| House Passes Bill to Delay
Spectrum Auctions |
5/7. The House passed HR 4560,
the Auction Reform Act of 2002, by a voice vote. The bill
states that the FCC "shall not commence or conduct
auctions 31 and 44 on June 19, 2002, as specified in the
public notices of March 19, 2002, and March 20, 2002 (DA
02-659 and DA 02-563)."
The bill was introduced on April 24 by Rep. Billy Tauzin
(R-LA) and Rep. John
Dingell (D-MI), the Chairman and ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee,
and by most of the membership of the Committee. It was
approved by the Committee on May 2.
Rep. Tauzin explained the bill on the House floor. He stated
that "There are clearly two conflicting mandates in
statute. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the Consolidated
Appropriations Act for FY 2000 mandate that the 700 MHz band,
both the upper and lower parts of that band, must be auctioned
by dates certain."
"However, Section
309(j)(3)(E)(ii) of the Communications Act requires the
Commission to include safeguards in auctions that, among other
things, 'ensure that, in scheduling of any competitive bidding
under this subsection, an adequate period is allowed ... to
ensure that interested parties have a sufficient time to
develop business plans, assess market conditions, and evaluate
the availability of equipment for the relevant
services.'"
Tauzin continued that "When there is such a clear
conflict in statute, the Commission has considerable
discretion to determine whether to move forward with the
auction. In 2000, when the Commission originally delayed the
700 MHz auction, the agency concluded that '[i]n complying
with conflicting statutes, and resolving those directives as
we proceed toward an auction, we believe the Commission's
primary goal should be to conduct an auction that is fair,
efficient, puts the spectrum to the best use, and thereby best
serves the public interest.' The Commission also concluded
that a delay was appropriate so that bidders would have an
adequate time to develop business plans and assess market
conditions."
"The reasons that existed in 2000 for the Commission's
delay of the auction still exist today. Potential bidders
cannot develop business plans when there is no certainty
concerning when the 700 MHz band will be vacated by
broadcasters occupying Channels 52-69. It is also impossible
to assess market conditions before it is clear when the band
will be available for new services and whether other spectrum
will be made available for third-generation services. And it
is impossible to evaluate if and when mobile communications
equipment will be available for use in the 700 MHz band when
manufacturers have no idea when the band will be vacated by
the broadcasters," said Rep. Tauzin.
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
introduced S 2454,
the companion bill in the Senate, on May 2. No action has yet
been taken on that bill. Secretary of Commerce Donald
Evans has announced his support for a postponement of the
auctions. |
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| Sen. Hollings Introduces
Broadband Loans and Grants Bill |
5/2. Sen. Ernest
Hollings (D-SC) and others introduced S 2448,
the Broadband Telecommunications Deployment Act of 2002, a
bill pertaining to the taxation of communications services,
and the funding of loan and grant programs intended to promote
the deployment of broadband services in rural and under served
areas.
The bill would provide that one half of the taxes collected
pursuant to the excise tax on phones, codified at 26
U.S.C. § 4251, would go into a trust fund to support
various loan and grant programs created by the bill. The bill
would create an entity named the Broadband Deployment and
Demand Trust Fund, to be located at the Treasury Department.
However, the Commerce Department would write implementing
regulations, and administer the programs created by the bill.
Sen. Hollings stated that this bill "represents a step
towards fostering the deployment and adoption of broadband
services. It uses monies from the telephone excise tax to fund
a number of loan and grant programs. It stimulates broadband
deployment in rural and underserved areas by providing low
interest loans to upgrade facilities including remote
terminals and fiber between a remote terminal and central
office. It authorizes NIST to study how we can facilitate
broadband deployment in rural and under served areas. It
promotes competition by establishing pilot projects for
wireless and other non-wireline broadband technologies in
rural and underserved areas."
Sen. Hollings continued that "The bill begins to help us
understand what is necessary to accomplish broadband with
speeds of 50 to 100 megabits per second by providing grants to
NTIA's Lab, NIST Labs, National Science Board and to
universities for research. In order to address the demand
issue, we provide grants to digitize library and museum
collections as well as grants to Universities to conduct
technical research to develop Internet applications useful to
consumers. The bill also provides grants to connect under
represented colleges and communities to the Internet."
See, Cong. Rec., May 2, 2002, at page S3872.
