House Republicans want answers from the FCC on its budget and operations. Republican members of the House Commerce Committee’s Communications and Oversight subcommittees sent the agency a letter Friday laying out several questions (http://1.usa.gov/1fsydQj). The letter emphasized fiscal responsibility. “In our committee’s oversight role, we are looking at the operating budget of the FCC with a focus on expenditures designated as [spectrum] auction-related expenses, as well as employee distribution and compensation more generally,” the Republicans said. They seek more information about how the FCC contracts out work. The agency is reviewing the letter now, a spokesman said.

Enacting the FCC Process Reform Act, HR-3675, “would increase direct spending by $197 million over the 2014-2023 period,” according to a four-page Congressional Budget Office analysis last week. The House Commerce Committee cleared the bill in December in a unanimous voice vote after reaching bipartisan compromise (CD Dec 12 p2). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has said he prefers such process updates happen internally at the agency. CBO said pay-as-you-go procedures would apply and that the proposed law wouldn’t affect revenue. “Further, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3675 to amend the FCC’s operating procedures would cost $15 million over the next five years, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts,” CBO added. “However, the FCC is authorized to collect fees sufficient to offset the cost of its regulatory activities each year.” So net costs for those provisions “would not be significant, assuming annual appropriation actions consistent with the agency’s authorities,” it said.

Republican leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees asked the FCC to refer any expansion of the E-rate program to the FCC Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. E-rate has received especially high-profile attention lately, with a prominent mention in President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday and again Thursday afternoon at a high school in Nashville. Last summer, Obama announced a desire to revamp E-rate in an initiative the White House calls ConnectED, focused on bringing faster broadband speeds to U.S. schools. The Republicans sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday, emphasizing the need “to ensure money is spent wisely,” signed by Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, S.D.; Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, Miss.; House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, Mich.; and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, Ore. The joint board “should be used as a tool” to make sure any major changes happen “in an effective and appropriately tailored way,” the Republicans said. Obama spoke about a wide range of education priorities Thursday. “There’s not going to be a child in a school in America that does not have the kind of wireless connection that allows them to stream in the information they need that can power their education,” Obama said of ConnectED. “That’s going to be a priority.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed cloture Thursday on the conference report accompanying HR-2642, known as the farm bill. The House passed the bill Wednesday (CD Jan 30 p19). It contains provisions on rural broadband funding and funding for a pilot program on rural gigabit networks.

A House bill on low-power TV is still in the works. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, are putting together a draft, as Barton said during a December hearing. “That’s something on the plate,” Barton told us last week, confirming he and Walden are still putting together legislation. A Republican aide also confirmed the interest when asked. “Chairman Walden and Mr. Barton are both interested in ensuring that TV translators, which are crucial for providing over-the-air reception in parts of rural America, are accommodated as much as possible without compromising the incentive auction or access to over-that-air television,” the aide said. It’s possible the bill could get wrapped into a broader Communications Act overhaul if the House Commerce Committee leadership deems that the wisest course, Barton added.

HR-2642, known as “the farm bill,” passed the House 251-166 on Wednesday. It contains provisions about rural broadband deployment, including a provision regarding gigabit network pilot funding. The Senate has yet to take up the already-conferenced bill.

All five members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 12, the committee announced Wednesday. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen. PCLOB delivered recommendations on surveillance earlier this month, recommending significant curbs.

The House Judiciary Committee scheduled its surveillance hearing for Tuesday at 10 a.m., said the committee’s website (http://1.usa.gov/1fx7noR). The hearing’s title is “Examining Recommendations to Reform [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] Authorities.” Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has repeatedly asserted his committee’s primary jurisdiction over FISA matters, and in late January said this hearing’s goal will be “to review the various recommendations recently made by President [Barack] Obama, the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.” The committee is also reviewing several pieces of legislation that would update surveillance law, including the USA Freedom Act. A committee spokeswoman confirmed witnesses were finalized as of Wednesday afternoon. They will testify in two panels. First will be Deputy Attorney General James Cole, presidential review group member Peter Swire and PCLOB Chairman David Medine. Second will be Dechert’s Steven Bradbury, Dean Garfield of the Information Technology Industry Council and the Georgetown University Law Center’s David Cole.

The House Commerce Committee should investigate phone scams, two top Democrats told the committee’s Republican leadership. “Fraudulent telephone schemes have increased in recent years, as technology has enabled swindlers to initiate millions of phone calls at once, often tricking people into turning over sensitive information or shutting down important phone systems,” wrote committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and House Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairwoman Diana DeGette, D-Colo., in a letter released Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1dLHIFO). “These schemes are widespread because they are lucrative, easy to initiate, and inexpensive to carry out.” The committee should hold a hearing looking at “the prevalence and impact” of such schemes, how they affect older Americans, how they influence the delivery of essential public services, and “statutory changes, best practices, or educational campaigns, if any, needed to help federal agencies, other public sector groups, and individuals protect themselves against these schemes,” according to the letter.

The House Commerce Committee does plan to post comments it receives as part of its effort to update the Communications Act, a Republican aide told us. Comments responding to questions in the committee’s first white paper (http://1.usa.gov/1iVVvBE), issued earlier in January, are due Friday. The committee expects to release more white papers on the overhaul process, the committee leaders have said. The aide declined to specify how soon the comments may be posted.