Legislative Activity House Democrats Introduce Infrastructure Bill that Includes $40 Billion for Broadband On May 17, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) introduced H.R.2479, the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s America Act (LIFT America Act). According to a press release on Rep. Pallone’s website, the legislation “sets out five years of funding for essential infrastructure improvements, job growth, … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senators Introduce Bill to Expand Broadband Deployment Using Accurate Coverage Data On May 11, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced S.1104, the Rural Wireless Access Act of 2017. The bill would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to “collect broadband coverage … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Chairman Pai Tells Members of Congress that Set-Top Box Docket to Stay Open On Thursday, April 13, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai responded to a January 25 letter (previously discussed here) from members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee that asked Chairman Pai to make a “healthy practice of closing dockets … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Approves Joint Resolution to Repeal the FCC’s Broadband Privacy Rules, Sending the Measure to the President On March 28, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution (S.J. Res. 34) passed by the Senate last week to repeal the broadband privacy rules adopted by the Federal Communications … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Bill on Unwanted Robocalls and Texts Introduced in Senate On March 8, Sens. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Help Americans Never Get Unwanted Phone Calls (HANGUP) Act of 2017. The legislation, a version of which was introduced in 2016, would eliminate a provision of the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Cybersecurity Legislation Introduced in the House and Senate On March 2, legislators in both the House of Representatives (House) and the Senate introduced several bills relating to cybersecurity reforms. As of this writing, the text of the bills below has not been publicly released. The following bills were introduced in the House: H.R.1340, … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Approves Email Privacy Act On February 6, the U.S. House of Representatives (House) passed H.R.387, the Email Privacy Act, by voice vote. The bill updates part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) by enhancing the privacy protections applicable to electronic communications such as emails, social media posts, and other … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Lawmakers Discuss Movement on Telecom Bills Before Recess and Election During a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch held June 8, House Energy & Commerce Committee (House Commerce Committee) counsel discussed pending communications legislation and the likelihood of seeing movement in the coming months. Majority counsel David Redl expressed interest in advancing H.R.4889, … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity 60 Members of Congress Address FCC’s Set-Top Box Proposal On May 5, 60 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle wrote a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler expressing concern about the FCC’s recent proposal to change the FCC’s set-top box rules (previously discussed here). The letter stated … Continue Reading