The bill's original cosponsors are Sen. Hilary Clinton
(D-NY), Sen. Ted Stevens
(R-AK), Sen. Daniel Inouye
(D-HI), Sen. Jay
Rockefeller (D-WV), and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND).
It has been referred to the Senate Commerce
Committee, of which Sen. Hollings is the Chairman. |
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| Rep. Levin Addresses TPA |
5/7. Rep. Sander Levin
(D-MI), the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means
Committee's Subcommittee on Trade, gave a speech
regarding trade promotion authority (TPA) at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS). He stated that "U.S.
trade policy is following no coherent course at all." He
also criticized the administration and Republicans for
adopting a "whatever its takes" approach to passing
TPA legislation that "results in a minimization of the
substantive issues of trade policy and does not offer sound
guiding principles for the future."
Levin also addressed the current nature of trade negotiations.
"We have now moved beyond even the challenges of many
basic non-tariff barriers and have entered an era in which
``trade policy´´ includes the full range of policy, laws and
regulations that used to be considered exclusively or
primarily ``domestic policy´´ -- including domestic
agriculture programs, antitrust law, food safety,
telecommunications, natural resources conservation, labor
standards, insurance regulation, and the intersection of
effective protection of intellectual property rights with
health policy. Trade policy has become domestic policy and
vice versa in ways that have far reaching implications for how
we negotiate trade agreements and legislate domestic
rules."
The House passed its TPA bill, HR 3005,
in December of 2001. The Senate Finance
Committee passed its version of the bill later in
December. The full Senate has yet to vote on the bill. |
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| NSF Authorization Bill
Introduced |
5/7. Rep. Sherwood
Boehlert (R-NY) and others introduced HR 4664, the
National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002.
The bill would authorize 15% increases in appropriations for
each of fiscal years 2003, 2004 and 2005 for the National Science Foundation
(NSF). The bill includes increases in funding for networking
and information technology research, nanoscale science and
engineering, mathematical sciences, and major research
instrumentation.
Rep. Boehlert, the Chairman of the House Science Committee,
stated that "NSF funds research that is of critical
importance to the future of the nation's economy -- including
such areas as Information Technology and Nanotechnology, which
the Administration has emphasized in its budget proposal. NSF
funds research that is of critical importance to the nation's
security -- including work on such vital areas as
cybersecurity. NSF funds research that is of critical
importance to the nation's health and well-being -- including
genomics research and climate change research. And last, but
far from least, NSF funds research and educational activities
that are of critical importance to the nation's students; from
the kindergarten classroom to the post doctoral laboratory,
NSF is the agency that ensures that we are improving math,
science and engineering education."
The House Science Committee has scheduled a hearing on this
bill for Thursday, May 9. |
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| FCC Files Brief with
Supreme Court in Nextwave Case |
5/7. The Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) filed its brief [71
pages in PDF] with the Supreme Court of the
U.S. in FCC v. NextWave.
NextWave obtained
spectrum licenses at FCC auctions in 1996. The FCC permitted
NextWave to obtain the licenses, and make payments under an
installment plan, thus creating a debtor creditor relationship
between NextWave and the FCC. NextWave did not make payments
required by the plan, and filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy
petition. The FCC cancelled the licenses. It then proceeding
to re-auction the disputed spectrum. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir)
ruled in its June 22, 2001, opinion
that the FCC is prevented from canceling the spectrum licenses
by § 525
of the Bankruptcy Code. The FCC petitioned the Supreme Court
for writ of certiorari. The Court granted certiorari.
The FCC argues in its brief that § 525 of the Bankruptcy Code
"does not displace the FCC's exclusive regulatory
authority over spectrum licensing and the license allocation
mechanism established in 47 U.S.C.
§ 309(j)." The FCC's brief relies on cases dating
back to the first half of the 20th Century.
The FCC's brief quotes the Communications Act of 1934, at 47 U.S.C.
§ 301, which provides "for the use of such channels,
but not the ownership thereof, by persons for limited periods
of time, under licenses granted by Federal authority". It
also quotes 47 U.S.C. § 309(a), which gives the FCC authority
to issue licenses in the "public interest, convenience,
and necessity." The FCC brief then argues that
"Because of that delegation of authority, ``it is the
Commission, not the courts, which must be satisfied that the
public interest will be served´´ by authorizing an applicant
to use scarce radio spectrum. FCC v. WOKO, Inc., 329 U.S. 223,
229 (1946). Consequently, ``no court can grant an applicant an
authorization which the Commission has refused,´´ Scripps-
Howard Radio, Inc. v. FCC, 316 U.S. 4, 14 (1942) ..." |
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| FCC Reports on Consumer
Complaints |
5/7. The Federal
Communications Commission's (FCC) Consumer and Governmental
Affairs Bureau (CGB) released a report
[PDF] titled "Quarterly Report on Informal Consumer
Complaints and Inquiries Received." The report covers the
first quarter of 2002. The vast majority of the complaints
were about wireline telecommunications services.
