John Eggerton

Democratic Reps used a House Communications Subcommittee markup of a pirate radio bill to express their opposition to the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of network neutrality rules. Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) introduced an amendment to the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (PIRATE) Act (HR 5709) that would have replaced the base bill with one that would restore the net neutrality rules just jettisoned.

House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) vowed to keep fighting to nullify the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules rollback, but in outlining the road ahead, he also put a spotlight on the up-Hill battle. "Americans lost an important right today when the FCC’s order nullifying the federal Net Neutrality policy went into effect,” he said.

Network neutrality activist groups were lining up their protest efforts June 11 as the Federal Communications Commission's rules against online blocking, throttling and paid prioritization sunset in favor of a deregulatory regime centered on Federal Trade Commission oversight/enforcement. 

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has challenged current Chairman Ajit Pai to push for a House vote on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to nullify Pai's Restoring Internet Freedom order rolling back network neutrality rules.

Even as the Commerce Department was confirming a deal to remove an export ban affecting ZTE, Congress was moving to prevent government money to be used to buy ZTE equipment.

A decision by the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit could make it harder for the Federal Trade Commission to enforce online data security, or that is certainly the conclusion of Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Though, it is narrowly tailored to apply to a specific FTC enforcement tool.

The Supplementing the Pipeline for Efficient Control of The Resources for Users Making New Opportunities for Wireless (SPECTRUM NOW) Act has been introduced to ensure there is enough money to fund efforts to get federal spectrum users to give up spectrum or share spectrum with commercial users. Sens Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) in the Senate, and Reps Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Rep Brett Guthrie (R-KY) in the House have introduced the bipartisan bill.

National Public Radio is waving a caution flag as the Trump Administration pushes to open up the C-band (3.7-4.2 GHz.) for broadband, echoing comments by the National Association of Broadcasters.  Its advice is to divide if it wants to conquer in the race to 5G. NPR has told the Federal Communications Comission it should reserve some C-band spectrum for wireless broadband, but should reserve the remainder for exclusive use by incumbents, like NPR's fixed satellite delivery of its programming.

NCTA - The Internet & Television Association, Google, and a veritable host of others have gotten together on a compromise proposal for sharing the 3.5 GHz band, a proposal that includes a mix of large and small license areas.

Sinclair provided the Federal Communications Commission with information in response to the commission's request for information following Sinclair's latest, and expected to be last, variation on its Tribune merger proposal.  The FCC was apparently looking for historical data on retransmission consent and ad revenue.