The House Small Business Committee is gearing up to pepper FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Wednesday with a deluge of questions on a wide range of telecom and media topics, according to the 14-page GOP memo released Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1qXbzoR). It includes detailed sections about FCC history, broadband deployment and the role of NTIA; the Rural Utilities Service and USF; net neutrality; spectrum availability; and media consolidation and proposed mergers. Small Business has an FCC oversight hearing scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. in 2360 Rayburn and Wheeler “will discuss among other issues, broadband deployment, Universal Service Fund (USF) reform efforts, net neutrality, wireless spectrum availability, and increasing media concentration through mergers,” the memo said. It emphasized the implications of ongoing FCC actions for small businesses. “Depending on how the FCC addresses various issues raised in the [net neutrality] NPRM, the ability of small business to utilize the Internet for their retail operations could be affected,” the memo said. “Alternatively, small telecommunications carriers that provide broadband service could find their networks over taxed with burgeoning demand and no way to manage their networks.”

House Republicans blasted the FCC for what it judges to be its internal failings. “The FCC’s responses to the Committee’s inquires and requests for documents, as well as reports submitted to Congress by the FCC’s Office of Inspector General, raise additional questions as to the efficacy and fiscal responsibility of the FCC’s efforts to improve process and modernize the agency,” House Communications Subcommittee Republican staff said in a Monday memo (http://1.usa.gov/1q8hOlV). Subcommittee Republicans have “concerns” with FCC “progress on implementation of systemic process and IT reforms” and “concerns with FCC management and staff oversight,” the memo said: “Among the Committee’s concerns are continued reports that highlight misuse of government property and potential personnel management failures.” The memo was released ahead of a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on FCC spending and management, scheduled for 10:15 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. Witnesses are FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins and Inspector General David Hunt.

Broadcast affiliates warned Senate Commerce leaders that the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act could “undermine free access by your constituents and the nation’s television viewers to high quality national network and local broadcast television programming” and is “patently unfair,” in a joint letter Thursday (http://bit.ly/1tPXg9h). “Most troubling is the provision that grants the FCC new authority over several aspects of the broadcast business which no clear record exists to support, and does so without extending that same regulatory authority to cable and satellite companies with whom local stations compete,” said chairmen of the big-four affiliate boards. The bill, which would reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, imposes “negotiation limitations on broadcasters while allowing the largest cable companies in the country to engage in the exact same behavior,” the broadcasters said. “The draft bill also is problematic because it asserts unprecedented extension of FCC regulatory authority over private marketplace negotiations, a step that is contrary to the public interest since it would impede the ability of local broadcast stations to compete in a highly competitive video marketplace for popular national entertainment and sports programming.” The co-founders of Bounce TV, an over-the-air network targeting African Americans, wrote a separate letter to Senate Commerce leaders and argued the retrans provisions would “do serious harm to many local TV station affiliates that have helped us launch Bounce TV,” praising free-market retrans negotiations (http://bit.ly/WUn2dR). The National Consumers League sent a letter to Commerce leaders asking that they return Local Choice to the bill draft -- it was dropped last week after broadcaster outcry over the broadcast a la carte proposal (CD Sept 11 p6). NCL “has long supported federal policies that would end blackouts of programming stemming from retransmission consent negotiations between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors,” it said (http://bit.ly/1qsTOjw). “We also support additional choice and bill transparency for cable television subscribers.” Local Choice should become law next year, said the American Television Alliance in a statement Thursday. The coalition, which has many pay-TV companies and Public Knowledge among members, had declined comment the previous day on initial reports that Local Choice would no longer be considered as part of the Commerce STELA reauthorization bill. “Local Choice remains a simple and elegant solution to fix our broken system of retransmission consent,” said the alliance (http://bit.ly/1oD3KkI). It reiterated its backing for the STELA reauthorization bill in other respects. That legislation includes “important reforms that will provide relief for consumers around the country,” the group said. Commerce is expected to mark up the bill Wednesday.

The House Judiciary IP Subcommittee plans a hearing on copyright protection and management systems Wednesday at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn, said a committee news release Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1uzxrYP). The subcommittee plans a Thursday hearing on oversight of the Copyright Office at 2 p.m. in the same room, it said (http://1.usa.gov/1AHlscs). Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante is to be a witness Thursday, it said. No other witnesses were announced.

Among the dozen items the Senate Commerce Committee will consider at its Wednesday executive session are the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (S-2799), as long expected (CD Aug 22 p10), and the E-Label Act (S-2583), said an agenda that Commerce released Friday. The House unanimously passed the E-Label Act last week, much to industry satisfaction. “By granting device manufacturers the ability to use eLabels, the legislation eases the technical and logistical burdens on manufacturers and improves consumer access to important device information,” said Telecommunications Industry Association President Grant Seiffert in a statement after the House passage. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is one of the backers of the Senate version of the E-label bill. The session is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell.

A new draft of the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act (S-2799) began circulating among Senate Commerce Committee offices Friday, far shorter than the first version Senate Commerce Committee heads offered up a week before. This version is 14 pages compared to the initial 39. It no longer includes the Local Choice proposal and modifies other provisions included in the draft. The first draft directed the FCC to update good-faith retransmission consent negotiating rules in a rulemaking, looking at blocking of online content. The substitute calls for such an FCC reexamination but makes no mention of online blocking. It still includes provisions on joint retrans negotiation.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., expressed some concerns to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler about companies using exemptions from the agency’s ex parte rules in its consideration of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV deals. Exemptions may be given if parties fear reprisal, as Heller noted. “The bar for such exemptions must be high,” Heller told Wheeler in a letter Wednesday. “When orders that have significant impact on the industry are crafted based on information provided in secret and go unchallenged, I believe it can undermine the effectiveness of that order.” He asked Wheeler to say whether such exempt ex parte presentations have been given and if so, how many. “Please provide the specific justification for each instance,” Heller said. He also asked about “the role the FCC played in this action” and whether it “directly influenced granting an exemption” and if so, why. The FCC declined comment.

The bipartisan group of sponsors from both houses of Congress of the Wi-Fi Innovation Act wrote the FCC a joint letter Wednesday to “express our strong support for freeing up underutilized spectrum to maximize unlicensed use in the upper 5 GHz band,” as the legislation asks. The letter was signed by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio; Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.; Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; and Doris Matsui, D-Calif. The upper 5 GHz band has “a unique opportunity” in maximizing those Wi-Fi frequencies, they said, saying they're “confident that the FCC can successfully resolve any potential interference issues through analysis and testing,” as they recommended.

The FCC will put rural phone companies in an “untenable position" with its current rate floor, a bipartisan group of senators told the FCC in a letter. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., led the letter, backed by seven other Democratic senators and seven Republicans. Rural companies “must choose between raising rates to levels that, in some cases, are more than the rates their urban counterparts charge many of their customers, or receiving reduced universal service support,” the senators said (http://1.usa.gov/1tCIuyN). “This is in spite of the fact that these rural exchanges often do not resemble their urban areas along key metrics like population, geography, and income, as well as other demographics.” The FCC should “reevaluate the structure of the rate floor and consider changes to ensure that rural consumers are protected from unnecessarily excessive rate hikes,” they said. The FCC declined comment.

The House Communications Subcommittee gave more details about the hearing it plans to hold Wednesday on FCC management and spending. It will take place at 10:15 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. As previously announced, witnesses are FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins and FCC Inspector General David Hunt.