Chairman Tom Wheeler touted FCC efforts to curb call completion problems. “The false ring signaling rule is already in effect, while the record retention and call completion performance reporting requirements will need OMB [Office of Management and Budget] approval before going into effect,” Wheeler said in a letter, released Friday and dated Nov. 4, to senators including Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D. “Recently, I circulated an Order to my fellow Commissioners to address five petitions for reconsideration that were filed in response to the Rural Call Completion Order. Once that Order is adopted, we will promptly make the necessary submissions to OMB.” Wheeler sent a similar letter to Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D. Wheeler emphasized the enforcement actions that the agency has been taking on this front and said the commission has tackled call completion problems on “multiple fronts.”

Overhauling the Communications Act should be a key priority of the next Congress, The Washington Times said in an editorial Sunday about Capitol Hill priorities generally. “Beyond tax and regulatory reform, the outdated Telecom Act should be another top priority,” the conservative newspaper’s editorial board said. “The Act was written in 1934 and last updated in 1996 and cannot reflect the needs of modern technology. Republicans have a unique bipartisan opportunity to cast a wide net and revamp the laws governing one of the most promising economic sectors.” House Republicans announced a year ago that they wanted to overhaul the act, and Senate Republicans have said they also have an interest in doing so.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) would cost $20 million to implement, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Thursday. CISA’s (S-2588) annual implementation cost would be $4 million between 2015 and 2019, with part of the cost for additional staff “needed to administer the program and to manage the exchange of information between federal agencies and the private sector,” CBO said in its report. Industry lobbyists have said the Senate is unlikely to consider CISA during the lame-duck session, with its chances hinging on further action on the USA Freedom Act (see 1411070037). A Senate cloture vote on its version of the bill (S-2685) last week fell below the required 60-vote threshold, 58-42 (see 1411190044). Retiring House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., urged the Senate Thursday to pass CISA, saying during a House Intelligence hearing that the committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee are "so close to an agreement" on a compromise between CISA and its relative House-passed counterpart, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624).

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced legislation Thursday targeting phone scams that he says affect senior citizens. The bill is S-2956, listed as the Phone Scam Prevention Act. One of the bill’s three co-sponsors is Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who referred to it in a news release as the Anti-Spoofing Act of 2014, the title of legislation that successfully passed the House earlier this year. “This bipartisan legislation would take steps to help protect seniors and all consumers from phone scams by giving people additional protection and closing existing loopholes,” Donnelly said. The other two co-sponsors are Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. Nelson and Collins are the chairman and ranking member of the Special Committee on Aging, where Donnelly is also a member. Nelson is also a Commerce member expected to lead Commerce Democrats in the next Congress, and this bill has been referred to the Commerce Committee. The Aging Committee held a hearing Wednesday on phone scams to hear from debit card companies and retailers. The legislation is intended “to make it easier for seniors to actually know who is calling them, and give them tools to protect themselves from fraud,” Nelson said in his opening statement for that hearing.

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, wants to expand the federal Do Not Call restrictions. He introduced a bill (S-2957) Thursday to “allow individuals to opt out of receiving these sorts of pestering phone calls from Super PACs [political action committees] and similar groups,” Begich said in a statement. The Do Not Disturb Act of 2014 would, according to a Begich news release, prevent calls to those who don’t want such calls from super PACs as well as “so-called ‘social welfare’ political organizations.” It also “prohibits push polls and robo-calls to Americans who have listed their telephone numbers on the registry,” the release said. The legislation lists no co-sponsors currently and is referred to the Commerce Committee, where Begich is a member. He lost his re-election bid and will not be a member of the next Congress.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., last week lauded the progress in the FCC's AWS-3 spectrum auction, which had raised just shy of $30 billion by Thursday (see 1411200041). It has “achieved remarkable success,” earning “enough to fully fund FirstNet, the nationwide interoperability network for America’s first responders and public safety officials,” she said in a statement. “I am confident that as the spectrum [auction] continues, it will net billions more that will help pay down our national debt. In addition to generating needed revenue, this spectrum auction provides an opportunity for wireless carriers to build-out and enhance their networks, providing better coverage and faster speeds to their customers. This auction is clearly proving to be a major win for consumers, innovation, and public safety.” Matsui co-chairs the Congressional Spectrum Caucus and is a member of the Communications Subcommittee.

The Internet’s root zone file should be managed by a proposed Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) consortium, not ICANN, said a bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa. The Defending Internet Freedom Act (HR-5737) said the consortium would be financed and managed by top-level domain registries. HR-5737 also calls for an “Internet Freedom Panel” within ICANN. The panel would have the power to “review and veto” any proposed changes to the Domain Name System by ICANN, said the bill. “Preserving Internet freedom is an American duty,” Kelly said in a news release Wednesday. “The requirements within this bill will guarantee that the Internet remains unchained and out of the grasp of bad actors and hostile powers that actively limit freedom.” HR-5737 is co-sponsored by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas., and has been endorsed by the American Center for Law and Justice, Center for Security Policy, Eagle Forum and Heritage Foundation, the release said. Kelly spoke at a Heritage Foundation event about the IANA transition in July (see 1407160044). A June paper released by Heritage also called for an IANA consortium.

The House Commerce Committee added seven Republicans to its roster for the new Congress, it said in a news release Thursday. The new members are Reps. Susan Brooks and Larry Bucshon, both Indiana; Chris Collins, New York; Kevin Cramer, North Dakota; Bill Flores, Texas; Rich Hudson, North Carolina; and Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma. The committee did not announce which subcommittees these members will join.

The House Appropriations Committee named subcommittee chairs Thursday for the next Congress. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., will remain the head of the Financial Services Subcommittee, which oversees such agencies as the FCC and the FTC. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, will chair the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee, replacing Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. The Republican Steering Committee signed off on the 12 subcommittee chairs, an Appropriations news release said.

The White House thinks “federal criminal law should be modernized to include felony criminal penalties for those who engage in large-scale streaming of illegal, infringing content,” said Alex Niejelow, White House IP enforcement coordinator chief of staff, in a blog post Wednesday. Such laws are “already on the books" for the "reproduction and distribution of infringing content,” he said. Niejelow was responding to two petitions to the White House, asking that penalties not be increased for online media sharing (see petitions here and here). The petitions invoked the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (HR-3261), which would have imposed much stiffer penalties for such infringement. SOPA was tabled after public outcry. “We should keep in mind that a felony is meant to reflect significant criminal activity,” Niejelow said. “Congress should consider the question of whether changes in the business model of streaming-based infringement also counsel corresponding changes in the way we set the harm thresholds … required to establish a felony penalty for illegal streaming under the criminal copyright statute.” Those thresholds include the number of infringing acts, their monetary value and the “statutory” time frame in which those acts are committed, Niejelow said.