The Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee may hold a hearing investigating pay-TV industry billing practices before the end of the year, Chairman Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told us at the Capitol Tuesday. “Not before the end of this work period, but we're meeting next week to see what meetings we'll have in November and December,” she said. “I don’t know if [that possible hearing] will get in that [November-December] group, but I think it might. … I can’t give you a firm answer, but I'll know better next week.” Some members of the Commerce Committee were still reviewing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill that Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., circulated Friday and plan to mark up next week (CD Sept 8 p1). Despite broadcaster attacks on the proposal’s Local Choice and retransmission consent overhaul components, Thune defended the STELA reauthorization, known as the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act, to reporters at the Capitol. “We'll see what kind of traction it gets in the House,” Thune said. Communications Subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was not prepared to speak to STAVRA’s details. “I'm going to get a briefing on that this afternoon,” Wicker told us. McCaskill has said she plans to introduce a bill addressing her pay-TV industry billing concerns and did not rule out attaching it to STAVRA. “It depends,” McCaskill said. “I haven’t had a chance to look at STELA but these are really tough issues, and the question is, will the chairman and the ranking member … have the votes to get it out of committee on a bipartisan basis? The issue is not what is in the STELA draft that’s been released; the issue is, can we pass it? Or should we pass it?”

The House Judiciary Committee will mark up a bill Wednesday to harmonize the antitrust standards and processes between the FTC and Department of Justice, said a Tuesday news release (http://1.usa.gov/1CO8Ow8). Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, introduced Tuesday the Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules Act (HR-5402), or SMARTER Act, which would “ensure that parties to a proposed merger receive the same treatment regardless of whether the FTC or the DOJ reviews the transaction,” Farenthold said. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., supported the bill in a statement: “One of the responsibilities of the Judiciary Committee is to ensure fairness and consistency in the enforcement of our nation’s antitrust laws. The Smarter Act is a commonsense measure that reduces disparities in the merger review process."

House lawmakers were poised to vote on the Anti-Spoofing Act (HR-3670) and the E-Label Act (HR-5161) Tuesday under suspension of the rules. Suspension is reserved for noncontroversial legislation and requires a two-thirds vote. Both measures cleared the House Commerce Committee this summer. Final votes were scheduled for between 5 and 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Anti-Spoofing Act would update the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 and the E-Label Act would let electronics manufacturers provide an FCC-required label digitally rather than on the physical device.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., defended the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-2588), in a letter to the editor published Sunday that responded to a Los Angeles Times editorial criticizing the bill (http://lat.ms/1urOGv2). The Times’ editorial board had said last week that S-2588, commonly referred to as CISA, would give federal agencies too much access to personally identifiable information when the agencies “that could use it for too many purposes beyond cybersecurity” (http://lat.ms/1wdFWsQ). Many civil liberties groups have been raising similar concerns about privacy aspects of S-2588 for months (CD June 26 p8). Feinstein, who authored S-2588 with committee Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said S-2588 has “numerous privacy protections” and is “just the first step toward stronger cybersecurity.” Previous legislation “did not strike the balance between information sharing and privacy and therefore failed to win both Republican and Democratic support,” considered essential to Senate passage of a bill, Feinstein said.

Broadcasters abused the airwaves when CBS Radio recently refused to air the American Television Alliance (ATVA) ads promoting Local Choice in several markets (CD Aug 29 p7), musicFIRST Coalition Executive Director Ted Kalo told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Monday (http://bit.ly/1q8pudD). Broadcasters have opposed Local Choice, a Senate proposal that would overhaul retransmission consent rules. CBS Radio confirmed last month it refused to run ATVA ads since they did not meet their broadcast standards. “We are advised that ads opposing the ‘local choice’ proposal, produced by the NAB, have been aired on those same stations,” Kalo said. “Broadcasters’ licenses to use the public’s airwaves are not blank checks for the [NAB] to advance its narrow political and pecuniary agenda: they exist to serve the public. Presenting only one side of a public policy issue in this way mis-serves the public and skews the policy debate. And if this pattern of abuse is allowed to continue unchecked, it will only grow more widespread and sophisticated, and the NAB and its members will only dominate our policy discourse even more.” Kalo wants the FCC to review this “open complaint,” he said, urging “prompt corrective action” for “any potential First Amendment, Communications Act, or other policy violations.” NAB declined comment on the specific CBS Radio decision but a spokesman cited a previous “false claim” that musicFirst made about a broadcaster refusal to sell ad time to musicFIRST. He directed us to a deposition signed by a WTOP(FM) Washington official affirming an offer of ad time, which musicFIRST declined (http://bit.ly/1tnmKXD). CBS Radio didn’t immediately comment.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., will host a net neutrality forum in Sacramento Sept. 24 alongside FCC commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, both Democrats. “Given that the FCC is expected to consider new net neutrality rules by the end of the year, I am holding this timely forum in Sacramento to further explore the potential impacts on consumers, entrepreneurs, and local businesses,” Matsui said in a statement Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1BnOrEC). “It is essential that the FCC listen to and engage with Americans outside of Washington.” Matsui introduced legislation (HR-4880) that would prohibit paid prioritization deals, a controversial debate topic amid the agency’s attempt to write new rules. Matsui did not announce the exact time or location but said the event will be webcast and that more details, including speakers, are forthcoming.

