The House may vote this week on the USA Freedom Act, HR-3361, said Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., laying out the weekly vote schedule. The Rules Committee posted the latest version of the bill Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1gLP4BP), which privacy advocates now say may be watered down. The USA Freedom Act was introduced last fall with the intention of ending the government’s bulk collection of phone metadata, and recently cleared the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees. The Rules Committee brought up the bill Tuesday in conjunction with considering amendments for HR-4435, the National Defense Authorization Act, also slated for a possible vote this week. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., is seeking to amend HR-4435 to stop government surveillance activities in a separate maneuver, amid fears that the USA Freedom Act may be watered down. “The Amash Amendment to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (#NDAA) is materially identical to language in the #USAFREEDOMAct that unanimously passed both the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence two weeks ago,” Amash wrote on Facebook. “I will be monitoring progress on the Freedom Act, and I hope that my amendment will be unnecessary."

Communications Act Section 706 provides a framework “sufficient to give us the authority to adopt and implement robust rules” for net neutrality protections, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will tell the House Communications Subcommittee Tuesday, according to his written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/R185ns). The subcommittee scheduled an FCC oversight hearing for 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn, with Wheeler as the sole witness. Wheeler described the virtues of his net neutrality NPRM, begun last week in a 3-2 vote (CD May 16 ). “The Notice we adopted asks whether the best path forward is under Title II,” Wheeler said. “The entire purpose of an NPRM is to give Americans the ability to express themselves and provide analysis and guidance.” Wheeler’s 12-page testimony addressed many FCC initiatives, from process overhaul to spectrum auctions to retransmission consent. “We recognize the Subcommittee’s particular interest in ensuring that broadcasters found to be out of compliance with our rules have sufficient time to unwind the arrangements, and we look forward to working with you as these rules go into effect,” Wheeler plans to tell the subcommittee, referring to the lawmakers’ recent provisions in its Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act legislation. “The new rules apply only to JSAs [joint sales agreements], not Shared Services Agreements.” The GOP memo for the hearing outlined many issues that may come up and attacked the FCC’s attempts to overhaul its own processes. Since Wheeler’s testimony before Congress in December, “indications are that self-reform is in jeopardy,” the memo said (http://1.usa.gov/1o8a4Cq). “For example, early signs of retrenchment began with the release of a statement from the Chief of the Media Bureau announcing a new Commission policy with regard to broadcast TV transactions. As described above, this action, taken at the Bureau level, changed the official policy of the Commission without a vote or deliberation of the Commissioners.” The Democratic memo highlighted other key topics, such as E-rate overhaul and Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable (http://1.usa.gov/1o8a4Cq). Democrats circulated a supplemental memo defending FCC spectrum aggregation policies planned for the incentive auction (http://1.usa.gov/1hYj8or).

House and Senate committees will examine patent revamp issues Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee included the oft-delayed markup of the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) as the only agenda item for its weekly business meeting Thursday, although the committee had not released an eagerly anticipated compromise manager’s amendment at our deadline Monday. The meeting is to begin at 9:30 a.m. in 226 Dirksen (http://1.usa.gov/1ox3Lea). An industry lobbyist expressed skepticism about the prospects for a Thursday markup given disagreements within the committee over provisions on heightened pleading and discovery requirements. Meanwhile, the House Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade plans to hold a hearing Thursday on draft legislation from Chairman Lee Terry, R-Neb., that would require entities sending pre-litigation demand letters to include additional identifying information (http://1.usa.gov/1oJVlQO). The bill would also give the FTC and state governments more power to prosecute entities that abuse demand letters (http://1.usa.gov/1lVUsBl). The hearing is to begin at 9:15 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

The FCC’s set-top box integration ban must die, said House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai in a joint op-ed for The Washington Times (http://bit.ly/1sWHSEB). “By ending the integration ban, we can kill two birds with one stone,” they said. “We will take a step toward reducing consumers’ cable and energy bills. We will recognize the marketplace as it is today, not how the government theorized and planned it to be more than a decade ago.” This issue has become a hot one before Congress in the past year, as Latta introduced legislation last fall to kill the integration ban. That legislation has since been included in one Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act bill, HR-4572, which cleared the Commerce Committee. The Computer & Communications Industry Association along with its member company TiVo have loudly objected to these provisions and campaigned to keep them off STELA. “Today, there are myriad avenues for consumers to access video content without using a set-top box supplied by a cable company or a CableCARD,” Pai and Latta argued, calling the integration ban outdated. “Roku, Google, Amazon and Apple all offer streaming set-top boxes."

