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The National Cable & Telecommunications Association filed a motion at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that it wants to intervene in support of the Federal Communications Commission's pole attachment ruling.
NCTA said it had the right to intervene in the case because it participated in the rulemaking and its members would be affected by it. Various power companies have challenged the FCC's April 7 decision to lower the rates utility pole owners can charge for telecom service (which has been as much as $20 per foot per year) to about the same as the cable rate of about $7 per foot per year. The FCC also voted to boost wireless access to poles and to set a deadline for utility companies to allow attachments. The change will mean cable companies won't have to pay more for their telecom offerings, either, which could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. Not surprisingly, the utilities have opposed the move, and took that opposition to the DC Circuit, which has jurisdiction over appeals of FCC decisions. They had argued that the FCC was shifting the cost from telecom companies to its ratepayers.
NCTA Wants to Join FCC in Pole Attachment Defense
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which oversees House races for the GOP, has written a sharply-worded letter demanding that a New Hampshire TV station yank an ad making the claim that the Republican plan would "end Medicare." Progressive Change Campaign Committee is airing the ad on WMUR against GOP Rep. Charlie Bass. The letter — which calls on Comcast Boston to take down the ad and is unusually detailed and emphatic — reflects how badly Republicans want a halt to these attacks.
Here’s the letter’s core argument:
The Budget Resolution as approved by the U.S. House of Representatives does NOT end Medicare. In fact, the Budget Resolution makes no changes at all to Medicare for current or near retirees, as none of the Medicare-related provisions in the Budget Resolution would even take effect until 2022. This fact makes the Advertisement especially misleading, as the woman featured in the Advertisement is a current Medicare beneficiary, and would not have her Medicare benefits ended, or even changed in any way, under the Budget Resolution...
Additionally, the Budget Resolution ensures that Americans aged 54 and younger will still have Medicare when they retire by implementing a new, sustainable model of Medicare. This new version of Medicare would actually REQUIRE insurance companies to GUARANTEE coverage for seniors.
The letter argues that the claim that Republicans would “end Medicare” is “blatantly and wholly false, and has been deliberately crafted to mislead and frighten voters.” It also cites a recent Politifact analysis that pronounced the assertion “highly misleading.”
Republicans demand TV station yank ad claiming GOP plan would 'end Medicare' Video (see the ad)
The brouhaha over hackers penetrating the Gmail accounts of top US officials would be much ado about nothing if White House employees just followed the rules.
That's the view from the office of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), who has been pushing the White House to make sure employees with private email accounts comply with the Presidential Records Act. He has repeatedly complained about senior administration employees — among the reported targets of the scam — sending work e-mails to their personal email accounts because, he argues, it circumvents the law. And Chairman Issa believes the hack on Gmail is further evidence that the administration needs to step up and do a better job of ensuring its staff complies with the records act.
Rep Darrell Issa: Gmail hack underscores White House email risk
If Blair Levin had his druthers, no Federal Communications Commission commissioner would be allowed to interview for a private sector job, let alone take one, while sitting in public office.
“No one who is a Senate-confirmed person at the agency should interview for any private sector job while they are there,” said Levin, principal architect of the National Broadband Plan. “If the Senate confirms you to be a decisionmaker, go be a decisionmaker,” he added, arguing that public officials should have some sort of cooling-off period before going to work for the entities they previously regulated. After leaving the FCC, Levin took a job as a fellow at the Aspen Institute. That’s where he remains today.
Levin: FCC shouldn't interview for private sector jobs
[Commentary] A supposed public servant skips out on her job at the Federal Communications Commission to take one as a lobbyist for the company whose multibillion-dollar mega-merger she just voted to approve. Scandal or business as usual? Depends who you ask.
Inside the Beltway, the revolving door between government and industry is dismissed with a shrug because "everybody does it." Out in the real world, people know something stinks. If you want to know why so many people are disillusioned and disgusted with Washington, look no further than FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker’s decision to leave the FCC to become a lobbyist for Comcast after rubber-stamping the media giant's takeover of NBC. Of course, Baker is not the first government official to accept a paycheck from the industry she was once charged with regulating, and, sadly, she will not be the last. However, her announcement has brought the unseemliness of the revolving door into stark relief. Free Press sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the three other remaining commissioners, asking them to pledge neither to seek nor accept employment from AT&T or T-Mobile directly upon leaving their present posts. We ask for assurance that, in this matter, the FCC’s commitment is to the public it serves and not to potential future employers.
There are philosophical differences among the commissioners on what role government should play in regulating business. There is also no single resolution to this proposed merger that will satisfy everyone. But we hope that through this pledge the public can at least be confident that deliberations are based not on any future job prospects, but on the agency's actual mandate: whether this deal is truly in the public interest. [Aaron is the president and CEO of Free Press]
Stop the revolving door at the FCC
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch released e-mails between Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Michael Copps and his aides and members of Free Press.
The media reform group offered to help draft an editorial by Commissioner Copps to place in a newspaper. The correspondence also shows that Copps's office declined the help with drafting, but accepted the help with placing the article.
“As you can see from even a cursory glance at these e-mails, there is nothing unusual or controversial in what Judicial Watch 'uncovered.' They found us — shockingly — filing ex partes about meetings we had, recommending our allies to testify at public hearings, urging the public to attend those hearings and sending a daily headline service to anyone who signs up," Free Press President Craig Aaron said, arguing that the e-mails reflect the ordinary activities of advocates.
But Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) strongly condemned what she described as "collusion" and called for further scrutiny of Free Press by the House. "I am deeply disturbed by the revelations of collusion between the FCC and Free Press on the net-neutrality issue. The FCC has moved against the will of the people, the wisdom of Congress and the order of the courts, to nationalize our most productive marketplace," Rep Blackburn said.
Rep Blackburn slams Free Press 'collusion' with FCC Commissioner Copps on network neutrality House Republicans Continue To Question Collaboration On Net Neutrality Rules (National Journal) Blackburn: House Should Look Into Judicial Watch Charges of Net Neutrality 'Collusion' (B&C)
The industry group TechAmerica praised House Republicans on June 3 for the technology legislative agenda they unveiled one day earlier. The House Republican Technology Working Group said it will focus on protecting U.S. intellectual property, preventing cyber attacks and ensuring there is enough spectrum available for mobile broadband during the current session, spurring the industry's hopes that tech policy will take center stage this year. "In order to get our nation’s economy back on track, we need to ensure that American innovation is fostered and given every opportunity to succeed, creating jobs and expanding business investment opportunities," said TechAmerica CEO Phil Bond.
TechAmerica lauds House GOP's tech agenda
California lawmakers on June 2 rejected an Internet privacy bill for a second time after heavy lobbying from Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites that objected to more state regulation.
The state Senate rejected SB242, which fell two votes short of the majority needed. The bill, which would have required websites to automatically set personal information to private, also failed a week earlier. Sen. Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) had pitched the bill as necessary protection against identity theft and to give parents better control over their children's information online. Companies had argued that Corbett's bill would have forced consumers to make blanket privacy decisions before they even use a service. Most online sites now let users decide to reveal or conceal personal information about what they are doing at any particular time. Technology firms opposed to the bill reported spending $148,218 on lobbyists this year, though not all their reports with the secretary of state's office specifically listed Corbett's bill as a target. That does not include the $682,834 spent by the California Chamber of Commerce, which lobbies on many bills.
California lawmakers defeat bill on Internet privacy
The Federal Communications Commission's Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (“CGB”) seeks comment on whether certain docketed FCC proceedings should be terminated as dormant.
By Report and Order released on February 4, 2011, the FCC revised portions of its Part 1 practice and procedural rules and its Part 0 organizational rules to increase the efficiency of FCC decision-making, modernize the agency’s processes in the digital age and enhance the openness and transparency of Commission proceedings for practitioners and the public. The revised rules delegate authority to the Chief, CGB to periodically review all open dockets and, in consultation with the responsible Bureaus or Offices, to identify those dockets that appear to be candidates for termination. The FCC stated that these candidates may include dockets in which no further action is required or contemplated as well as those in which no pleadings or other documents have been filed for several years, but it specified that proceedings in which petitions addressing the merits are pending should not be terminated, absent the parties’ consent. The termination of a dormant proceeding also includes dismissal as moot of any pending petition, motion, or other request for relief that is procedural in nature or otherwise does not address the merits of the proceeding. The FCC directed that a public notice identifying dockets under consideration for termination and affording interested parties an opportunity to comment should be issued before any particular proceeding is terminated. To that end, CGB, in coordination with the responsible Bureaus and
Offices, has identified the dockets for possible termination
FCC Looks to Close Dormant Dockets
The United States government's National Broadband Map has been out for three months and hasn't generated much heat—until now. Suddenly advocates from the New America Foundation are posting commentaries calling the project a big disappointment.
"We think that with a few vital improvements, the map could easily become an exemplar of government data transparency as well as an incredibly useful tool for US residents and policymakers," write Benjamin Lennett and Sascha Meinrath on Slate. "But without these improvements, the National Broadband Map runs the risk of becoming a $350 million boondoggle—a map to nowhere filled with inaccurate and useless information." "Map to nowhere"? Ouch. That's a phrase reminiscent of potshots taken at the Obama administration's $7.1 billion broadband stimulus package, sometimes called "broadband to nowhere" by critics. The alleged problems are twofold. First, the map doesn't display information about Internet Service Provider prices. And second, its data on ISP speeds relies heavily on information provided by the companies themselves. "Anyone who's ever checked their connection speed knows that real-life speeds tend to be substantially lower than what you're paying for," they note. The Federal Communications Commission, on whose site the map is posted, was quick to reply to the charges. The criticisms "miss almost entirely the real story regarding broadband data and the FCC, including the National Broadband Map," countered the agency's Steven Rosenberg. NTIA pointed out to us that the stimulus plan authorized "up to" $350 million. That isn't what the map has cost so far. $200 million has been allocated over the next five years, the agency says. The rest has been rerouted to local and statewide broadband projects.
There's quite a lot to chew on in this tussle. The good news is that FCC and NTIA have come through with an open and expandable map of the nation's broadband resources -- and they are working with constructively critical groups who want to make the application much more accurate and useful. This uneasy collaboration could go far. One small suggestion -- perhaps words like "boondoggle" should stay out of future public exchanges. They may only give credence to those who thought that the National Broadband Map should never have been developed in the first place.
The National Broadband Map: a $350 million "boondoggle"? The National Broadband Map: A Work in Progress (telecompetitor)