, to new collaborations to bring CS to students in a variety of settings from African-American churches to family coding nights to tribal Head Start programs to students as Chief Science Officers.

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate David J. Arroyo to be a member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Board of Directors.

Arroyo is Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Scripps Networks Interactive, where he has worked since 2004. Arroyo was an Associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher from 2000 to 2004. He served as a Law Clerk for Judge James G. Carr in the United States District Court from 1999 to 2000 and as an Associate at Kirkland & Ellis from 1996 to 1999. Arroyo was Chairman of the Board of Latino Justice from 2008 to 2012 and received the Luminary Award from the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications in 2010. He was first appointed to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2014. Arroyo received a B.A. from Duke University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), held a hearing examining the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act (H.R. 2566), introduced by Rep David Young (R-IA). Members examined the persistent problems many Americans living in rural areas have when it comes to receiving long distance or wireless calls on their landline telephones. Despite attempts made by the Federal Communications Commission to address the lingering issues problems still persist. H.R. 2566 would require intermediate providers to register with the FCC and comply with the service quality standards set by the agency.

Ninety-nine percent of pay-TV subscribers currently rent set-top boxes because there aren’t meaningful alternatives.Congress recognized the importance of a competitive marketplace and directed the Commission to adopt rules that will ensure consumers will be able to use the device they prefer for accessing programming they’ve paid for. The new rules, if adopted, simplify the Commission’s original proposal to finally provide consumers with choice in how they access pay-TV service while satisfying Congress’ mandate.

Following constructive engagement from a wide range of stakeholders, the proposed final rules will allow consumers to access their pay-TV content via free apps on a variety of devices so they no longer have to pay monthly rental fees, enable integrated search, and protect content and privacy. The Commission will vote on these simplified consumer-first, app-driven rules at its next open meeting on September 29, 2016. If adopted, the largest pay-TV providers, who serve 95% of pay-TV subscribers, will have two years to comply with the rules.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 29, 2016:

Improving Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). The Commission will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would leverage advancements in technology to improve wireless emergency alert content, delivery and testing, while seeking comment on further measures to ensure effective alerts. (PS Docket No. 15-91)

Review of Foreign Ownership Policies. The Commission will consider a Report and Order that extends to broadcast licensees the same streamlined rules and procedures that common carrier wireless licensees use to seek approval for foreign ownership, with appropriate broadcast-specific modifications. The item also establishes a framework for a publicly traded common carrier or broadcast licensee or controlling U.S. parent to ascertain its foreign ownership levels. (GN Docket No. 15-236)

Independent Programming: The Commission will consider a NPRM that proposes steps the Commission can take to promote the distribution of independent and diverse programming to consumers. (MB Docket No. 16-41)

Expanding Consumer Choice: The Commission will consider a Report and Order that modernizes the Commission’s rules to allow consumers to use a device of their choosing to access multichannel video programming instead of leasing devices from their cable or satellite providers. (MB Docket No. 16-42)

Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), in a letter to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, raised numerous concerns about plans for the Obama Administration to cede authority over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and called for reconsideration of the transition, currently set to occur on October 1, 2016.

“The transition of the IANA functions to the global multi-stakeholder community is a serious, groundbreaking, and potentially unalterable action,” said the four chairmen in the letter to Lynch and Pritzker. “We have closely examined the arguments for and against the proposed transition, including concerns about whether the transition could enhance the role of authoritarian regimes in Internet governance. In particular, we have heard from witnesses testifying to concerns that important accountability measures have yet to be fully fleshed out, tested, or proven, because they will not have been implemented prior to September 30, 2016.” In addition to concerns about the status of accountability reforms inside ICANN, the four chairmen also cited recent violations of ICANN’s own bylaws by board members, questions about the application of anti-trust laws, the potential for an independent ICANN to move outside the jurisdiction of the United States, and unfinished work by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) in determining the legal authority for the federal government to relinquish its current role in IANA functions without express authorization from Congress.

