Rosenworcel Emphasizes Interagency Broadband Cooperation

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday she’s deferring to Congress in deciding how to parcel out the proposed $65 billion in broadband money included in the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684). She sidestepped questions during a virtual Politico event about whether senators’ decision to parcel out the bulk of connectivity funding in HR-3684 to NTIA indicates a lack of faith in the commission. Capitol Hill leaders said during the event they continue to push for lawmakers to pass a national privacy standard and revamp Communications Decency Act Section 230 during this Congress.

Congress is poised to make “an investment in generational change” via infrastructure legislation and “the big challenge now is to make sure” all federal broadband programs “work together in concert to really deliver” on moving the U.S. toward 100% connectivity, Rosenworcel said. “Working together is the most important thing.” HR-3684 allocates $42.5 billion for an NTIA-administered state-level grants program, $14 billion for an extension of the FCC emergency broadband benefit and $2 billion for Agriculture Department rural broadband programs.

The FCC has “appropriate powers” via statute to bridge the digital divide and make broadband more affordable, including by promoting EBB, Rosenworcel said. She would “like to see” existing law used “more vigorously in defense of consumers and used more aggressively to make sure we get every household connected.” The commission is “going to have to study every tool we have” in statute to “make sure” broadband is “affordable for every household everywhere,” Rosenworcel said. Officials need “to comb through the statute” and “use every word, phrase and provision it can.”

Rosenworcel believes there’s a good opportunity for the FCC to do more on digital equity, including by asking “questions about digital equity” in new rulemakings and a broader review “of our policies front to back.” Many groups urged the commission Tuesday to issue a notice of inquiry on the agency’s history of anti-Black racism (see 2109140041). The FCC has “come to recognize that communications doesn’t reach all of us in its most modern form at full speed and that we’ve got communities that for too long have been overlooked and underserved,” Rosenworcel said.

Privacy

Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., welcomed House Commerce Committee 31-27 approval Tuesday of modified language in its portion of the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package that would allocate $1 billion to fund a new privacy-focused FTC bureau, but cautioned it shouldn’t be at the expense of also better funding the agency’s antitrust work. The bureau would focus on “unfair or deceptive acts or practices relating to privacy, data security, identity theft, data abuses, and related matters" (see 2109100063).

Commerce rejected a set of six GOP-led amendments to the FTC language. House Commerce voted 31-26 against a proposal from ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., that would have attached the text of the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act. The refiled HR-1816 would direct the FTC to establish a federal privacy standard and improve companies’ data collection transparency. It requires companies to opt in before companies can use some sensitive information. Rodgers and other House Commerce Republicans argued Democrats should be focused on reaching a deal on privacy legislation.

Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., tried to limit the FTC's timeline to use the $1 billion to before 2023. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., failed in his bid to require the new FTC bureau to address “the privacy, data security, [identity] theft, data abuse of children, including while using internet applications associated with the Chinese government or Chinese state-owned or state-sponsored entities.” Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., wanted the bureau to “carry out oversight and monitoring of internet application platforms that allow Taliban insurgents and leaders to post and amplify user content on such platforms.” Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., tried to require the bureau to handle “the mental health impact of social media on the adolescent.” He also attempted to bar entities from selling or otherwise disseminating U.S. citizens’ “identifiable health information” to the Chinese government.

Giving the FTC more money to beef up its privacy work “is a good thing” and should be a “major priority” as lawmakers negotiate on a final reconciliation package, Klobuchar said Wednesday. The Senate Commerce Committee “seems like the place to start” in seeking a deal on privacy legislation given the work Chair Maria Cantwell of Washington and other panel Democrats have done thus far, she said. The FTC “can’t just take on all tech and then not do anything else when it comes to antitrust and that’s why I’m a big believer that we must … better fund” that work at both the commission and DOJ “or we are going to make a mockery of our antitrust laws,” Klobuchar said. “It doesn’t matter how many great people we put in charge or how many executive orders are issued” if “the resources aren’t there to hire the lawyers to take on the biggest companies.”

Klobuchar is bullish on the prospects for passing tech-focused antitrust legislation. "I think we can get this done," she said. "There’s bipartisan support to move, and time is ticking.” U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ Friday ruling in Epic v. Apple that Apple engaged in anti-competitive conduct without violating federal antitrust laws (see Ref:2109100061]) reinforces the need for legislation to rein in major tech companies, Klobuchar said: “We have to do a number of things … to stop the self-preferencing behavior, to make sure that they're not randomly charging certain companies” 30% “and that they’re not using their monopoly power to stop companies from being able to allow their customers to know where they can get less expensive alternatives.”

House Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo., believes that fully repealing Section 230 “is a mistake” and that lawmakers should instead “tighten up” the statute. Repeal will prompt “a slew of lawsuits,” and while “major tech companies have armies of lawyers to handle” litigation, “smaller startups that would actually provide competition” would be hurt, he said. “It’s more important to … give clear guidance” the tech sector “on what’s appropriate and what’s not.” Any revamp must be accompanied by legislation to “enhance competition in the marketplace” to be effective, Buck said. “We want to make sure that there’s interoperability” among major social media and tech platforms, which would encourage competition “in other areas.”