The House Rules Committee will consider HR-4660, the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY2015 (http://1.usa.gov/1iT4f6q), Monday at 5 p.m. in H-313 the Capitol. It was cleared from appropriations committee earlier this year. That bill would provide $36.7 million for NTIA, below the $51 million the executive branch requested. The funding would not include money for NTIA’s plan to transition the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which Republicans have slammed, the appropriations committee has said. A Thursday Appropriations Committee report confirmed its objections to the transition. “Any such transition represents a significant public policy change and should be preceded by an open and transparent process,” the report said (http://1.usa.gov/1oyaJzC). “In order for this issue to be considered more fully by the Congress, the recommendation for NTIA does not include any funds to carry out a transition of these functions.” The report also mentions that the appropriations bill includes up to $12 million devoted to closeout activities of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. “The Committee directs NTIA to continue submitting quarterly reports on BTOP,” it added. “NTIA shall provide a report no later than 90 days after enactment of this Act regarding the status of the seven projects that were awarded to support deployment of 700 MHz public safety broadband networks and whether these projects are being deployed in coordination with FirstNet as established under Public Law 112-96.” There’s also $3 million for NTIA “to maintain its ability to provide technical assistance to communities across the country as they implement or expand broadband connectivity,” it said.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., slipped the Internet Tax Freedom Forever Act text into an amendment to HR-3474, the Hire More Heroes Act, last week. Thune, ranking member of the Commerce Committee, submitted the amendment along with Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The amendment is SA-3113. It would include “a permanent moratorium on Internet access taxes and multiple and discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce,” pointing to the many state jurisdictions that now exist. “The provision of affordable access to the Internet is fundamental to the American economy and access to it must be protected from multiple and discriminatory taxes at the State and local level."

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill continued to view skeptically the FCC’s approval Thursday of a net neutrality NPRM that opens up questions of paid prioritization agreements. “As the Commission decides its next step, we urge them to consider establishing consumer protections while avoiding the pitfalls that would come with a Title II, utility-like classification of broadband — including, stifling innovation and choking off investment,” Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, said in a statement, mentioning a desire to address bigger related questions through the “anticipated rewrite of the Communications Act” that House Commerce is considering. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., called the FCC vote “very disappointing” and said “adding Internet ’toll lanes’ … would drastically change the Web as we know it.” Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., reiterated earlier calls that Congress should take the lead on net neutrality, not the FCC, and slammed the NPRM. “The FCC should respect its regulatory limits and Congress should do its job to address these concerns,” they said. “In the meantime, any policy adopted by the FCC should continue to respect the ‘light touch’ regime that has led to industry investment and a thriving Internet ecosystem."

Some Democratic lawmakers applauded the FCC’s move forward with broadcast TV incentive auction rules at its Thursday meeting (see separate report in this issue), with much praise coming from the lead authors of recent letters to the FCC requesting a reserve of spectrum for certain carriers in the auction. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., who led a letter from House lawmakers to the FCC, lauded the proposal as striking “a good balance that will allow the wireless marketplace to remain competitive.” The proposal “correctly balances the need to promote wireless competition while generating sufficient revenue to fund critical priorities such as FirstNet,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who led a similar Senate letter. House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., praised the agency for making “smart choices in balancing the congressional objectives of freeing up highly valuable spectrum for mobile broadband, unleashing the next generation of innovative unlicensed services that will one day fulfill the vision of ‘Super Wi-Fi’, and promoting a competitive wireless marketplace by giving carriers large and small a fair chance to bid for and win spectrum at the auction all while guaranteeing full funding of FirstNet.” Waxman had signed onto Matsui’s letter. Waxman urged parties to “redouble our efforts to ensure the auction’s success,” which primarily means “attracting as many willing broadcasters as possible to voluntarily participate in the reverse auction in order to maximize the amount of spectrum available for mobile broadband,” he said. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who also signed Matsui’s letter, commended Wheeler for “crafting a balanced set of rules that will raise the necessary funds for FirstNet; advance new unlicensed innovation; and ensure a competitive bidding process where wireless companies of all sizes will have an opportunity to acquire the most valuable, beachfront spectrum.” Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, is pleased “the FCC is holding a future proceeding relating to Low-Power Television and TV translator stations,” he said. “I am a proponent of ensuring that the FCC considers every possible way to protect these stations during the incentive auction, and I anxiously await the future outcome of this proceeding.” Barton said he will champion “greater protection of LPTV and urge my colleagues to do the same,” he said. Don’t restrict bidding in the incentive auction, four senators told the FCC in a letter before its Thursday meeting. “We are concerned that bidding restrictions will have the effect of disincentivizing broadcaster participation because of concerns about reduced returns,” wrote Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; and John Thune, R-S.D., ranking member of the Commerce Committee (http://1.usa.gov/1swfirP). “This could result not only in less spectrum being put back into the market to be used efficiently, but also less revenue generated by the auction.”

Congress should strengthen provisions in the revised USA Freedom Act to reflect the legislation as originally introduced last fall, several stakeholders told House leaders in a letter Wednesday. The bill, HR-3361, cleared the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees last week. “While the bill makes significant progress in ending bulk collection, we strongly believe that several technical corrections and clarifications to the bill are required if Congress is to help ensure that the bill language is not misinterpreted and its stated goal of ending bulk collection is met,” the letter said (http://bit.ly/1k5kTo0). Signers include the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy & Technology, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Reddit. The Reform Government Surveillance coalition also signed -- its members are AOL, Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo. The letter points to three items that need deeper modification, changed to reflect the original bill -- overhauling Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702, which authorizes online surveillance; allowing for more “robust” reporting of surveillance orders by industry and government; and creating a special advocate for the FISA court. The letter also recommended that Congress tighten the language of the bill in certain places.

The public should weigh in with hearing questions for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said the House Communications Subcommittee Thursday. It issued a news release calling for people to offer potential questions for Wheeler using the Twitter hashtag #AskWheeler. People can also suggest questions through Facebook, the subcommittee said. Wheeler will testify before the subcommittee during a Tuesday oversight hearing, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. “Are you worried about the future of the Internet? What would you #AskWheeler?” Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., tweeted Friday.