167 complaints pertained to cable services. And of these 167
complaints, only 11 were broadband related.
270 complaints pertained to radio and television broadcasting.
Most of these complaints -- 242 -- pertained to indecent or
obscene programming.
2,978 complaints pertained to wireless telecommunications,
with 1,850 of these pertaining to billing and rates.
7,204 complaints pertained to wireline telecommunications.
3,350 of these pertained to billing and rates. The FCC did not
report statistics on the number of complaints that pertained
to DSL service. See also, FCC
release. |
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| People and Appointments |
5/7. Rep. Tom
Sawyer (D-OH) was defeated in the Democratic primary
election in his newly drawn Ohio congressional district. He is
a member of the House
Commerce Committee and its Telecom and Internet
Subcommittee and Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee.
These committees handle much of the technology related issues
in the House.
5/7. Rep. Steve Buyer
(R-IN) won his Republican primary election in his newly drawn
Indiana congressional district. He is a member of the House Commerce Committee. |
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| More News |
5/7. The U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice
in the Federal Register regarding a proposed rule that would
adjust fees. See, Federal Register, May 7, 2002, Vol. 67, No.
88, at Pages 30634 - 30637.
5/7. The Department of Justice
filed a brief in EPIC v. Office of Homeland Security, a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit, in which it argues
that the Office
of Homeland Security is not an agency within the meaning
of the FOIA, 5 U.S.C.
§ 552, and therefore, not subject to its requirements.
The Electronic Privacy
Information Center (EPIC) filed its complaint
[PDF] on April 2, 2002.
5/7. The Electronic Privacy
Information Center (EPIC) and Junkbusters filed an objection
[PDF] to the proposed
settlement in the case In re Doubleclick Privacy
Litigation. They argue that "The proposed settlement
does not provide any significant benefit to class members that
was not previously agreed to by Doubleclick as part of
its earlier agreement with the Federal
Trade Commission under the terms of the Network
Advertising Initiative". Moreover, they argue that
"the monetary reward will be provided only to the
attorneys for the private litigants; no funds from the
settlement will be distributed to any members of the class
..." This is D.C. No. 00-CIV-0641 (NRB) pending in the U.S. District Court (SNDY). |
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| About Tech Law Journal |
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Contact: 202-364-8882; E-mail.
P.O. Box 4851, Washington DC, 20008.
Privacy
Policy
Notices
& Disclaimers
Copyright 1998 - 2002 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All
rights reserved. |
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| Wednesday, May 8 |
The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business.
The Supreme Court is on recess until May 13.
9:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Telecommunications Service Priority
System Oversight Committee will meet. See, notice
in Federal Register. Location: NCS conference room, 2nd floor,
701 South Court House Road, Arlington, VA.
9:30 AM. The Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on S
1456, the Critical Infrastructure Information Security
Act of 2001, sponsored by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT).
The bill contains a Freedom of Information Act exemption to
encourage the sharing of information with the federal
government, and an antitrust exemption to encourage
cooperative efforts. Location: Room 342, Dirksen Building.
10:00 AM. The House
Judiciary Committee will hold a meeting to mark up several
bills, including HR
3482, the Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2001
and HR
3215, the Combatting Illegal Gambling Reform and
Modernization Act, also known the Goodlatte Internet
gambling bill. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Federal
Communications Bar Association's International Practice
Committee will host a roundtable discussion with David
Gross, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International
Communications and Information Policy, U.S. Department of
State. RSVP to Maggie McBride at 202 719-7101. Location: Wiley Rein & Fielding, 1750
K Street, NW.
10:00 AM. The Senate
Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing regarding reform
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of
Justice. See, notice.
Press contact: Mimi Devlin at 202 224-9437. Location: Room
226, Dirksen Building.
