Holding to a recent trend of releasing politically sensitive announcements on the eve of major holidays, the Federal Communications Commission released its tentative agenda for the April 27 open meeting late Friday. The headline is a proposal that would require television broadcast stations to keep their public files online rather than in a file on location, including the names of political advertisers and how much they paid for ads online. Six GOP senators, including Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, wrote to the FCC last week arguing that the changes would impose an unnecessary burden on TV stations by forcing them to upload hundreds of thousands of documents, some of which may contain commercially sensitive data. Some have also argued the Federal Election Commission would be better suited to handle the political ad disclosures.
In addition, the FCC will vote to end the practice of unauthorized third-party charges on consumers' phone bills, known as cramming. Senate Commerce recently concluded a yearlong investigation into the practice, determining third-party billing was bringing in $2 billion a year. Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller's campaign to end the practice received a shot in the arm last month when both Verizon and AT&T agreed to end cramming. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also called for the FCC to ban the practice last week.
Other proposals on the tentative agenda: establishing a regulatory framework to repack TV broadcasters who choose not to relinquish any spectrum during the upcoming auctions; overhauling the contribution mechanism for the Universal Service Fund and allowing noncommercial educational TV stations to conduct on-air fundraising for nonprofit organizations. The FCC will release its final agenda a week before the open meeting, at which point items could be dropped or voted on ahead of time.
Retrans Consent Bill Divides Conservatives: CQ Weekly's Shawn Zeller reports that conservative groups are split over legislation that would eliminate the current rules governing retransmission consent negotiations between cable firms and local broadcasters. Cable companies argue that the broadcasters have too much power under laws passed by Congress in 1992. The bills from Sen. Jim DeMint (S 2008) and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., (HR 3675) would potentially prevent some blackouts, which occur when negotiations between the two sides break down, by allowing cable providers to use programming from a different network affiliate if they can't reach a deal with their local station. But groups including the American Conservative Union and Frontier of Freedom say DeMint's bill could result in cable stations using broadcasters' signals for free. Retrans consent has been a hot topic recently due to a spate of contentious negotiations and blackouts between cable providers and broadcasters, but FCC rulemaking appears more likely to produce action than legislation in the near future. Insider Trading Bill Requires New Databases: The STOCK Act (S 2038) signed by President Obama last week explicitly banned insider trading by members of Congress, but now the onus is on the Office of Government Ethics to create two online searchable databases of financial disclosure data for Congress and the executive branch — within the next 18 months. CQ Weekly's Rachael Bade reports that OGE said it was unequipped to handle an information technology project of such complexity and magnitude in an analysis of the bill before it was completed, since the databases will eventually have to handle more than 350,000 employee disclosures from various government agencies. The agency's lack of technical expertise and adequate funding, combined with the unprecedented nature of the request, point to considerable challenges in development of the databases. Historically, such projects within the federal government have been plagued by cost overruns and scheduled delays. Grassley Gets LightSquared Documents: Broadcasting and Cable reports that House Energy and Commerce turned over LightSquared-related documents to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Friday. Grassley has placed a hold on the nominations of Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel to the FCC until the agency hands over all documents related to its decision to grant LightSquared a conditional waiver to build a national wireless broadband network on spectrum purchased at auction. The FCC recently pulled its approval and moved to block LightSquared's network over reports that it would interfere with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. The company has reportedly considered bankruptcy as it prepares to fight the FCC's decision. Grassley and other Republicans have suggested LightSquared received preferential treatment from the FCC, which the commission has denied. The FCC refused to turn over documents to Grassley, arguing he is not the chairman of a relevant oversight committee, but handed over the documents last week to House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich. On the Move: Several technology folks have changed jobs recently. TechAmerica has hired Gregory Keeley to serve as vice president of defense and homeland security policy; the Navy reservist was most recently in Afghanistan, serving as spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces. Former FCC Wireless Bureau chief of staff Matthew Nodine has joined the public relations and lobbying firm Mercury/Clark as senior vice president, where he will lead communications campaign for tech, healthcare, defense, and broadcasting clients. The Internet Society has hired Paul Brigner to lead its North American outreach. Brigner was most recently the chief technology policy officer at the Motion Picture Association of America. He also spent a decade at Verizon as executive director of technology policy.