7/27. The House Judiciary Committee (HJC) began its mark up of HR 1981 [LOC | WW], the data retention bill.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the Chairman of the HJC, introduced this bill on May 25, 2011. For a summary of the bill as introduced, see story titled "Summary of HR 1981, Data Retention Mandate Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,257, July 13, 2011.

The HJC held a hearing on the bill on July 12. See, story titled "House Crime Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Data Retention Bill" also in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,257, July 13, 2011.

On July 26 the HJC released a manager's amendment (MA) in advance of the July 27 mark up. For a summary of this MA, see story titled "Summary of Manager's Amendment to Data Retention Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,271, July 27, 2011.

On July 27 the HJC amended and approved this MA, and recessed until July 28 to continue the mark up.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) offered four amendments to the MA on July 27, only one of which was approved.

The MA reduces the minimum retention period from 18 to 12 months. The HJC rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Scott that would have further reduced the time period to 180 days. The roll call vote was 12-14. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) all condemned the bill, and voted for this amendment, along with Rep. Scott, and eight other Democrats.

Some proponents of the bill have asserted, with much misrepresentation, that the nature and purpose of the bill is to enable law enforcement authorities to investigate child pornography (CP) cases. Rather, the bill would codify a surveillance regime, based upon mandating the collection and retention of data by internet access service providers about their customers and users, with access by law enforcement authorities, to further the investigation and prosecution of a wide range of crimes.

Hence, Rep. Scott offered an amendment that would have limited access to data collected and retained pursuant to the bill to CP cases, and other cases involving crimes against children. Rep. Smith opposed the amendment on the grounds that retained data must be available in other cases too. Rep. Scott responded that he had exposed the purported purpose of the bill as misleading, and withdrew the amendment.

Rep. Scott offered an amendment that would require the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct a study of the costs that would be imposed by the bill. Rep. Smith supported it, and it was approved by unanimous voice vote.

Rep. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted certain small service providers. Rep. Smith promised to work with Rep. Scott on this issue. Rep. Scott then withdrew the amendment.

The HJC then approved the MA, as amended, by a roll call vote of 19-4. Only Rep. Scott, Rep. Sensenbrenner, Rep. Chaffetz, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) voted no. (Rep. Issa was not present.)

Rep. Cohen offered an amendment to the base bill changing language regarding sentencing guidelines in CP cases. It was approved by unanimous voice vote. This section is in the bill to substantiate the assertion that this bill is about fighting CP. It is not technology related.

The HJC recessed after this vote until 4:00 PM. The HJC returned from this recess at 4:00 PM. However, unable to come close to a quorum by 4:15 PM, Rep. Smith recessed the mark up until 11:00 AM on Thursday, July 28.

Rep. Smith told reporters after the mark up on July 27, stated that "the major amendments are behind us". He also said the he did not know when the full House might take up the bill.

See also, Rep. Smith's opening statement, and statement on his manager's amendment.

7/27. The Attorneys General of the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming sent a letter to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) encouraging them to approve AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

They wrote that "AT&T has committed to investing more than $8 billion to integrate the two companies' networks and deploy 4G LTE to 97% of the population. This will result in expanded LTE deployment to 55 million more Americans than the pre-merger plans. The faster speeds and higher capacity will put advanced new services and capabilities -- like telemedicine, distance learning, cloud computing, mobile video conferencing and many others -- in the hands of many more of our citizens, students, businesses and civil servants, including those living in small towns and rural and underserved areas."

The also wrote that "The undersigned Attorneys General join 26 Governors; 10 national unions such as the Communications Workers of America, the AFL-CIO and the National Education Association; major high tech companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Facebook, Nokia, Qualcomm and Research In Motion; prominent venture capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and Charles River Ventures; and organizations as diverse as the Sierra Club, NAACP, National Black Farmers Association and The National Grange in support of the proposed merger of AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA."

They added that "this merger may raise competitive concerns in some discrete local markets", so the DOJ or FCC "may impose targeted remedies".

Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff stated in a release that "Approving the merger will help conquer the digital divide between rural and urban America".