12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. Marybeth
Peters, Register of Copyrights, will speak at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS). For more information,
contact Joelle Laszlo at 202 775-3175 or jlaszlo @csis.org.
Location: 4th Floor Conference Room, CSIS, 1800 K St NW.
1:00 PM. Rep. Cliff
Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Commerce Committee's
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection, and
others, will hold a press conference to announce the
introduction of information privacy legislation.
Location: H-321 (House Radio and TV Gallery), Capitol
Building.
Extended deadline to submit comments to the FCC in its
proceeding titled "In the Matter of Rules and Policies
Concerning Multiple Ownership of Radio Broadcast Stations in
Local Markets Definition of Radio Markets". See, FCC
release [PDF]. |
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| Thursday, May 9 |
The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business.
10:00 AM. The House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime will meeting
to conduct a hearing on, and to mark up, HR 4623,
the Child Obscenity and Pormography Prevention Act of 2002.
Webcast. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee's
Subcommittee on Research will hold a hearing on HR 4664,
the National Science Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2002.
Press contact: Heidi Tringe Heidi.Tringe
@mail.house.gov or 202 225-4275. Webcast. Location: Room
2318, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee's
Subcommittee on Research will meet to mark up HR 3130,
the Technology Talent Act of 2001 (immediately
following the hearing on the NSF reauthorization bill). This
bill would authorized grants to be awarded on a competitive
basis to institutions of higher education to increase the
number of students studying and receiving associates or
bachelor's degrees in science, mathematics, engineering, and
technology. Press contact: Heidi Tringe Heidi.Tringe
@mail.house.gov or 202 225-4275. Webcast. Location: Room
2318, Rayburn Building.
2:00 PM. The Senate
Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on pending
judicial nominations, including Richard Clifton (U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit), Christopher Conner
(U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania),
Joy Conti (U.S. District Court for the Western District of
Pennsylvania), and John Jones (U.S. District Court for the
Middle District of Pennsylvania). Location: Room 226, Dirksen
Building.
2:00 PM. The House
Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Select Revenue
Measures will hold another hearing on the Extraterritorial
Income Regime. Location: Room 1100, Longworth Building.
Deadline to pre-register to attend the NIST's
Advanced Technology Program
(ATP) Advisory Committee meeting on May 14. The agenda
includes a discussion on universities and R&D technology
issues, a presentation on In-Q-Tel
(the CIA's Silicon Valley venture capital group), an update on
the ATP competition, and a presentation on the ATP Computer
Based Software Focus Program. Submit your name, time of
arrival, e-mail address and phone number to Carolyn Stull at carolyn.stull @nist.gov
or 301 975-5607. See, notice
in Federal Register. |
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| Friday, May 10 |
The House will meet at 9:00 AM for legislative business. No
votes are expected after 2:00 PM.
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM. The New
America Foundation and Public Knowledge
will co-host a conference titled "Protecting the
Information Commons: Asserting the Public Interest In
Copyright Law and Digital Infrastructure". The scheduled
speakers include Rep.
Rick Boucher (D-VA). RSVP to Tina Sherman at 202 986-2700
or sherman
@newamerica.net. Location: National Guard Assoc.
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. The Copyright
Office will hold "a public roundtable discussion
concerning issues raised in the course of an ongoing
rulemaking proceeding to adopt requirements for giving
copyright owners reasonable notice of the use of their works
for sound recordings under the section 114 and 112 statutory
licenses and for how records of such use shall be kept and
made available to copyright owners." See, notice
in Federal Register. Requests to attend or participate must be
submitted by close of business on Monday, May 6, 2002.
Location: Room LM620 (Dining Room A), James Madison Memorial
Building, First and Independence Avenue, SE.
9:30 AM. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (DCCir) will hear oral argument in AT&T
v. FCC, No. 01-1467, and Verizon v. FCC, No.
01-1371. Judges Ginsburg, Randolph and Tatel will preside.
Location: 333 Constitution Ave. NW.
9:30 AM - 1:00 PM. The SEC will hold
an event titled "Investor Summit" which will also be
webcast. See, SEC release.
Location: WOD Room, basement, SEC, 450 5th Street NW.
10:00 AM. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in ULead
Systems v. Lex Computer, No. 01-1320, an appeal from the U.S. District Court
(CDCal). The lower court held that U.S.
Patent No. 4,538,188 is unenforceable due to the owner's
inequitable conduct in fraudulently paying reduced small
entity maintenance fees to the USPTO when it
was not a small entity. Location: LaFayette Square, at 717
Madison Place, NW.
