The House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee scheduled an oversight hearing of AT&T’s proposed buy of DirecTV for about $67 billion for June 24 at 10:30 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn. Witnesses will include AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and DirecTV CEO Michael White, with more to be announced closer to the hearing.

Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., emerged as the top candidate by far in the open primary (CD June 4 p13) in the California 17th district Tuesday night. He competed against Democratic challenger Ro Khanna, an attorney who was deputy assistant secretary of the Commerce Department during President Barack Obama’s first term and received heavy backing from technology companies. Honda received 48.6 percent of the vote compared with Khanna’s 27.1 percent. Both candidates earned far more than the two Republicans competing and, based on California primary rules, they will advance to compete against one another in the November election.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., backed the FCC’s proposal to eliminate the sports blackout rule. They urged the commission to act on the NPRM to end the rule within 60 days, they said in a June 2 letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler. The rule is “no longer supported by facts or logic, and blocks fans from enjoying their favorite teams,” they said. The senators said the rule unfairly harms consumers by insulating the NFL from market realities and “punishing fans in cities with large stadiums and declining populations.” The comment period on whether to do away with the rule ended this year (CD March 27 p14). The rule prevents multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games that are blacked out by sports leagues on TV stations in markets where the games have not sold out.

A telco executive is slated to testify on surveillance Thursday. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s open hearing on surveillance overhaul will look at the version of the USA Freedom Act (HR-3361) that the House passed last month, committee leaders said Tuesday. Two panels of witnesses are planned -- first, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Stephanie O'Sullivan; second, former national security official Stewart Baker, Center for Democracy & Technology Senior Counsel Harley Geiger, Information Technology Industry Council CEO Dean Garfield and Verizon Assistant General Counsel Michael Woods. Garfield “will focus on how the technology sector has been impacted by the NSA revelations, and how enacting meaningful surveillance reform is a critical step forward in restoring public trust in the U.S. technology industry and the U.S. government,” ITI said in a media advisory Wednesday. The hearing is at 2:30 p.m. in 216 Hart.

Progressive groups urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to ask FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to reclassify broadband as a Title II telecom service in order to craft what they estimate will be stronger net neutrality rules. These “strong” net neutrality rules should “ban all unreasonable technical discrimination (and define pay-to-play arrangements as inherently unreasonable), forbid blocking, and ban other undue interference with the open architecture of the Internet,” said the Wednesday letter (http://bit.ly/1x8jfIm), signed by Credo, Daily Kos, Democracy for America, Demand Progress, MoveOn, Free Press and others. Reclassification is “the only path forward,” they said, releasing several statements from the group’s leaders backing the letter. “What’s missing is the political will in Washington to challenge AT&T, Comcast and Verizon,” Free Press President Craig Aaron said.

Implementation of the House Commerce Committee version of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act would cost $1 million total over the 2015-2019 period, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report this week (http://1.usa.gov/1i1TFuG). STELA will expire at the end of the year unless Congress reauthorizes it, and the House Commerce Committee approved HR-4572, a five-year STELA extension, earlier this year. CBO notes the STELA bill version contains “private-sector mandates” for TV broadcasters and satellite companies: “Based on information from the FCC and industry sources, CBO estimates that the aggregate cost of complying with the mandates in the bill would fall below the annual threshold established in [the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act] for private-sector mandates ($152 million in 2014, adjusted annually for inflation).” It does not anticipate any other provisions in the STELA bill would be especially costly to industry or government.

"Deep disappointment” about House passage of the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) amendment was expressed by human rights and civil society organizations, in a letter Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. (http://bit.ly/1kCKwxo). The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy and Technology and New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute were among signees of the letter, which was copied to the Senate Appropriations, Senate Armed Services and Senate Commerce Committees’ leadership, it said. The DOTCOM amendment, which would delay NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority until a GAO study, was passed by the House with the National Defense Authorization Act May 22 (CD May 23 p6). “We welcome NTIA’s announcement and support the guiding criteria that NTIA articulated for that transition,” said the letter, referring to NTIA’s stipulations for the transition (http://1.usa.gov/1d33FkM). “Efforts to interfere with or delay this transition process, or require the Congressional approval beyond the criteria suggested by NTIA, will neither achieve the goals of the [DOTCOM] bill nor reflect Congress’s previously stated position on Internet governance.” The letter urged the Senate to block the DOTCOM amendment.

The House Communications Subcommittee scheduled a hearing on “Media Ownership in the 21st Century” for Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said in a statement that it’s “imperative that our laws that govern media ownership evolve” and that these discussions will inform any Communications Act overhaul. “The subcommittee is expected to discuss the FCC’s inaction on the statutorily required 2010 quadrennial review of the media ownership rules as well as the continued relevance of the media ownership regulatory framework in general,” it said in a news release (http://1.usa.gov/1mPj1yO). “Members will explore the commission’s decision to forge ahead with new rules on joint sales agreements (JSAs) and other media ownership changes without the completed quadrennial review.” The FCC voted along party lines March 31 on a JSA attribution order (CD April 1 p4).

Don’t let the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization process get bogged down, one observer warned. Americans for Limited Government Vice President-Public Policy and Communications Rick Manning in a blog post in The Hill (http://bit.ly/1jRvJdc) Wednesday argued for a narrow bill to allow easy passage, given a congressional calendar year growing ever shorter. “A clean bill, without controversial amendments, would very likely pass before Congress adjourns, but amendments being considered by retiring Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) could serve as poison pills to the whole process,” Manning said. Industry lobbyists have told us Senate Commerce is cobbling together its STELA extension draft now and that many options may be on the table. “We may be close,” Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us Wednesday at the Capitol of that committee’s STELA draft.

Basic voice service is “still vital to public safety” and “day-to-day personal and business communications of millions of people,” Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin plans to tell the Senate Communications Subcommittee Thursday. That’s according to written testimony (http://bit.ly/1l6qxGW) for the 9:15 a.m. hearing on the IP transition and public safety in 253 Russell. “Unfortunately, we are already seeing complaints arise across the country that indicate the network compact may start fraying at the edges if policymakers don’t step in to protect consumers,” Griffin will say, pointing to companies “forcing customers off of traditional copper-based phone service” and problems that may just be the tip of the iceberg. “We have also already seen complaints from rural residents experiencing degraded service due to rural call completion problems.” The FCC should retain authority to oversee such problems and make sure customers have reliable service, Griffin will argue. She focuses on how the IP transition could affect certain groups such as the elderly and a need for the FCC to clarify its Communications Act Section 214(a) standard, which involves when a company can discontinue, reduce or impair service to a given community and is not, according to Griffin, suited for an IP era. Other witnesses represent APCO, the FCC, NARUC and USTelecom.