CEA hails House and Senate introductions of the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act because it offers new incentives for federal agencies to relinquish underused spectrum for commercial mobile broadband services, President Gary Shapiro said Thursday in a statement. The bipartisan legislation is "an important step forward in helping the American consumer” by giving agencies “appropriate incentives” to “quickly vacate or share spectrum, ensuring that consumers have access to the most robust mobile broadband networks,” Shapiro said. The House version (HR-1641) was introduced by Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., while the Senate counterpart (S-887) was introduced by Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Edward Markey, D-Mass. The bills let federal agencies share a portion of the proceeds generated by an auction of relinquished spectrum, the sponsors said (see 1503260029) Thursday in a joint news release.

BSA/The Software Alliance (BSA) urged the leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to pass Trade Promotion Authority legislation, which would simplify the process for congressional approval of trade agreements. “Unfortunately, we are seeing a growing number of countries enacting measures that restrict cross-border data flows or require data processing to occur within the nation’s borders,” BSA said in a letter to the committees Friday. “We need trade agreements to address these market access restrictions on digital commerce directly,” it said. BSA members include Adobe, Apple, Dell and Microsoft.

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and all other members of the Oregon congressional delegation should move to support Trade Promotion Authority “as soon as possible,” said several large companies with Oregon facilities, including BSA/The Software Alliance and the Gap, in a recent letter. TPA will let U.S. negotiators broker trade pacts that open global markets for U.S. goods and services, said last month's letter. “Congress needs to pass TPA soon, and we hope you will support it."

NTIA released plans Wednesday for a multistakeholder meeting to address privacy, transparency, and accountability issues for the commercial and private use of unmanned aircraft systems, commonly referred to as drones. In a presidential memorandum dated Feb. 15, the White House asked NTIA to hold a multistakeholder meeting with industry, civil society, technical experts, academics and other stakeholders, on privacy concerns "while ensuring the United States maintains its leadership and promotes innovation in this growing industry,” said NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling. Consumer groups have expressed concern with the multistakeholder approach (see 1502170038), and argue the process doesn’t work because consumer advocates are largely outnumbered by industry lobbyists. This announcement “shows how out of touch the White House and Commerce Department are on data issues,” said Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester: “Allowing industry lobbyist dominated meetings, where consumer groups are vastly out numbered and there is no representation from civil rights organizations and many others, to determine the privacy rules of the air is irresponsible.” In a column for The Christian Science Monitor Wednesday, former White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Nicole Wong cast doubt on whether a multistakeholder policy development process works. “We have learned from previous multistakeholder privacy convenings (for example, the Do-Not-Track working group trying to standardize cookie settings for more than three years), that it is difficult to develop practical, enforceable and adopted codes unless all parties come to the table committed to reach agreement,” Wong said. “There is no future in which less data is collected and used.” People can't “continue to argue for leaving the safekeeping of our data to the discretion of private actors. Individuals, companies and governments want clarity and consistency,” she said. The FCC and FTC should be responsible for developing a plan to ensure diverse and independent perspectives to protect privacy are developed, Chester said. The first public meeting on drones will be held within 90 days from Wednesday’s publication of the request for comment. Comments on the RFC are due to NTIA 45 days from when it's in the Federal Register.

Labor unions are united in opposing Trade Promotion Authority, also known as fast track, over concerns that new trade deals will cut U.S. employment, said leaders of dozens of unions in a Monday letter to House and Senate members. “Fast-track is an undemocratic, unaccountable and completely unacceptable way to develop economic policies that affect us all,” said the letter, signed by the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO and others. “America needs a new version of trade negotiating authority that brings the process out from behind closed doors and prioritizes making life better for people, instead of just making life easier for corporations.” The AFL-CIO and other unions take to Capitol Hill Wednesday to lobby more than 120 lawmakers on TPA opposition, the AFL-CIO said in a separate release.

Legislation to establish safeguards to protect the privacy of individuals, following recently released draft rules from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing the expanded use of drones (see 1502250059), was introduced Tuesday by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. Dubbed the Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act, the legislation would ensure there are “standards for informing the public about the location, timing and ownership of unmanned aerial vehicles,” a joint release said. Privacy protection provisions related to data collection and minimization, disclosure, warrant requirements for law enforcement, and enforcement measures in the licensing and operation of drones would also be required. Markey also introduced the legislation in the last Congress. Given the FAA expects about 7,500 drones to be used in U.S. airspace by 2020, Markey said rules of the sky are needed, just as there are rules of the road. The bill “requires transparency in domestic drone use and adds privacy protections that ensure this technology cannot and will not be used to spy on Americans,” he said. “Drones are a valuable tool for commerce, law enforcement, and public safety as well as a fun hobby,” Welch said. The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers endorsed the legislation.