Arkansas's Attorney General Dustin McDaniel stated in a release that "My primary concern is my hope that federal regulators do not require the divestiture of much-needed spectrum capacity."

The Free Press issued a release that states that these Attorneys General have been duped.

The FCC's proceeding is WT Docket No. 11-65.

7/28. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not released a report titled "LightSquared Aviation Impacts". However, several news publications have reported on such a report, and purported copies have been published in various web sites.

See, for example, July 28, 2011, Wall Street Journal article titled "LightSquared Bid Stirs FAA Worry", and copy of purported report [6 pages in PDF] in Government Executive.

LightSquared's proposed wireless service would use a spectrum band adjacent to that used for GPS.

The above hyperlinked document states that "LightSquared's initial operations at the lower 10 MHz channel even at "reduced" power levels would impact the aviation use of high-precision GPS receivers." It also states that "LightSquared's planned operations would result in the loss of GPS-enabled operational, economic, and public safety benefits across the National Airspace System."

Also, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski sent a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) on July 26, 2011, in response to Sen. Grassley's letter of July 5, regarding LightSquared's proposed wireless service.

Sen. Grassley issued a statement on July 27, in which he wrote that "It's ironic that a communications agency has such a clampdown on its own communications. The issue is whether the FCC will operate voluntarily as an open, transparent institution or whether it will withhold documents from congressional review unless legally forced to comply. Refusing a legitimate request in the public interest should require more justification than `we don’t have to.´ What is the FCC hiding?"

See also, Sen. Grassley's letter of April 27.

Also, the House Science Committee (HSC) is scheduled to hold a hearing titled "Impacts of the LightSquared Network on Federal Science Activities" on August 3, 2011, at 10:00 AM.

7/18. Lawrence Strickling, head of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), gave a speech in Washington DC regarding internet governance, the ICANN Board meeting in June, and the OECD's "Communique on Principles for Internet Policy-Making".

Strickling (at right) said that "we have seen more and more instances of restrictions on the free flow of information online, disputes between various standards bodies and even appeals from incumbent carriers in Europe for government intervention on the terms and conditions for exchanging Internet traffic".

He said that "A top priority of the Obama Administration, and in particular, NTIA, is to preserve and enhance the multistakeholder model that has been a hallmark feature of the global Internet institutions that have been responsible for the success of the Internet. Maintaining the openness, transparency, and user choice of today’s Internet can only be sustained and advanced in a world where all stakeholders participate in relevant decision making, not one where governments, or other stakeholders, dominate."

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors, meeting in Singapore on June 24, adopted numerous resolutions.

Strickling said in his June 18 speech that "I am very pleased by the Board's action, which demonstrates a commitment to improving the accountability and transparency of ICANN and to the multistakeholder process of Internet policymaking. Now the focus turns to ICANN management and staff, who must take up the challenge of implementing these recommendations as rapidly as possible and in a manner that leads to meaningful and lasting reform."

The ICANN Board also acted on June 24 to greatly expand the number of generic top level domains, or gTLDs. See also, ICANN release.

Strickling commented on the process followed by the ICANN in making this decision. "In response to long-standing concerns held by governments about the expansion proposal, the ICANN Board held a number of focused exchanges with the Government Advisory Committee to resolve as many of the issues as possible."

He noted that not all of the GAC proposals were implemented, and added that "More important is the fact that the ICANN Board now recognizes the need to bring governments into its multistakeholder policymaking in a more meaningful way. If we are to combat the proposals put forward by others, such as to grant the International Telecommunication Union the authority to veto ICANN Board decisions, we need to ensure that our multistakeholder institutions have provided a meaningful role for governments as stakeholders."

On June 29 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) adopted and released a short statement [6 pages in PDF] titled "Communique on Principles for Internet Policy-Making". See, stories titled "OECD Releases Recommendations for Internet Laws, Policies and Practices" and "OECD, Online Copyright Infringement, and Internet Intermediaries" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,253, July 1, 2011.

Strickling said that this document "reflects a growing global consensus on the value of the multistakeholder approach towards addressing Internet challenges. The principles are not intended to harmonize global law, but rather provide a common framework for companies and governments as they consider Internet policy issues."

