Rural broadband connectivity is crucial for healthcare, education, commerce and for social reasons, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said during an episode of The Broadband Beat With Shirley Bloomfield, hosted by NTCA (http://bit.ly/1oGmZMl). “If you don’t have high-speed broadband connectivity in your community, you're going to be left out,” he said in the video. He called telemedicine “a powerful tool” and said distance learning is another asset. “You need a lot of capacity,” he said. Begich, a member of the Commerce Committee, said he gave the FCC “a hard time” on how it maps broadband and the challenges facing Alaska. “It’s great to have the big companies but you also have to have these smaller companies that were there before anyone else was there. They offer unique, if you think of a credit union, it’s local, homegrown, member-driven, and they are part of the equation at the end of the day.” Don’t “saddle” innovative smaller companies with huge debt due to the way technology and rules are changing, Begich said. He emphasized he not only talks to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, but also to the Republican commissioners and other Democrats. “The chairman and I have had very positive conversations,” the senator said. “He’s been to Alaska.” Such a visit is his test for commissioners, Begich added.

The Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee will mark up its FY2015 funding bill for those agencies June 3 at 11 a.m. in 192 Dirksen, the Appropriations Committee said. The House is expected to take up its companion funding bill (HR-4660) this week, slated for debate and a vote Wednesday and Thursday, according to the schedule of Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. (http://1.usa.gov/1wgP2WX).

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is “reviewing” the House-passed version of the USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, “very carefully,” she said in a statement Thursday, citing the “considerable margin” by which it passed the House earlier that day (CD May 23 p9). “I have spoken with the president who is urging the Senate to pass the bill as well, and I am open to considering the legislation when the Senate returns to Washington.” Feinstein has strongly defended NSA surveillance authorities over the past year and discouraged lawmakers from curbing bulk collection of metadata. Several of the USA Freedom Act’s original co-sponsors in the House abandoned it, voting no, and multiple Senate Democrats who backed the original USA Freedom Act, introduced last fall, already have cautioned that the modified House version may be too weak to prevent government surveillance. The New York Times released an editorial (http://nyti.ms/1jL9HOI) Thursday evening slamming the bill due to such concerns: “Unfortunately, the bill passed by the House on Thursday falls far short of those promises, and does not live up to its title, the U.S.A. Freedom Act. Because of last-minute pressure from a recalcitrant Obama administration, the bill contains loopholes that dilute the strong restrictions in an earlier version, potentially allowing the spy agencies to continue much of their phone-data collection.”

The Colorado News, Emergency, Weather and Sports Act of 2014 aims to help in “facilitating delivery of relevant television programming to unserved consumers,” said the four-page bill text provided to us Friday by a spokesman for Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. The text was not yet online. Udall introduced the Colorado NEWS Act, S-2375, last week with the backing of fellow Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, and the bill has been referred to the Commerce Committee. Neither Udall nor Bennet belongs to Commerce. “For too long, TV market lines have orphaned Coloradans living in the Four Corners region from the news, weather, sports and emergency information they need,” Udall said in a news release (http://1.usa.gov/1jDOuVC), saying it’s no longer time for government studies. The bill would let TV providers transmit signals from Colorado-based broadcast stations to consumers living in La Plata and Montezuma counties, address copyright issues involving TV providers transmitting Colorado and New Mexico signals, and let broadcasters and TV providers “determine a fair way to ensure all Coloradans have 24-hour access to the news, emergency information, weather and sports most relevant to them,” the news release said. Udall may look to attaching S-2375 to the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation -- considered must-pass given STELA’s expiration at the end of the year -- to advance this bill. “Sen. Udall is open to passing this by any means available, including STELA,” Udall’s spokesman said.

The Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Awareness Matters (DOTCOM) amendment would “hamstring NTIA as it attempts to do exactly what Congress has twice voted for unanimously -- namely, transferring responsibility for Internet governance to the multi-stakeholder community,” said House Commerce Committee member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., by email Thursday. DOTCOM, which seeks to delay NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) until a GAO study is completed, was approved as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (HR-4435) Thursday (CD May 23 p6). The amendment was approved by 245-177 with full Republican support (http://1.usa.gov/1jYFPsz). Only 17 Democrats supported the amendment. “Delaying this transition allows anti-democratic nations to continue to use the IANA contract as a red herring to falsely claim that ’the U.S. government controls the Internet’ and argue for a greater role for governmental entities,” such as the ITU, said Doyle. “The amendment sends the wrong message to the multi-stakeholder community.”