The Department of Justice announced that it will require Nexstar Broadcasting Group to divest seven broadcast television stations in order to proceed with its $4.6 billion acquisition of Media General Corporation. The department said that without the required divestitures, the prices for broadcast television spot advertising and the fees charged to multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) – such as cable and satellite providers – for the retransmission of broadcast television programming to MVPD subscribers would likely increase in six designated market areas (DMAs) located across the United States.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit Sept 2 in the US District Court of the District of Columbia to block the proposed transaction and simultaneously filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive harm alleged in the lawsuit. The department’s complaint alleges that the proposed transaction would lessen competition in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising and the licensing of broadcast television programming to MVPDs for retransmission to MVPD subscribers in the following DMAs: Roanoke-Lynchburg (VA), Terre Haute (IN), Fort Wayne (IN), Green Bay-Appleton (WI), Lafayette (LA), and Davenport (IA)/Rock Island-Moline (IL)(“Quad Cities”). As a result of the acquisition, Nexstar would control between 41 and 100 percent of the broadcast television station gross advertising revenues in these six DMAs and at least two broadcast television stations affiliated with the four major national television networks.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced the appointment of Henning Schulzrinne as Senior Advisor for Technology, based in the agency’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. Dr. Schulzrinne will take over as FCC Chief Technologist at the end of 2016, when the current Chief Technologist, Scott Jordan, leaves the agency.

Dr. Schulzrinne previously served as FCC Chief Technologist from 2011 to 2014, and has continued to serve the FCC as a part time advisor. He is Levy professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University. Schulzrinne received his undergraduate degree in economics and electrical engineering from the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany, his MSEE degree as a Fulbright scholar from the University of Cincinnati (OH) and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (MA). He helped develop key protocols that enable voice-over-IP (VoIP) and other multimedia applications including the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Dr. Jordan, who will remain as FCC Chief Technologist until he leaves the agency in December, joined the FCC in 2014 from the University of California, Irvine, where he is a professor of computer science. He received his undergraduate degrees, as well as his Master’s Degree and Ph.D in electrical engineering and computer science, from the University of California, Berkeley. His research has focused on communications platforms, and differentiated services on the Internet.

The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) has published its Guidelines to National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) on the implementation of the new network neutrality. BEREC’s mandate to produce the Guidelines stems from the Telecoms Single Market Regulation on open Internet access. The Guidelines provide guidance for NRAs to take into account when implementing the rules and assessing specific cases.

After meetings with European-level stakeholders in December 2015 and a workshop with high-level academic, legal and technical experts in February 2016, BEREC launched a six-week public consultation on the draft Guidelines, closing on July 18. The number of 481,547 contributions received before the deadline was unprecedented for a BEREC consultation, and coming from diverse categories of respondents: civil society, public institutions and independent experts, Internet service providers, content and application providers and other industry stakeholders. The BEREC Office has processed the contributions received, and BEREC has conducted a thorough evaluation of the contributions, updating about a quarter of the paragraphs in the final Guidelines. The Guidelines are published together with an accompanying consultation report summarising stakeholders’ views submitted and how they have been taken into account. Given the high volume of contributions the consultation report had to focus on a summary of the main topics and comments put forward. All non-confidential responses will be published separately by September 30.

The European Commission has concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to €13 billion to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules, because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Member States cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules. The Commission's investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years. In fact, this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 per cent on its European profits in 2003 down to 0.005 per cent in 2014."

This selective tax treatment of Apple in Ireland is illegal under EU state aid rules, because it gives Apple a significant advantage over other businesses that are subject to the same national taxation rules. The Commission can order recovery of illegal state aid for a ten-year period preceding the Commission's first request for information in 2013. Ireland must now recover the unpaid taxes in Ireland from Apple for the years 2003 to 2014 of up to €13 billion, plus interest.