Agenda

The Senate as expected voted to invoke cloture (limit debate) on the renomination of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to a new, five-year term on the FCC retroactive to the end of his term, which was June 2016 (commissioners can serve through the end of the next Congress, which is the end of 2017).

The vote was 55 to 40 along primarily partisan lines and followed Democratic Sens calling for the "firing" of Pai and Republicans saying the FCC was in good hands under Pai's stewardship. The vote means the Senate can proceed to a vote on the underlying nomination. An earlier vote was blocked by Democrats. That vote is expected by Oct 2 and will almost certainly result in a new term for the chairman.

After a weekend when Americans took to social media to debate President Trump’s admonishment of National Football League players who do not stand for the national anthem, a network of Twitter accounts suspected of links to Russia seized on both sides of the issue with hashtags such as #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem and #takeaknee.

As Twitter prepared to brief staff members of the Senate and House intelligence committees on Sept 28 for their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, researchers from a public policy group have been following hundreds of accounts to track the continuing Russian operations to influence social media discourse and foment division in the United States. There is evidence that Twitter may have been used even more extensively than Facebook in the Russian influence campaign in 2016. In addition to Russia-linked Twitter accounts that posed as Americans, the platform was also used for large-scale automated messaging, using “bot” accounts to spread false stories and promote news articles about emails from Democratic operatives that had been obtained by Russian hackers.

We recruited you to put you to work. As members of the Committee, your mission is to offer guidance so that the agency can take important steps toward increasing diversity throughout the communications industry and bringing digital opportunity to all Americans.

One of your tasks will be to identify issues that might not already be on the Federal Communications Commission’s radar. Another will be to advise us about issues that we’ve already identified. Another task we’ll assign you is to examine is how we can make sure that disadvantaged communities have access to next-generation networks. Broadband can be a great equalizer when it comes to jobs, health care, education, and civic engagement. But if we don’t bridge the digital divide, communities on the wrong side of that divide will fall further behind in each of these areas. Our goal should be ubiquitous, high-speed networks that bring together all Americans—and I do mean all Americans. Last but not least, we’ll ask you to take a hard look at diversity in Silicon Valley. I look forward to working with you to increase diversity throughout the communications industry and to bring digital opportunity to all Americans.

Depending on what happens with the Obamacare repeal bill, a Senate vote on the re-confirmation of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai could come as soon as the week of Sept 25. Before the recess, Republicans Sens agreed to give Chairman Pai's vote up to 30 hours of debate on the floor, providing Democrats a chance to air their grievances about issues like net neutrality and the pending Sinclair-Tribune merger. And Democratic Sens stand ready to make some noise, despite Chairman Pai having the necessary Republican support to advance. “We’re going to be very loud about it,” Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said. Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) added: “This debate on net neutrality, on privacy, is at a defining historical moment, and we have to ensure there is a full public debate so everyone can understand its importance.”

Here are the five biggest issues causing lawmakers to look at the technology industry in a new, harsher light: The Russia investigation, A new antitrust movement, Culture wars, Sex trafficking, and Advertising algorithms.

The following Agenda items have been adopted by the Commission, and deleted from the list of items scheduled for consideration at the Tuesday, September 26, 2017, Open Meeting and previously listed in the Commission’s Notice of Tuesday, September 19, 2017:

1. Cable Television Technical and Operational Standards (MB Docket No. 12-217): The Commission will consider a Report and Order that modernizes its cable television technical rules to reflect the cable industry’s use of digital transmission systems.
2. Revitalization of the AM Radio Service (MB Docket No. 13-249): The Commission will consider a Third Report and Order that will relax or eliminate certain rules pertaining to AM broadcasters employing and maintaining directional antenna arrays.

With this Public Notice the Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on the sufficiency of budgets for category two services under the E-rate program (more formally known as the schools and libraries universal service support program). In the E-rate Modernization Orders, the Commission adopted five-year, pre-discount budgets for schools and libraries. When the Commission adopted these rules in 2014, it established a five-year test period to allow the Commission to determine whether the applicant budgets were effective in ensuring greater access to E-rate funding for internal connections. The Commission directed the Bureau to report on the sufficiency of these applicant budgets before the filing window for funding year 2019 opens. In particular, the Commission directed the Bureau to use FCC Form 471 data from funding years 2015 through 2018 to analyze trends across different types of applicants or regions in the nation, particularly schools that serve students with special education services.

In preparation for this report, we seek comment on the sufficiency of the category two budgets. Specifically, we seek comment from applicants, service providers, and other interested parties about how applicants have used their budgets and the percentage of category two services purchased by applicants that were or will be covered by the budget. Interested parties may file comments on or before October 23, 2017 and reply comments on or before November 7, 2017. Comments and reply comments should reference WC Docket No. 13-184.

A group of Democratic Sens is asking the Federal Communications Commission to delay its effort to repeal the Obama-era net neutrality regulations in order to review a trove of recently-released documents related to the proceeding. The nine senators, led by Sen Edward Markey (D-MA), wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking if the new documents had been taken into account by the agency when deciding to roll back the rules. “Although the Commission has undertaken an historic proceeding to undo the Open Internet Order, the FCC has failed to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to comment on the tens of thousands of filed complaints that directly shed light on proposed changes to existing net neutrality protections,” the letter reads.

It's hard to run a successful business without access to high speed broadband. That was the message that repeatedly surfaced as Senate Democrats discussed issues important to rural America during a rural summit on Sept. 13.

Sen Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined senators from Montana, Delaware. North Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan and other states, along with national leaders, to discuss issues important to rural America, with an emphasis on boosting economic opportunity. Representing Wisconsin, Sen Baldwin was joined by Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden and James Wessing, president of Kondex Corporation in Lomira.

In describing the importance of rural communities, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) pointed out that about 60 million Americans live in rural areas, which is equivalent to 20 percent of the US population. However, the other 80 percent of the nation's population relies on that 20 percent for their food, energy and "so much of what they need to survive day to day."

In a new report from the Internet Society, a think tank founded by Vint Cerf, authors recommend governments take a “multistakeholder” approach—inviting members of the public and representatives from various industries—to create “consensus policy” surrounding the internet. They could determine what should be censored, how encryption affects national security, and whether citizens maintain their personal freedoms online. That approach is distinct from the “multilateral” approach in which several governments work together, excluding representatives from civil society. “Measures that may be intended to secure cyberspace will increasingly undermine personal rights and freedoms,” the report predicted. “If current trends are any indication, more and more governments will restrict and control Internet use and access through censorship, network shutdowns and other means.”