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 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.

The House Judiciary IP Subcommittee will hold its previously scheduled second hearing this month on music licensing (CD June 11 p12) in 2141 Rayburn at 10 a.m. Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1pIUuAG). Music industry officials and artist advocates are waiting to see what licensing issues House Judiciary IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., tackles in his in-progress “MusicBus” bill, expected to be introduced this summer (CD June 19 p11). The hearing’s previously confirmed witnesses are musician Rosanne Cash on behalf of the Americana Music Association; Ed Christian, Radio Music License Committee chairman; David Frear, Sirius XM chief financial officer; Chris Harrison, Pandora Media vice president-business affairs; Michael Huppe, CEO of SoundExchange; Cary Sherman, RIAA CEO; Charles Warfield, YMF Media senior adviser on behalf of NAB; and Paul Williams, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers president. Pandora Media originally scheduled General Counsel Delinda Costin as its witness.

Four House Judiciary Committee leaders praised the compromise that Senate Judiciary Committee lawmakers unveiled on a cellphone unlocking bill earlier this week (CD June 24 p10). The Senate language mirrors language the House used in the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (HR-1123), passed earlier this year. “This is an issue of consumer choice and flexibility, plain and simple,” said House Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., and Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet subcommittee Chairman Howard Coble, R-N.C., and that subcommittee’s ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., in a joint statement.

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.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee field hearing on net neutrality will begin July 1 at 10 a.m. at the Davis Center at the University of Vermont in Burlington, the committee said Tuesday. Witnesses weren’t announced.

"I don’t know” if AT&T has given money to lobby against municipal broadband networks, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said at a Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. He “personally” is against making a private company compete against networks funded by taxpayer dollars, unless the area is unserved, Stephenson told Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who pressed the executive on his company’s stance. Franken said many mayors and other municipal officials favor creating such networks. Stephenson repeatedly indicated he wasn’t sure where his company’s lobbying expenses went, declining to answer Franken’s questions about AT&T lobbying on that issue. AT&T is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has model state legislation restricting municipal networks and that has helped pass state laws of that kind.

Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable brings up several “key concerns,” Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, told the FCC and Justice Department in a letter Monday. The two-page letter focused on their hearing earlier this year on the deal, and pointed to several issues witnesses had raised. “Witnesses voiced concerns that the merger may negatively affect the development of online video distribution, give the combined entity undue market power as a buyer in the market for programming, and increase the combined entity’s incentive and ability to restrict access to content by rival multichannel video programming distributors,” Klobuchar and Lee said, also citing what they see as the deal’s threats to independent programming. Comcast has argued the deal would be good for consumers, which the senators also mention. Klobuchar and Lee said they plan to keep working with regulators and talking more as the proceeding continues, filing “additional comments once the FCC record is complete.”

The Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee wants to “fully fund” what it considers two key agencies, it said Tuesday -- the FCC and FTC. It recommended far more money for the FCC in FY 2015 than what the House has begun to suggest. The Senate subcommittee cleared an appropriations bill at a meeting Tuesday morning, recommending $375 million for the FCC in FY 2015 “to ensure that the telecommunications networks are reliable and robust” and $293 million for FTC “to detect and eliminate consumer fraud and promote consumer privacy,” as Subcommittee Chairman Tom Udall, D-N.M., said at the meeting. The FCC had requested $375.38 million for FY 2015 and in FY 2014 received $339.84 million. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee had cleared a bill last week that recommends $322.75 million for the FCC. The House bill would slate $293 million for the FTC, $5 million less than FY 2014’s enacted level and at the White House budget request, with no difference from the Senate subcommittee version. The full House Appropriations Committee will consider that bill Wednesday at 10 a.m. in 2359 Rayburn and this week has released a bill text (http://1.usa.gov/1jLsiWq) and accompanying report (http://1.usa.gov/ViQA4T).

Appropriations bills for the FCC and FTC FY15 budgets will receive scrutiny in both the Senate and House this week. Both agencies fall under the review of the Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee in each chamber. The Senate panel will review its appropriations bill for the first time Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in 124 Dirksen. The House subcommittee cleared its appropriations bill last week (CD June 19 p15), and the full House Appropriations Committee will consider that bill Wednesday at 10 a.m. in 2359 Rayburn. That House subcommittee budget would give the FCC $53 million less than the agency’s request: $323 million, $17 million less than FY14’s enacted level. It would allocate $293 million for the FTC, $5 million less than FY14’s enacted level and at the White House budget request.