The House Communications Subcommittee rescheduled a postponed hearing on the FCC's FY 2025 budget request for Tuesday, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday. The subpanel previously planned the hearing for early May (see 2405030068). “The U.S. maintains some of the most preeminent broadband networks in the world,” said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R- Wash., and Communications Chair Bob Latta, R-Ohio. “This has resulted in lower costs and faster, more reliable services to Americans that have helped cement American innovation and leadership in next-generation technologies. Our networks have benefitted from a light-touch regulatory approach, which has allowed them to adapt and thrive. Unfortunately, recent actions by the FCC, including burdensome new regulations, threaten that light-touch system and people’s access to these critical services.” The House Appropriations Committee's FY 2025 funding bill for the FCC, which it advanced last month (see 2406140054), proposes increasing the commission's budget to $416 million but would bar the agency from using funds to enforce its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders.

Former FCC Chairmen Ajit Pai and Tom Wheeler on Sunday repeated their call that lawmakers consider repurposing “appropriated but unspent COVID-19-era funding” and future spectrum auction revenue as alternative ways of paying for next-generation 911 technology upgrades. “A one-time infusion of Federal funding is desperately needed to accelerate nationwide NG9-1-1 implementation,” the two wrote in a Seattle Times opinion piece. “Without it, lives will be lost, especially in lower-income and rural communities that may lag in the NG9-1-1 transition.” Congress “must make NG9-1-1 a top priority and pass legislation that empowers all levels of government to make ubiquitous NG9-1-1 a reality,” the ex-FCC chairs said. Pai and Wheeler were among nine ex-FCC chairs who wrote congressional leaders in February in favor of using either future spectrum proceeds or COVID-19 funding to pay for NG-911 (see 2402210073). Leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees have repeatedly proposed using spectrum revenue to fund as much as $15 billion in NG-911 upgrades, including a $2 billion allocation in the stalled Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) (see 2406180067). The Public Safety Next Generation 911 Coalition complained in April that S-4207’s $2 billion NG-911 appropriation is insufficient (see 2404300052).

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel defended a March Further NPRM that bans bulk billing arrangements between ISPs and multi-dwelling unit (MDU) owners (see 2403050069). Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., prompted Rosenworcel's response. In a May 20 letter released Friday, the lawmaker wrote the proposed ban “threatens both the affordability and accessibility of essential digital services” because the practice enables “seniors, fixed-income individuals, and other residents to aggregate their purchasing power.” ISPs argue banning bulk billing will bring broadband bill shock and market instability (see 2405080043). In a June 10 letter, Rosenworcel said the FNPRM “has the potential to empower consumer choice and boost competition, as well as build on the agency’s ongoing efforts to improve broadband transparency.” She acknowledged the FCC in 2010 “found that these arrangements can predominately offer benefits to consumers,” but “a lot can change in 14 years and, as is true with many policies in the telecommunications sector, it is often in the public interest to reexamine long-standing policies to ensure they have kept up with changes in technology and the marketplace, especially when it comes to consumer protection and choice.” The FNPRM “provides an opportunity to build a record on” bulk billing “that reflects the consumer experience today, and that is why it is important to have the public weigh in on these issues,” Rosenworcel said.

An expected Thursday House Commerce Committee markup session (see 2406210046) on the American Privacy Rights Act (HR-8818) and Kids Online Safety Act (HR-7891) will also include the revised AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-8449), the panel said Tuesday night. HR-8449, which the Innovation Subcommittee advanced in May (see 2405230057), would require DOT to mandate AM radio's inclusion in future electric vehicles. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced an earlier version of the bill (S-1669) last year (see 2307270063). The House Commerce meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. HR-8449 supporter NAB earlier this month produced three radio ads backing the bill, with one highlighting that it “has brought legislators of all political stripes together to protect AM radio,” including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. The group also texted members earlier this week to “Tell Congress you want to keep AM radio in your car!”

The House Intellectual Property Subcommittee will consider legislative proposals related to radio royalty payments at a hearing Wednesday. The agenda includes two competing bills: the American Music Fairness Act (see 2302020068) and the Supporting the Local Radio Freedom Act (see 2108120059). NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt, SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe, Radio One-Cleveland General Manager Eddie Harrell and musician Randy Travis will testify. The session will begin at 2 p.m. in 2141 Rayburn.

The House Commerce Committee will mark up an updated draft of the American Privacy Rights Act on Thursday, the office for Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., confirmed Friday, as expected (see 2406140036). Ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and several members have sought changes to the bill, particularly on children’s privacy. The latest draft includes a new section with language from the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0, a change the bill sponsors, Reps. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., and Tim Walberg, R-Mich., have sought. The new draft includes updated definitions related to contextual and targeted advertising. Absent from the latest draft is a section about civil rights and algorithms that was included in the original draft proposal.

The House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee plans a Wednesday markup of its FY 2025 funding bill, which includes money for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. in H-140 The Capitol. A few hours later, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will testify at a House Innovation Subcommittee hearing on the department's FY25 budget request (see 2406200063). The House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee will mark up its FY25 funding bill Thursday. That meeting will begin at 8 a.m. in 2358-C Rayburn. The subpanel unsuccessfully tried halting advance federal funding for CPB as part of the FY 2024 appropriations cycle (see 2307140069).

Opposition to the Kids Online Safety Act is preventing the bill from passing by unanimous consent, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday (see 2312040058). A co-sponsor of the legislation, Schumer said he outlined a plan in May for UC passage of the bill. “I personally helped resolve issues and mitigated unintended consequences of the bill,” he said on the floor. “That effort reduced the opposition, but there are still holdouts.” Schumer said there’s been “real progress” in removing objections to the bill over the course of several weeks. But if “objectors refuse to come to a resolution, we must pursue a different legislative path to get this done,” he said. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., planned to seek UC passage in December before abandoning plans to allow further negotiation. Lead Democratic sponsor Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut on Thursday said he’s “confident based on my conversations with Leader Schumer we are going to get this bill done.” The bill has 70 co-sponsors. Parents of children who died in social media-related incidents sent a letter to Schumer on Tuesday urging him to “keep his promise” and hold a vote on the bill by Thursday. Schumer noted on the floor that he has been meeting with victims' families. “I have seen their terrible stories, and I am committed, completely committed, to work with them to get KOSA across the finish line.”

The House Innovation Subcommittee plans a June 26 hearing with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about her department’s FY 2025 budget request, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday night. President Joe Biden in March proposed funding increases for NTIA and other Commerce agencies in excess of what they received for FY 2024 (see 2403040083). Biden sought $65 million for NTIA, $4.5 billion for the Patent Office, $1.5 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and $233.4 million for the Bureau of Industry and Security (see 2403110056). The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

Bipartisan legislation filed Thursday would make it illegal to publish deepfake pornography and revenge porn. Introduced by Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the bill would require social media platforms to remove nonconsensual, explicit content within 48 hours of a “valid request from a victim.” The FTC would enforce the legislation, the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (Take It Down) Act. The bill has 11 other co-sponsoring senators, including Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Lummis told us recently that the bill is a more-targeted approach than Klobuchar’s legislation with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (Defiance) Act. On June 12 Lummis blocked Durbin’s effort to pass the Defiance Act by unanimous consent. The Defiance Act, which is co-sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., would establish a right for victims to seek civil damages for harm related to synthetic, nonconsensual deepfake content. Cruz said his bill will empower victims by “putting the responsibility on websites to have in place procedures to remove these images.”