Local Choice received more heat after the Senate Commerce Committee leadership’s decision to include it in their Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill (CD Sept 8 p1). Economists Kevin Caves and Hal Singer wrote a letter Monday (http://bit.ly/1weizzd) to committee leaders saying Local Choice, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules to end TV blackouts, “would likely harm cable customers by raising the price of their cable bills.” The letterhead is marked Economists Inc., a company with clients including ABC, CBS, Comcast and many others. NAB asked Singer to write the letter, he told us. Local Choice “singles out the content creators that appeal to the broadest swath of American households for discriminatory treatment,” Caves and Singer said of the broadcast a la carte proposal. “If broadcasters are forced to accept narrower distribution on the cable lineup, the odds are that the license fees for broadcast networks would increase, perversely leading to higher cable bills for the majority of Americans.” A footnote to the letter mentioned that NAB had commissioned the economists to conduct a study recently on sharing agreements and advertising but that “opinions expressed here are our own.” Ad groups also blasted Local Choice on substance and process. “We are in strong opposition to the proposal,” Association of National Advertisers Executive Vice President-Government Relations Dan Jaffe told us, saying his group and the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the American Advertising Federation were sending a joint letter to the committee (http://bit.ly/1ArNF70). Local Choice is “clearly premature” and “not an insignificant step,” likely to hurt advertisers, broadcasters and consumers, Jaffe said. “[Committee staff] have not reached out to us at all.” But Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said the Senate Commerce Committee legislation “marks an important step forward in advancing this must-pass legislation that will ensure uninterrupted access to broadcast television programming for more than one million satellite television subscribers.” Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Latta praised the Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act for including “a provision to eliminate the [set-top box] integration ban, similar to the one I sponsored in the House, and I look forward to a conference committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate bills,” he said in a statement Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1s5klm0).

Three House and Senate cybersecurity-related committee hearings are set for the next two weeks. The Senate Homeland Security Committee plans a hearing Wednesday on cybersecurity and other threats to homeland security. Suzanne Spaulding, Department of Homeland Security undersecretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate, and Robert Anderson, FBI executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch, are among those to testify, beginning at 9:30 a.m. in 342 Dirksen (http://1.usa.gov/1A6QKJz). The House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities set a hearing Wednesday on operationalizing cyber in the military. Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, commander-U.S. Army Cyber Command; Major Gen. Vincent Stewart, commanding general-Marine Forces Cyber Command; Major Gen. Burke Wilson, commander-Air Force Cyber; and Vice Adm. Jan Tighe, commander-Fleet Cyber/10th Fleet, are to testify, beginning at 2 p.m. in 2212 Rayburn (http://1.usa.gov/1lLZjIO). The House Homeland Security Committee plans a hearing Sept. 17 on worldwide threats to homeland security, which include “ever present and growing cyber security risks,” said House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, in a statement. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, FBI Director James Comey and National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen are to testify. The hearing is to begin 10 a.m. in 311 Cannon (http://1.usa.gov/1u6TjLU).

A coalition of 43 pro-civil liberties groups urged the Senate to “quickly pass” the revised USA Freedom Act (S-2685) after it returns from recess this week, and simultaneously refuse to take up the Senate Intelligence Committee’s version of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-2588). The groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and New America Foundation, said in a Thursday letter to Senate leaders that the Senate “cannot seriously consider controversial information-sharing legislation such as CISA without first completing the pressing unfinished business of passing meaningful surveillance reform” (http://bit.ly/1AeVMUC). Privacy groups have said privacy protections included in S-2588 aren’t a significant improvement from the more controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624), which the House passed last year (CD June 26 p8 OR WID June 26 p7). The Senate should make passage of a non-amended S-2685 “a key legislative priority for September,” the privacy groups said. They said the “broad consensus” in support of the bill “would be severely disrupted if any new mandatory data retention requirement were added to the bill.”

Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee sent joint letters Friday to the FCC and GAO on changes to broadcast exclusivity rules for local markets. They urged the GAO to look at local advertising markets. “As technologies evolve and the delivery of video content continues to expand, it is essential that any laws and regulations appropriately protect localism while allowing for the innovations necessary to fulfill the demands of consumers,” said Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. “The information from the FCC and GAO will provide renewed focus on these important issues affecting consumer access to broadcast content.” They want any GAO review to inform the FCC’s review of media ownership rules, they said, posting both letters online (http://1.usa.gov/1oNLkNt).