Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., separately announced Tuesday their plans to retire at the end of this Congress. Hatch was the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Republican from 1995 to 2005, and chairman for most of that period. He remained active on a range of tech policy issues, including on antitrust, IP and privacy (see 1702160055). Hatch played an important role last year in convincing Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to end her hold on now-DOJ Antitrust Division head Makan Delrahim’s nomination (see 1709250025). Hatch is expected to co-lead the filing a Senate companion to the Music Modernization Act (HR-4706) this month (see 1712290025). Hatch is “an American patriot and the gold standard for public service,” said NAB President Gordon Smith in a statement. “Few have achieved more.” Hatch’s “impact on our nation will extend far beyond his retirement at the end of this year” given his support for “policies to promote American innovation,” said TechNet CEO Linda Moore in a statement. Shuster announced his retirement plans in a Washington Examiner interview. Shuster is expected to be a leading figure in the House’s handling of President Donald Trump’s anticipated infrastructure legislative package (see 1704060067). He also was a main sponsor of FAA reauthorization legislation that would include drone regulatory language (see 1706220057).

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a Friday Twitter video that she left paid prioritization language out of the version of the Open Internet Preservation Act (HR-4682) she filed last week “because we need to leave that part for discussion.” Blackburn said in an interview last week the issue was still up for debate but there are “innovators who don't want us to deal with [paid prioritization], who want us to leave that alone.” Blackburn previously opposed including a ban on the practice in net neutrality legislation and it's an issue that divides Capitol Hill Republicans (see 1506040046, 1702130044 and 1712200057). “Right now there are components of the online ecosystem that do have prioritization, just as there is in the regular life,” Blackburn said Friday. “There are so many ways that we prioritize different services from those who are going to use more or who are willing to pay more for a specific service.”

Industry groups hailed congressional passage of the GOP’s tax overhaul legislation Wednesday. Enacting the tax overhaul “is a major victory for retailers who currently pay the highest tax rate of any business sector, and for the millions of consumers they serve every single day,” said National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay. The “historic” legislation also “will put more money in the pockets of consumers -- the best Christmas gift middle-class Americans could ask,” he said. “The 1980s were a great decade, but we are overdue for bringing our tax policy into the 21st Century,” said Information Technology Industry Council CEO Dean Garfield. “Updating the 30-year-old U.S. tax code was an essential step toward a more competitive and rational system for the U.S.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., was elected ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday 118-72 over Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., getting praise from the creative community for his long-standing record supporting copyright (see 1712180059). Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., touted Nadler's work banning bulk data collection, protecting privacy, fighting the increase in patent abuses and reviewing copyright laws. MPAA CEO Charles Rivkin welcomed Nadler’s victory, and the Content Creators Coalition said it looks forward to working with Nadler on reshaping music streaming rules, performance royalties and copyright protections to protect artists’ rights. NAB, BSA|The Software Alliance, RIAA and CreativeFuture also praised Nadler's election. Nadler said among top goals are protecting civil liberties and rule of law, supporting consumers and monitoring antitrust issues.

The FCC deregulatory push should open the door to the next big tech thing, which occurs on average every 10-15 years, blogged American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Mark Jamison Thursday. The last “shockingly thrilling" launch was the iPhone in 2007, he wrote. “Deregulation is the key,” Jamison said. “I don’t mean an absence of contract laws or consumer protections that allow markets to work well. Rather, I mean an absence of regulations that stand in the way of businesses and customers voluntarily engaging in ways that are mutually beneficial.” Deregulation “keeps customers in charge of whether innovations succeed or fail,” he said. Jamison was on the Trump FCC transition landing team.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday he still hopes the bill he and Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, are drafting to ease barriers to 5G and other broadband deployments will be “ready to drop before the end of the year,” though later than expected. Schatz and communications lobbyists anticipated introduction soon after Thanksgiving recess (see 1711240024). The senators circulated a draft in October (see 1710310057). It has since received criticism from local and municipal government stakeholders over language that would seek to pre-empt state, local and tribal laws seen as barriers to deployments. “We're getting closer” to the bill being ready for formal introduction, but it's “not likely” Senate Commerce will be able to mark it up this year, Thune said.

Proper use of artificial intelligence algorithms will be the focus of a Dec. 12 hearing, the Senate Communications Subcommittee announced Tuesday. Witnesses are Cindy Bethel, computer science associate professor, Mississippi State University; Daniel Castro, vice president, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; Victoria Espinel, CEO, BSA|The Software Alliance; and Dario Gil, IBM vice president of AI and IBM's commercial quantum computing program.

Tech groups hailed Senate passage of a GOP tax overhaul bill that would reduce the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and assess a flat 14.5 percent one-time tax on U.S. companies that repatriate cash profit from overseas. The measure passed 51-49 Saturday without a single Democratic vote and with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., as the Republican defector. “Policymakers have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver historic tax reform and today, Senate Republicans showed the world that they are committed to delivering the comprehensive change needed to empower American businesses to grow our economy,” CTA CEO Gary Shapiro said Saturday. “Lowering the corporate tax rate and simplifying the tax code helps companies of all sizes grow, hire additional workers, raise wages and compete in the global marketplace.” The Information Technology Industry Council thinks a tax overhaul “is needed to build a more competitive” global economy, and the vote “moves us closer to meeting this goal,” said CEO Dean Garfield. “U.S. tech companies are facing aggressive tax policies around the globe and our tax policies here at home are hurting our ability to compete on an international playing field. This bill takes steps toward addressing these serious challenges.” NAB also “commends” the Senate for passing the tax bill because the legislation “preserves the full and immediate deductibility of business advertising,” said CEO Gordon Smith Monday. NAB will continue working with Congress toward “final passage of comprehensive tax reform legislation,” said Smith.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai reinforced to the leaders of five congressional panels the agency's commitment to ask in future video competition reports for data and comments on whether there's a need for more set-top box regulation, in response to the GAO's September report on the commission's work on its 2016 draft set-top order. The GAO said any FCC rulemaking about the set-top market first needs more thorough study of the market and its dynamics than was done before the 2016 draft (see 1709290032). The FCC “will utilize the annual video competition report proceedings to gather data and solicit comment on issues relevant to whether there is a need for further regulations to ensure the commercial availability of devices to access MVPD programming,” Pai told the lawmakers in letters released Wednesday. “We will include an analysis of these data and comments in our future annual video competition reports.” The letters' recipients included Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D.; ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore.; and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein and 5G Americas President Chris Pearson are among those set to testify at a Thursday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the potential benefits of deployment of 5G networks and ways to promote the technology (see 1711090065), the House Commerce Committee said. Also set to testify are: Wireless and wireline consultant Coleman Bazelon, principal at Brattle Group; Indiana Biosciences Research Institute founding CEO, now adviser, David Broecker; and San Jose Chief Innovation Officer Shireen Santosham. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.