Dust still hadn't settled Thursday in several outstanding races following the Tuesday midterm elections. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, had not yet conceded. Begich was down by more than three points in his re-election fight against Republican Dan Sullivan. Begich is a member of the Communications Subcommittee and has been active on rural broadband and USF issues. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is locked in tight race against Republican consultant Ed Gillespie that has not formally been called, although Warner has maintained a slight lead and is widely considered victorious. The California 17th District House race had also not yet been called. Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., has led in the polls against Ro Khanna, also a Democrat and former deputy assistant secretary of Commerce under President Barack Obama.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is still trying to nail down whether it's possible to hold a hearing on pay-TV industry bill practices this year. McCaskill is chairwoman of the Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee and said months ago that she hoped to hold a hearing this year if possible. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., endorsed the idea of such a hearing at a September markup session and said McCaskill should lead it. But staffers are still looking at the calendar and assessing when and if such a hearing is possible later this month or December, a Democratic Senate staffer told us. Congress returns for the lame-duck session Nov. 12.

Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., is planning a letter to the FCC on rural TV programming. His office circulated a Dear Colleague letter asking for other lawmakers to sign on by Nov. 18. “Internet speeds and access continue to grow, and consumers have more cable channels and online media options,” said Smith’s draft of the letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “However, access to these opportunities remains a challenge for many -- particularly the mostly rural Americans not yet reached by the fastest broadband and seniors who continue to access video content solely through television.” The FCC should “remain mindful of the challenges faced by rural Americans as you consider issues before the Commission,” the draft said. “We remain committed to working with you to ensure all Americans have the opportunity to access the content most relevant to their work, families, and communities.”

House Ways and Means Committee members and other House members reached across the aisle in recent days to pressure U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to safeguard digital products and cross-border data flow in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements. The bipartisan group of 55 House members threatened to reject a TPP implementation bill that fails to meet a robust standard of digital protection. “We encourage you to resist efforts by other countries to include overly broad exceptions that would unnecessarily undermine these provisions and provide lower levels of protection for digital products and services than other areas of trade,” said the letter, led by committee members Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Ron Kind, D-Wis. “We also urge you to resist any delay in the implementation of dispute resolution mechanisms.” The Oct. 31 letter follows two other similar letters from lawmakers in recent weeks (see 1410280026).

Two senators urged antitrust regulators to examine AT&T’s proposed acquisition of DirecTV with great care. Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, sent a joint letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Attorney General Eric Holder Oct. 30. “Your agencies should consider the extent to which the merger is necessary to provide bundled service, and whether the merger will improve the companies’ ability to offer service that can more strongly compete with cable,” they said. “We think you should examine whether AT&T’s commitment to offer standalone [broadband] service for three years is sufficient to secure customers’ continued ability to choose that option.” They cited concerns about most favored nation clauses and about how they “can negatively affect competition for independent programming.” They also urged the regulators to examine any program access issues. The tone “suggests conditions, not rejection,” said Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant in a Tuesday research note to investors. “Given the current dispute over outside parties’ access to the merging companies’ programming contracts, we are inclined to think a March 2015 ruling from the DOJ and FCC is realistic.” Gallant suggested Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable is the more challenging deal to secure approval. AT&T and DirecTV have defended their deal as strongly pro-consumer and necessary to provide better bundles.

TVFreedom issued another blog post Monday tearing into the pay-TV industry for reaping what it called too much profit and not helping consumers. “Using every means at their disposal, [pay-TV lobbyists] continue pressuring Washington lawmakers for new laws and policies that would separate out local broadcast TV stations from existing cable package offerings and, instead, would require consumers to purchase these popular local TV channels on an 'a la carte' basis,” TVFreedom's spokesman wrote of the Senate’s Local Choice proposal. “This is one component of a grand strategy to use government intervention to fundamentally alter the nation's existing video market in order to provide the pay-TV industry with an irreversible competitive advantage over the broadcast television industry for local advertising dollars.” TVFreedom is a coalition of broadcasters, including NAB. “Blinded by the potential financial windfall they'll reap as a result of broadcast-TV-only 'a la carte' through increased local advertising dollars, the pay-TV cabal is now engaged in a full-throttled effort to hide this truth from their subscribers,” the spokesman said. The pay-TV industry should “offer subscribers a lease-to-purchase option for DVRs and set-top boxes as part of service contract renewals” and take “proactive measures to overhaul their truth-in-billing practices for the benefit of customers,” the TVFreedom spokesman said. TVFreedom has been engaged in a lobbying battle with the American Television Alliance, a coalition of pay-TV industry stakeholders, throughout the past year. The American Television Alliance has defended Local Choice as necessary and criticized broadcaster greed (see 1408270052).

The Senate must act on surveillance overhaul during the lame-duck session, said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Judiciary IP Subcommittee. “The most recent version of the USA Freedom Act, reintroduced in the Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy, [D-Vt.,] contains bipartisan reform measures supported by a historic alliance of stakeholders; including the White House, liberal Democrats, conservative Republicans, the intelligence community and privacy advocates,” said Nadler in a Monday letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He urged the Senate “to pass the USA Freedom Act once Congress reconvenes on Nov. 12 and to send it back to the House for a final vote of approval.”

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., wants the FCC to begin proceedings to ban the use of the NFL football team name Redskins from broadcast TV and radio. “The FCC cannot stand by, particularly after there has been an official finding that our hometown team name is derogatory,” Norton said in a statement Monday. “As football hits its high point during this month when we also commemorate Native American Heritage Month, we should also move forward with the process necessary to get this racial slur off the air.” The FCC “after appropriate hearings, should use its precedent in deciding whether the use of the derogatory name by broadcast television and radio stations can continue,” said her news release. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said the team name offends him and that the FCC will assess a petition challenging a radio station’s license over the use of the name (see 1410070054).

Ritter Communications’ recent lobbying on Local Choice is due to its own retransmission consent negotiations and struggles, Vice President-External Affairs John Strode told us. In late October, Ritter, a member of NTCA with customers in Arkansas and Tennessee, released a video praising the broadcast a la carte proposal, stalled in the Senate, and began asking customers to talk to lawmakers (see 1410290058). “Even though Local Choice was removed” from the Senate Commerce Committee’s Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization proposal this fall, “we believe that it should be a part of the proposed Communications Act rewrite that will begin in the next Congress,” Strode said. “We are trying to put this info in front of our customers and get them involved in communicating to members of Congress that they like Local Choice and want to see it move forward. We are in the middle of retransmission consent negotiations and expect that our costs will go up significantly as a result. This video then also helps tell our customers why that increase is happening.” He called the retrans consent system “broken.” Broadcasters strongly opposed Local Choice following its introduction this fall.

The FCC is moving “as expeditiously as possible” to allow for more Wi-Fi use in the upper 5 GHz band, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler reassured Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., along with Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Anna Eshoo, D, Darrell Issa, R, and Doris Matsui, D, all of California, in a letter the agency released last week. They all back the Wi-Fi Innovation Act, calling for shared spectrum use in that band. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers “is actively reviewing two leading proposals submitted by the Wi-Fi industry to address interference issues within the upper 5 GHz band,” Wheeler said. "Commission staff has encouraged and monitored the group's progress. At the same time, the Commission continues to work collaboratively with other federal stakeholders, including NTIA, the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to encourage the development of viable solutions to protect incumbent users from harmful interference, while maximizing the potential shared use of this spectrum.”