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.

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.

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.

The Senate Communications Subcommittee scheduled its Thursday hearing on the IP transition and public safety for more than one hour earlier than initially announced, it said in a news release this week. The hearing (http://1.usa.gov/1pPo58t) at 9:15 a.m. in 253 Russell is on “Preserving Public Safety and Network Reliability in the IP Transition.” Witnesses are APCO International President Gigi Smith, FCC Chief Technology Officer Henning Schulzrinne, NARUC President Colette Honorable, Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin and USTelecom Senior Vice President-Law and Policy Jonathan Banks.

Funding for NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority wasn’t mentioned in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies’ markup Tuesday of the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act FY 2015. The bill was unanimously approved by the subcommittee and allocated $8.6 billion to the Commerce Department to “create cybersecurity standards to protect dot-mil, dot-gov, and dot-com,” among others, said a subcommittee news release (http://1.usa.gov/1iPva46) Tuesday. It didn’t mention NTIA, and we didn’t immediately hear back from the subcommittee on whether the bill would give the agency all the money it needs for the IANA transition. The House version of the bill (HR-4660), which the House passed Friday, reduced NTIA’s funding from the $51 million requested by the executive branch to $36.7 million to stop the transition (CD June 2 p8). The Senate bill allocates $722 million to the Department of Justice for cybersecurity, the same as FY 2014, said the release. The Senate Appropriations Committee will have a markup vote on the bill in 106 Dirksen at 10 a.m. Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1kqoSfE).

The Senate Intelligence Committee plans an open hearing Thursday on overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The hearing will be at 2:30 p.m. in G50 Dirksen. The committee hasn’t announced witnesses. This is the first Senate hearing since the House passed its much-debated surveillance revamp USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, last month.

Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., faced off against a fierce challenger backed by the tech industry Tuesday in his Silicon Valley district’s highly watched Democratic primary. Ro Khanna, an attorney who was deputy assistant secretary of Commerce during President Barack Obama’s first term, outraised the seven-term Honda, amassing $2.6 million, compared with Honda’s $2.09 million. Khanna’s campaign website touts several telecom and media priorities, such as an Internet Bill of Rights (http://bit.ly/1otwRbg) that calls for a right to net neutrality, universal Web access, the right to be free of warrantless metadata collection and more. Last month, Khanna blasted FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler for his net neutrality NPRM, saying: “Frankly, a former telecommunications lobbyist should never have been appointed to chair the Federal Communications Commission in the first place.” Honda is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and signed a letter to Wheeler asking for Title II reclassification of broadband and expressing his own disappointments in the NPRM. Honda’s website points to his own tech focus, spotlighting his work in bringing a patent office to California and an emphasis on nanotechnology and broadband, from access and adoption issues to fighting for net neutrality protections. Honda was an “instrumental ally in the establishment of a National Broadband Plan to lay out a bold roadmap to internet accessibility and service,” it said (http://bit.ly/1x2ayPu). Election rules would allow both Honda and Khanna to proceed to the November general election if they emerge with the two highest tallies of votes in what is an open primary, allowing both Democrats and Republicans to compete. Results were still coming in at our deadline.

"NetChoice doesn’t support legislation to stop or delay” NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and “the Senate isn’t likely to pass either of the measures coming over from the House,” said Executive Director Steve DelBianco by email, referring to the Duffy amendment, introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., which would prohibit NTIA’s transition of IANA, and the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) amendment, which would delay the transition until GAO does a study (CD June 2 p8). The Duffy amendment was passed by the House with the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act FY 2015 Friday. The House passed DOTCOM May 22 as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (CD May 23 p6). “Congress would be better served by expressing its concerns as ’stress tests’ we can apply to any proposed transition for IANA and new accountability mechanisms for ICANN,” said DelBianco, who testified on the idea of “stress tests” in a House IP Subcommittee hearing April 3 (CD April 4 p11).

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers asked the FCC to revamp the E-rate program. They sent a letter Monday signed by 46, 38 belonging to the New Democrat Coalition. “Focus E-rate on broadband services, Wi-Fi updates, and filling the infrastructure gap, with continued support for connectivity services, to ensure universal access to the most up to date technology” and ensure E-rate participants pay for “the best service at the lowest price” through competitive Internet service offerings and purchaser coordination, the lawmakers urged. They also back increasing E-rate’s transparency, accountability and funding stability, with an application process that’s simplified and streamlined. The New Democrat Coalition helped drive the letter forward, a Democratic aide familiar with the coalition’s effort told us. Coalition Chairman Ron Kind, D-Wis., and member Jared Polis, D-Colo., spearheaded the letter within the coalition, the aide said. He said Reps. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., and Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., were “instrumental” in gathering Republican signatures. Expect the letter to be the first step in a broader New Democrat Coalition digital literacy focus, the aide said, citing strong coalition member interest since a presentation on the relevant data a few months back.

Two top House Republicans want answers from the FCC on the streamlining the deployment of wireless facilities. House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., sent a letter to the FCC Thursday. “We urge you to take swift action to clarify the terms of Section 6409(a) [of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act] consistent with the intent of the statute to deliver the benefits of wireless broadband access to all Americans,” they said (http://1.usa.gov/1kqhps1). “To ensure that 6409(a) achieves its goal of streamlining the approval of eligible facilities requests the commission should adopt rules that provide consistency for applicants and reviewing authorities alike.” They also encouraged the FCC to facilitate the deployment of small cells and the use of temporary towers. PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein praised the Republicans for sending the letter. “Removing red tape and clarifying the rules of the road are crucial for expanding wireless broadband -- and to the many thousands of high-wage jobs such deployment spurs throughout the country,” he said.