Agenda

On September 26, at the Federal Communications Commission’s open meeting, commissioners will vote on an order that will limit the roles of local policymakers in the deployment of fifth generation (5G) wireless infrastructure.

As the Communications Workers of America’s representative on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s Model Code for Municipalities Working Group, I filed a letter on September 18, 2018, to express concern with the Federal Communications Commission’s draft order on streamlining wireless infrastructure deployment, which will be considered at the FCC's September 26, 2018 Open Meeting. The draft order is inconsistent with recommendations from the Model Code for Municipalities Working Group and is an overreach of federal authority.

Across the country, telecommunication companies are beginning to lay the groundwork for 5G wireless networks. The buildout often pits states against cities. But a proposal that the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on Sept 26 would not only upend future local agreements, but also preempt states. If approved, localities across the country would have drastically less authority over 5G infrastructure. 

Consumer privacy advocates are less than thrilled that Senate Commerce Committee leaders declined to invite them to an upcoming hearing on data privacy. 28 privacy groups wrote to Commerce Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) that they "do not understand why the Committee has chosen to exclude the voice of consumers." They called on the senators to invite them or hold additional hearings with them.

A major technology company has been telling senators and their staffers that their personal email accounts were targeted by foreign hackers, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, claimed in a letter to leaders. He used the letter to question why the Senate sergeant-at-arms did not have a clear mandate to help protect the personal accounts and devices of senators and their staffers as well as the official ones. “This approach must change to keep up with changing world realities,” Sen.

The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on the subjects listed below on Wednesday, Sept 26, 2018:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joined CA state senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), firefighters, state legislators and community advocates in support of CA Senate Bill 822, which would enact the strongest net neutrality standards in the nation. “Once we have established California as a model of a state taking action, other states may follow,” she said. “And then I think you will see some of corporate America say, okay, let’s have a federal law because we don’t...want to do different things in different states,” she says.

Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed into law a state funding bill that will grant Attorney General Xavier Becerra $700,000 and five new staffers to help craft and implement the state’s sweeping new privacy law. AG Becerra has reportedly told Gov. Brown he expects to issue final rules under the law by June 2019, in advance of the measure taking effect on Jan. 1, 2020. The newly-minted funding law will help bolster the state’s effort to install what’s been touted as the strongest state-level online privacy safeguards in the country.