Jimm Phillips

The Wireless Infrastructure Association and others are expected to argue at a Tuesday Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing that lawmakers should consider network resiliency issues as they decide the contours of connectivity language in upcoming infrastructure spending legislation. Subpanel lawmakers said they intend to look at how to move forward on a to-be-refiled version of the Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (see 2102160067) and other resiliency-centric bills. The partly virtual hearing begins at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell.

House Small Business Rural Development Subcommittee members eyed connectivity hurdles that small businesses face, during a Wednesday hearing. “Factors like low population densities, rugged terrain and fewer subscribers to spread deployment costs among have contributed to a lack of investment in broadband networks by private companies,” said Chairman Jared Golden, D-Maine. Ranking member Jim Hagedorn, R-Minn., backed Agriculture Committee GOP leaders’ Broadband for Rural America Act (HR-3369) and criticized President Joe Biden’s broadband infrastructure spending proposal (see 2103310064). HR-3369 would codify USDA’s ReConnect broadband program and set annual funding for its rural connectivity programs at $3.7 billion (see 2105210059). The administration’s plan “to prioritize investments in municipal broadband is concerning,” Hagedorn said. “I worry that, given over one-third of our country has" municipal broadband network "restrictions in place, this will lead to implementation issues and put rural America further behind.” If “broadband infrastructure is going to achieve its promise, we need to make sure federal funds flow to the solutions these communities want, including making it much easier to fund a community-owned network,” said ConnectMaine Authority Executive Director Peggy Schaffer. It’s “critical that the vast majority of future funding should go toward providing a minimum of” 100 Mbps symmetrical “and networks capable of scaling to a gigabit or more,” said Center on Rural Innovation Executive Director Matt Dunne. “To do otherwise is only setting ourselves up for a rural-urban divide five years from now even after a massive infrastructure investment.”

Congressional Democrats are pressing harder for President Joe Biden to name a permanent FCC chair and a fifth commissioner, citing the need for a majority to act on changes to net neutrality rules and other priorities unlikely to garner GOP support. Lawmakers remain publicly hopeful the administration will soon announce its FCC nominees. Privately, Senate Democrats in recent days told the White House their patience on FCC nomination delays has evaporated, aides said.

The House Science Committee unanimously advanced Tuesday the National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225), setting up a likely showdown on whether the chamber will approve that bill rather than the rival Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, prefers HR-2225’s approach to countering Chinese tech R&D. S-1260 would establish an NSF Technology Directorate; HR-2225 would establish a generalized Directorate for Science and Engineering Solutions.

President Joe Biden plans to name Lina Khan to permanently lead the FTC once she's sworn in as a commissioner. Hours earlier, the Senate voted 69-28 Tuesday to confirm her. Khan drew bipartisan Senate support, as expected (see 2106100069). FTC supporters, pressed Congress to increase FY 2022 funding and enact legislation to restore its FTC Act Section 13(b) consumer redress authority.

President Joe Biden plans to name Lina Khan as his pick for permanent FTC chair, a White House official confirmed to us Tuesday. Khan would succeed current acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who’s led the FTC since shortly after Biden took office in January. News of Khan’s impending ascension to the FTC chairmanship came just hours after the Senate voted 69-28 to confirm her as a commissioner.

The Senate voted 69-28 Tuesday to confirm Lina Khan to the FTC. The chamber had voted 72-25 Monday night to invoke cloture on Khan, including all 50 Democratic caucus members and 22 Republicans.

House Antitrust Subcommittee members bowed five bills Friday to address alleged abuse of market power by Google, Facebook, Amazon and other major tech companies the subpanel identified in an October report (see 2010060062). Each measure had GOP lead co-sponsors.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., set a Monday vote to invoke cloture on FTC nominee Lina Khan, setting up a likely final vote as soon as Tuesday. The House Commerce Committee, meanwhile, voted 30-22 Thursday to advance the Consumer Protection and Relief Act to restore FTC Act Section 13(b) consumer redress authority to the commission. House Commerce Republicans echoed their earlier displeasure with HR-2668 (see 2105270067) during the markup.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., filed Thursday his Promoting Rights and Online Speech Protections to Ensure Every Consumer is Heard (Pro-Speech) Act. The bill was as expected (see our report here). It would regulate online platforms like common carriers. The measure would bar social media from actions against users based on racial, sexual, religious, partisan or ethnic grounds. It would bar platforms from blocking or discriminating against competing platforms by declaring such actions presumptively anti-competitive. It would let the FTC to use Section 5 authority to enforce the law. The Pro-Speech Act should “make it clear that these large internet tech platforms cannot discriminate based on their own opinions and based on what they think the public should and should not be allowed to hear,” Wicker told a news conference on Republicans’ concerns about Big Tech “censorship” related to the pandemic. “This is a serious, grave threat to freedom and the open exchange of ideas under” the Constitution. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr praised the legislation and believes it should be enacted in concert with Communications Decency Act Section 230 revamp. The bill “would give Big Tech a simple choice: either stop blocking people from posting and accessing lawful content or declare that you are acting as a publisher and accept the responsibilities that come with that status,” he said. It “would also bring much needed transparency to Big Tech’s practices and rein in their anticompetitive conduct.” NetChoice opposes the measure. It “may look like it checks some boxes for conservatives, but in practice it will make the internet impossible to use by forcing all of us to sift through the worst of the internet just to connect with our friends and family,” said General Counsel Carl Szabo in a statement. “The bill’s advocates have not thought through its wide array of harmful consequences like the simultaneous proliferation of hate speech, sexism, racism, and other types of awful but lawful content.”