Broadband is a priority in S-2389, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, said a report submitted with the bill last week (http://1.usa.gov/1k260P8). Senate Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., formally introduced the FY2015 funding bill Thursday and it was cleared from Appropriations the same day. Appropriations would ask for $898,000 for the Office of the Under Secretary for Rural Development, which oversees funds going to the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The report points to commitment “to promote development and demonstrate innovative connectivity solutions such as providing high-speed Internet via optical laser beams in free space, which help connect rural America without broadband infrastructure costs and where wireless coverage does not exist.” Appropriations also would recommend $41.13 million for the Distance Learning, Telemedicine and Broadband Program. “Funds recommended for the RUS broadband program are intended to promote broadband availability in those areas where there is not otherwise a business case for private investment in a broadband network,” the report said. “The Committee encourages RUS to focus expenditures on projects that bring broadband service to currently unserved households.” Of the broadband grants, $10.37 million would go “to support broadband transmission and local dial-up Internet services for rural areas,” the report said.

The FCC and Justice Department should scrutinize AT&T’s proposed acquisition of DirecTV carefully to consider how it may hurt competition, said Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, Friday in a letter to those regulators. “It is important to validate and weigh these efficiencies against the potential competitive harms that could result from the transaction,” they said. “As always, the key to analyzing any merger should be the effect it will have on consumers, including price, choice, quality of service, and innovation.” The Antitrust Subcommittee plans a hearing on the deal this summer, they said, and they “will follow up with you based on the evidence and testimony reviewed during that process.” They point to the deal as potentially affecting consumer welfare. “Together with the recently announced merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable,” AT&T/DirecTV “could potentially affect future innovation and technological advances, including the availability of online video distribution,” Klobuchar and Lee said.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., pressed Comcast on its net neutrality obligations, in a letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts Wednesday. “I am concerned that Comcast’s proposed acquisition of TWC is a threat to net neutrality and the open Internet,” Franken wrote (http://1.usa.gov/1kttEsm). “If Comcast were permitted to acquire TWC, it would make the nation’s biggest ISP even bigger, raising a serious risk that Comcast could act as a gatekeeper of Internet traffic on its networks. The existence of ‘full net neutrality rules’ is absolutely necessary, though likely not sufficient, to mitigate that risk.” Franken asked whether Comcast would abide by existing anti-blocking and anti-discrimination net neutrality requirements, first levied on Comcast as an obligation of acquiring NBCUniversal, beyond the January 2018 time set in that acquisition condition. Franken wants to know whether the cable company will maintain those protections “regardless of whether the FCC has implemented new and binding industry-wide net neutrality rules at that time,” he said. Comcast has defended its commitment to the net neutrality obligations and the potential consumer benefits of acquiring Time Warner Cable.

To delay NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, an amendment (http://1.usa.gov/1tlq9Hn) version of the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act will be submitted to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) (HR-4435) by House Commerce Committee Member and bill co-sponsor John Shimkus, R-Ill., Wednesday, said his spokesman. The act seeks to delay the transition until the GAO completes a study. “There is far too much at stake to rush this process or agree to a transition without a full understanding of the consequences,” said Shimkus in a House Commerce Committee news release (http://1.usa.gov/1gQraVW). “If the Internet’s core freedoms are lost, there is no going back.” The NDAA amendment was expected to be considered Wednesday on the House floor. The vote is expected Thursday, said the spokesman.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., lambasted the FCC NPRM on net neutrality. “If the FCC allows huge corporations to negotiate ‘fast lane deals,’ then the Internet will eventually be sold to the highest bidder,” Sanders said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “This is grotesquely unfair and this will be a disaster for our economy and for small businesses all across our country.” He thanked Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel for their defense of net neutrality and questioned the positions of Commissioners Aji Pai and Mike O'Rielly. “When you talk about deregulating the Internet, you're talking about allowing money, big money, to talk,” which is “very, very wrong,” Sanders said. Internet providers should be treated like utilities, Sanders said. He recounted asking Vermont residents to weigh in on the possibility of regulators’ “attempt to do away with” net neutrality. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has defended his proposal as one that asks questions, including whether to attempt to ban paid prioritization deals and if so, how, and also emphasizes that as of now, there are no net neutrality protections in the U.S. (CD May 16 p1).