Senate Passes Traced Act, STELA Renewal

The Senate passed several telecom measures Thursday, including the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151). House Commerce Committee Democratic leaders called the bills part of a series of 2019 tech and telecom successes. They also noted some policy priorities for 2020.

The Senate passed S-151 Thursday on a voice vote. The compromise S-151, released last month (see 1911270058), combines provisions from the original Senate-passed version of the bill and the House-passed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375). The legislation would allow the FCC to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call when the caller intentionally flouts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, USTelecom and Verizon applauded.

Senators passed the FY 2020 federal appropriations minibus bill (HR-1865) containing Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization language on a 71-23 vote. Lawmakers drew the STELA provisions (see 1912160061) from the House Commerce Committee’s Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035) and a modified version of the House Judiciary Committee-cleared Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act (HR-5140). HR-1865 allocates $465 million to CPB beginning in FY 2022 and $659.5 million to the Rural Utilities Service. The Senate also voted 81-11 to pass the other FY 2020 minibus (HR-1158), which allocates $339 million to the FCC and its Office of General Counsel and $331 million to the FTC. It allocates $40.4 million for NTIA, $1.03 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and $3.45 billion for the Patent and Trademark Office. The House approved both funding bills Tuesday (see 1912170052).

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., expect President Donald Trump will sign S-151 into law. A bid to move it by unanimous consent had been delayed by now-resolved objections from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and then while Senate leaders awaited (see 1912120071) House action on two other bills they had reached a deal to pass in tandem. Those bills are the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Broadband Data) Act broadband mapping legislative package (HR-4229) and the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998).

The Senate was able to pass HR-4229 Senate companion S-1822 via UC, but Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, objected to moving HR-4998 that way. Lee unsuccessfully attempted to move the similar U.S. 5G Leadership Act (S-1625), a move thwarted by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. S-1822 would require the FCC to collect more “granular” broadband coverage data and create a “user-friendly challenge process” (see 1906130029). Its House-passed companion (HR-4229) was a vehicle for a broader broadband mapping legislative package (see 1911130001). HR-4998 and S-1625 both provide funding to help U.S. communications providers remove from their networks Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security. The House passed HR-4229 and HR-4998 earlier this week (see 1912160052).

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., pointed during a news conference to the "tremendously popular" S-151, STELA renewal, HR-4229 and HR-4998 as among many instances in which House Commerce has been legislating “in a bipartisan fashion.” Those bills also help counter the “false narrative” that the House “has not been legislating” since Democrats became the majority party in the chamber at the beginning of this Congress and that it has been focused too much on impeaching Trump, Doyle said. He noted House passage in April of the Save the Internet Act (HR-1644), which would undo FCC rescission of the 2015 net neutrality rules and restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1904100062). The bill “is immensely popular” outside of Washington policymaking circles, but Senate GOP leaders stalled its consideration (see 1906110038), Doyle said.

House Commerce Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., said advancing the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act infrastructure bill (HR-2741) “in the coming year will be a key priority” for the committee. The bill would allocate $40 billion for broadband projects, offer $12 billion in grants for implementing next generation-911 technologies and $5 billion for federal funding of a loan and credit program for broadband projects. Democrats first filed the bill in 2017 (see 1706020056). House Commerce examined HR-2741 in May amid the collapse of talks between Trump and top Democrats on a plan to pay for additional spending on broadband and other infrastructure projects (see 1905220076).

Doyle hopes “we can work on legislation … [to] leverage our nation’s wireless spectrum and unlicensed services,” including language to allocate proceeds from a pending FCC auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. Doyle and others have been seeking to pass the Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-Band) Act (HR-4855/S-2921) as a mechanism for using auction proceeds to fund rural broadband and next-generation 911 projects (see 1911210056). He’s interested in examining telecom infrastructure resiliency and “a range of issues related to media ownership, diversity and inclusion.”

The House Consumer Protection Subcommittee plans to continue its “productive work” on comprehensive data privacy and security legislation next year, said Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. She noted her panel's Wednesday release of a staff discussion draft (see 1912180052) and envisions a “transparent and inclusive process” for evaluating the language. House Commerce seeks feedback through Jan. 24.