The reintroduced Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 17) has 94 House co-sponsors, NAB said in a news release Wednesday. Senate (S. Con. Res. 4) and House versions of the resolution were introduced Tuesday (see 1502240067). The resolutions would oppose terrestrial radio stations from paying any new taxes or royalties. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., are the principal sponsors of S. Con. Res. 4; Reps. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, and Gene Green, D-Texas, headed up the resolution’s introduction in the House. “NAB applauds lawmakers for standing with hometown broadcasters in opposing a job-killing performance royalty that would damage the No. 1 platform for exposing new music," CEO Gordon Smith said in the release. House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., members Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and House Commerce Committee Vice Chair Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent a letter to lawmakers Tuesday asking that they not support LRFA. They called terrestrial broadcasters' exemption from public performance royalties an "unjust business model." The musicFIRST Coalition, which advocates for terrestrial broadcasters to pay public performance royalties, in a blog post Tuesday criticized NAB’s claim that such broadcasters can’t afford to pay new royalties. MFC cited a GAO study that said a public performance royalty would cost major broadcasters 2 percent of their revenue. Despite efforts to thwart the resolutions, NAB expects the number of co-sponsors to grow “considerably” in the coming months, said a spokesman.

The House Judiciary Committee plans a hearing on the Copyright Office’s (CO) functions and resources Feb. 26 at 1:30 p.m. in 2138 Rayburn, a committee news release said Thursday. Witnesses weren’t listed. The CO also released a study Thursday on its modernization challenges. The 87-page study was first undertaken in November 2011. Four areas were found to have “great need of improvement,” including “user experience” and “access to and the usability of copyright records,” it said. “Poor performance of outdated IT architecture and infrastructure” and “inefficiencies with current copyright data” are the other primary challenges. “The Office should have a new and dedicated enterprise copyright system, which might be perceived as ‘eCO 2.0,’" it said. That means a “large-scale application package that includes the capabilities for registration, recordation, public information and records, accounting and processing, and acquisition,” the study said. “While the result would be an over-arching enterprise system, each copyright function must have its own dedicated development cycle to include analysis, requirements, design, build, testing/pilot, deployment and maintenance phases,” it said. “These goals would need to be reconciled with the existing systems and future plans of the Library of Congress.”

Two congressional Democrats want to make sure AT&T and Verizon don't acquire too much of the available spectrum. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday cautioning that revenue raised should be only one factor to weigh ahead of the agency's broadcast TV spectrum incentive auction. “While this is no doubt a critical measure of a successful spectrum auction, it should not be the only metric for determining use of this scarce public resource,” they said. “Consistent with the objective of Congress, we applaud you for recognizing the need to include a ‘reserved’ block of spectrum as part of the incentive auction. While this is an important mechanism for achieving greater competition, the Commission should continue to evaluate its auction rules to ensure they are sufficient to prevent excessive concentration of spectrum among the nation’s largest wireless providers.” The agency’s reassessment should not prevent the incentive auction from beginning in early 2016, as planned, the lawmakers said. The FCC’s incentive auction is “a unique opportunity to free up additional low-band spectrum for wireless broadband,” they said. House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., wrote a separate letter to Wheeler saying the FCC’s incentive auction rules “should be used to benefit actual small businesses,” citing the more than 800,000 small businesses in New Jersey. “I am deeply concerned, however, by reports that major corporations have been able to game certain FCC rules designed to aid small businesses,” Pallone said. “If these reports are true, large businesses took advantage of loopholes first adopted in the Bush administration. Not only do these Bush-era rules undermine Congressional intent, they may result in real small businesses being boxed out of the telecommunications market.” The upcoming auction gives the FCC “a chance to get this right,” he said. The agency should “make sure its competition policies are geared toward those who need it most -- not just major corporations and incumbents,” he said.

The State Department now requires U.S. companies and foreigner end users to sign and submit an addendum to the DSP-83 nontransfer and use certificate form at the time of application for a permanent export license for unmanned aerial systems (UAS), known commonly as drones. Temporary UAS exports, for marketing and other purposes, won't require the addendum, State said last week. State included the necessary addendum format with its statement. The department recently outlined a new policy for UAS trade, in a separate announcement (see 1502170065), shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration unveiled plans to propose rules for commercial drones and President Barack Obama asked agencies to look at drone privacy issues (see 1502160003).