11:30 AM. The American
Electronics Association (AEA) will hold a press briefing
regarding the IRS's proposal to impose
payroll taxes on certain broad based stock options beginning
January 1, 2003. To participate by telephone, call 703
871-3016. See, AEA
notice. RSVP to Deanna Keim at 202 289-6700 or djkeim @abcstaff.org.
Location: AEA, 601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 6th Floor. (The
entrance is on Indiana Ave. between 6th and 7th Streets.)
12:15 PM. The The FCBA's
Wireless Committee will host a luncheon.
1:00 PM. The House
Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications
and the Internet will hold a field hearing titled
"Chatting On Line: A Dangerous Proposition for
Children." Rep.
Fred Upton (R-MI) will preside. Press contact: Ken Johnson
or Jon Tripp at 202-225-5735. Location: Kalamazoo Valley
Community College M-Tec Facility, Oshtemo, Michigan. |
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| Monday, May 13 |
| The Supreme Court of the U.S. returns from recess. |
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| Tuesday, May 14 |
8:45 AM - 3:45 PM. The NIST's
Advanced Technology Program
(ATP) Advisory Committee will hold a meeting that will be open
in part, and closed in part. The agenda includes a discussion
on universities and R&D technology issues, a presentation
on In-Q-Tel (the CIA's
Silicon Valley venture capital group), an update on the ATP
competition, and a presentation on a study on the ATP Computer
Based Software Focus Program. Pre-registration by May 9 is
required for attendance; submit your name, time of arrival,
e-mail address and phone number to Carolyn Stull at carolyn.stull @nist.gov
or 301 975-5607. See, notice
in Federal Register. Location: NIST, Administration Building,
Lecture Room A, Gaithersburg, MD.
9:00 - 11:00 AM. The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce (USCC), Ernst & Young, and the
Internet Education Foundation (IEF) will co-host forum on
online privacy and the Platform
for Privacy Preferences (P3P) created by the World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C). Rep. Adam Smith
(D-WA) will make opening remarks. There will be two panels.
The first panel will address online privacy issues; the
speakers will be Joe Rubin (USCC), Shane Ham (Progressive Policy Institute),
and Ari Schwartz (Center for
Democracy and Technology). The second panel will address
P3P; the speakers will be Martin Marshall (IBM), Marc Berejka (Microsoft), Brian Tretick
(Ernst & Young), and
Brian Zwit (AOL). RSVP by e-mail to rsvp @p3ptoolbox.org, or
call Joshua Freed (IEF) at 202 638-4370. Coffee and snacks
will be provided. Location: Herman Lay Room, USCC, 1615 H
Street, NW.
TIME CHANGE. 9:00 AM. The IRS
will hold a hearing on proposed regulations relating to tax
treatment of incentive stock options and options granted
under employee stock purchase plan. See, original
notice in the Federal Register. See also, supplemental notice
rescheduling hearing time, Federal Register. Location:
Auditorium, Internal Revenue Building, 1111 Constitution
Avenue, NW.
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM. The Antitrust
Division of the DOJ and the FTC
will hold another in their series of hearings on antitrust and
intellectual property. This event is titled "Antitrust
Analysis of Licensing Practices". At 9:00 AM there will
be a panel titled "Antitrust Analysis of Specific
Intellectual Property Licensing Practices". At 1:30 PM
there will be a panel titled "Practical Issues
Encountered in Antitrust Analysis of Licensing
Practices". The DOJ requires that attendees provide their
name and date of birth 24 hours in advance to Kathleen Leicht
at kathleen.leicht
@usdoj.gov or 202 514-7018. For more information, contact
Gina Talamona in the Office of Public Affairs at 202 514-2007,
or Frances Marshall in the Antitrust Division at 202 305-2520.
Location: Great Hall, DOJ, Main Building, 950 Pennsylvania
Ave., NW.
10:00 AM. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the Senate Commerce
Committee will hold a joint hearings on communications
issues in Indian country.
Deadline to submit oppositions and responses to the FCC in its
AT&T Comcast merger review proceeding. This proceeding is
titled "In the Matter of Applications for Consent to the
Transfer of Control of Licenses, Comcast Corporation and
AT&T Corp., Transferors, To AT&T Comcast Corporation,
Transferee". See, FCC
notice. |
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