Democrats in both chambers back the FCC’s stance on pre-empting state laws restricting municipal broadband, several told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1iNPIPW). Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., led the letter. It was also signed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., plus House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The FCC should “utilize the full arsenal of tools” Congress gave it, and local communities should decide for themselves whether they'll build municipal networks, the Democrats said, asking Wheeler to tell them his plans within 30 days. Republicans have attacked the FCC for floating this proposal, saying it violates state sovereignty.

The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared by voice vote its narrow Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill Thursday, with one technical amendment from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the two-page bill, S-2454, that would extend STELA for five years and lacks the video market overhauls some have sought. At the Thursday session, Leahy called the bill “straightforward” and Grassley said those other video market proposals are “more appropriately handled” as part of a telecom law overhaul within the Commerce Committee. NAB has pressed for such a clean reauthorization and President Gordon Smith reiterated its “strong support” for the bill, after its approval. “It helps low-power television stations, addresses a disparity,” Durbin said of his amendment (http://1.usa.gov/1pSIA5L). “These are the little guys in the broadcast world.” He referred to a change made in the 2010 STELA reauthorization to the definition of local service areas that applies if a satellite company retransmits a low-power station. Not included were cable companies, and the amendment fixes that, Durbin said. He has talked to all relevant stakeholders, who “support this effort,” Durbin said. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., brought up “a problem I have” in Alabama, where many households lack access to in-state local programming, but refrained from offering any amendment addressing that. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, requested a “serious conversation” about killing statutory licensing requirements and doesn’t want to wait five years to do that, he said. The Thursday Judiciary agenda had also included the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (S-517) but that was postponed. TVFreedom, a coalition of broadcast interests including NAB, wrote a Thursday letter to Judiciary leaders thanking and praising them for the bill. “This legislation preserves, rather than eliminates or redesigns, the lifeline basic service tier provision,” TVFreedom’s spokesman wrote (http://bit.ly/1jo50pA). “Eliminating or altering this requirement of cable TV systems would be detrimental to millions of cable subscribers across the country who depend on broadcast TV as a vital lifeline to emergency information in times of disaster."

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved two bills aimed at improving the federal government’s information security and cybersecurity info sharing, in a Wednesday markup (http://1.usa.gov/1mxf1pf). The Federal Information Security Modernization Act (S-2521) is intended to “move agencies away from paperwork-heavy processes toward real-time and automated security,” while further explicating the roles of different agencies in this process, the committee said. The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) (S-2519) Act is intended to set in stone the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity responsibilities and facilitate cyberthreat information sharing. Before passing the bill, the committee adopted an amendment from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that “sets clear limits on the role of the NCCIC, giving industry the security to share information with authorities without the threat of federal ‘mission creep,'” he said in a written statement Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1mhvbOy): “The possibility of heavy-handed federal regulation would endanger the private sector’s willingness to share information.” Johnson said he wants to avoid “a maze of assessments, audits and standards that would lag hopelessly behind both technological developments and threats."

The Senate Intelligence Committee canceled its planned markup of the draft Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (http://1.usa.gov/1vAZvew), originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon, said a committee aide. Travel schedules ahead of a congressional recess played a role in the delay, the aide confirmed. Industry executives have said the bill has a “good chance” of getting out of committee and they support most of the legislation’s language, but privacy advocates remain concerned about the bill’s role in furthering the NSA’s surveillance programs (CD June 26 p8). The bill has gone through revisions since the House approved its version -- the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624) (http://1.usa.gov/1nMkkxx) -- but industry and privacy stances on the bill have remained largely the same (CD May 15 p11). There is no new date for the markup.

House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., called the Supreme Court’s decision this week against Aereo (CD June 26 p1) “disappointing” and “a reminder that our video laws are broken and ripe for reform,” as she has advocated throughout the past year. “Every day I hear from my constituents who are fed up with rising cable bills and a business model that forces them to buy a bundle of channels they will never watch,” Eshoo said in a statement Thursday. “Aereo provided the innovative solution needed to disrupt the video marketplace, giving consumers greater choice in how they watch their favorite free over-the-air broadcast programming."

Witnesses for the Senate Judiciary Committee field hearing on net neutrality are Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner now with Common Cause; Lisa Groeneveld, chief operating officer of South Burlington computer manufacturing firm Logic Supply; Cabot Orton, proprietor of The Vermont Country Store in Manchester, Vt.; and Vermont Department of Libraries State Librarian Martha Reid. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., will hold the hearing Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Davis Center at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is laying “groundwork for a new federal law aimed at cable, satellite, and other pay-TV billing practices,” she said Wednesday in a news release (http://1.usa.gov/1lQoOGh). She asked consumers to give her anecdotes about their experiences with cable and satellite billing practices in a website tool she calls “Submit Your Scam.” She said the scams could include “confusing updates to channel line-ups, broadband Internet speeds, or pricing that are not clearly explained to consumers; overbilling or ongoing charges that consumers should not be paying; excessive (or erroneous) equipment rental fees; early termination and/or change of service fees.” McCaskill chairs the Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee. “Consumers need protections from these practices, and I'm aiming to provide that and begin holding these companies accountable,” she said in a statement.

The House Appropriations Committee approved, 28-21, a FY 2015 budget that would fully fund the FTC at its requested level (http://1.usa.gov/1v6Ddzj), but grant the FCC more than $50 million less than it requested and the Senate authorized Tuesday (CD June 25 p14). The FTC’s full request -- $293 million -- is $5 million less than its FY 2014 budget. The FCC’s FY 2015 request was $375.38 million, up from its $339.84 million outlay in FY 2014, according to a House report (http://1.usa.gov/ViQA4T). Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Chairman Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., said both agencies could “operate with a little bit less.” According to the House report, “the creation of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection transferred some areas of consumer protection jurisdiction that were once the sole purview of the FTC to the CFPB.” The report was far more critical of the FCC, arguing the commission’s “organizational and management structure” is incongruous with the modern telecommunications market. “Market-based competition should result in a smaller Commission with fewer staff,” it said. The report urged the FCC to focus on hiring “essential technical staff” and “take seriously the use of its economists,” by emphasizing “more cost-benefit analysis of Commission rules.” It also chastised the FCC for some of its recent cybersecurity actions (CD June 13 p1), saying “the FCC should be concerned with things that are strictly within its jurisdiction and not attempt regulatory overreach.” The FCC had no comment.

It’s important to stand up against Title II reclassification of broadband now, said House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, on an episode of NTCA’s Broadband Beat With Shirley Bloomfield (http://bit.ly/1yOJvbq): “We want to have that marker placed right now.” He introduced a bill earlier this year that would prevent that from happening. Latta co-chairs the Rural Telecommunications Working Group. On rural call completion, Latta said his district encompasses a lot of agriculture and manufacturing: “We're spread out. What I was hearing from folks is these calls were getting dropped, this was hurting business.” He told of family members who struggled to get in touch with each other. Latta said he has met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on this issue, and said Wheeler is appreciative of Latta’s focus because it “keeps the heat on to keep these things going.”

The U.S. government is misusing generalized warrants, and Congress should act, said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith at a Brookings Institute event. Microsoft in early June challenged in the U.S. District Court in New York City (http://wapo.st/UFFjLs) a U.S. federal judge’s order to turn over a European customer’s data stored in Dublin, Ireland (http://bit.ly/1nBQ20m). The warrant was overbroad and should not apply to data stored overseas, Smith said Tuesday. “The law applies where the data resides.” The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) “did not give the government the authority to ask technology companies to break down the digital doors of their facilities and go look at what was inside and turn it over to the United States government,” he said. If companies allow the U.S. government to obtain information stored overseas, “on what basis can the United States possibly stand up and object when other governments seek to reach into data centers here in the United States?” Smith asked. Protecting the rights of Americans -- primarily the Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure -- means “we as a country need to pursue principles that can be applied across the board,” he said. Smith urged Congress to codify these principles and ensure the executive branch is “accountable to the courts.” He also pressed the Senate to follow the House and “close the door on unfettered” bulk data collection. The House in May passed the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361), which would limit the government’s surveillance programs authorized under the Patriot Act (CD May 23 p9). Last week, the House also amended the Department of Defense Appropriations bill (HR-4870) to prohibit the use of funds for warrantless searches of certain data collected under the Patriot Act (CD June 23 p14). “We should all hope the Senate can get us the rest of the way,” Smith said. “So the public here and around the world can have the trust it deserves in the technology it uses.”