He concluded that the U.S. "is most assuredly opposed to establishing a governance structure for the Internet that would be managed and controlled by nation-states. Such a structure could lead to the imposition of heavy-handed and economically misguided regulation and the loss of flexibility the current system allows today, all of which would jeopardize the growth and innovation we have enjoyed these past years. The OECD's policymaking principles are perhaps the clearest statement yet that the United States and like-minded nations oppose treaty-binding regulation of the Internet.

7/27. The Senate confirmed Robert Mueller for a two year extension of his ten year term as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by a vote of 100-0. See, Roll Call No. 118. His term was set to expire on August 2, 2011.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sponsored and worked for enactment of S 1103 [LOC | WW], the bill which enabled this extension. He stated in the Senate on July 27 that "Since taking over as FBI Director just days before the attacks of September 11, 2001, Director Mueller has overseen and guided the Bureau through a major transformation and evolution. Although the transformation has not been without problems, Director Mueller has consistently displayed professionalism and focus in increasing the FBI's national security and counterterrorism efforts, while still carrying out the Bureau’s essential law enforcement responsibilities." See, statement.

By statute, FBI Directors are appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate for one ten year term, and "may not serve more than one ten-year term". See, 28 U.S.C. § 532 note. S 1103 enabled the President to extend Mueller's term by two years. All subsequent Directors will have ten year terms.

See also, stories titled:

• "House Passes Bill to Extend Term of FBI Director Mueller" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,270, July 26, 2011.
• "Senate Approves Bill to Extend FBI Director Mueller's Term" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,266, July 22, 2011.
• "Sen. Leahy Urges Senate to Pass Bill to Extend FBI Director Mueller's Term" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,264, July 20, 2011.
• "Sen. Leahy Introduces Bill to Extend Mueller's Term" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,246, May 27, 2011.
• "Obama Wants to Extend Mueller's Term" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,240, May 13, 2011

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for morning hour, and at 12:00 NOON for legislative business. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule.

The Senate will meet at 10:00 AM.

8:30 AM - 5:30 PM. Broadband Census News LLC and others will host an event titled "Telecom 2018 Workshop". The topic will be the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Technical Advisory Committee's (TAC) recommendation for setting a date for sunsetting the PSTN. See, event web site. Location: Wiley Rein, 1776 K St., NW.

9:00 AM. Day one of a two day meeting of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC). The July 28 portion of the meeting is closed. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 130, Thursday, July 7, 2011, at Pages 39845-39846. Location: Room 3884, DOC, 14th Street between Constitution and Pennsylvania Aves., NW.

TIME CHANGE. 10:00 AM. 11:00 AM. Day two of a three day meeting of the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) to mark up bills. The HJC will resume its mark up of HR 1981 [LOC | WW], the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011", a bill to mandate data retention. See, stories titled "House Crime Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Data Retention Bill", "Summary of HR 1981, Data Retention Bill", and "Summary of Existing Data Retention Mandates" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,257, July 13, 2011. The fourth item on the agenda is HR 83 [LOC | WW], the "Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act of 2011". See, story titled "House Judiciary Committee to Mark Up Data Retention and Bullying Bills" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,267, July 23, 2011. See, notice. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The House Intelligence Committee (HIC) will hold an event titled "Consideration of Member Request to Access Classified Information". See, notice. Location: Room HVC-304, Capitol Building.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Intelligence Committee (HIC) will hold a closed hearing titled "Ongoing Intelligence Activities". See, notice. Location: Room HVC-304, Capitol Building.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold an executive business meeting. The agenda again includes consideration of Steve Six (to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit). The revised agenda adds consideration of Morgan Christen (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit), and four District Court nominees: Yvonne Rogers (USDC/NDCal), Richard Andrews (USDC/DDel), Scott Skavdahl (USDC/DWyo), and Sharon Gleason (USDC/DAk). The SJC will webcast this event. See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a webcast panel discussion titled "The First Sale Doctrine After Costco and Vernor: Where Do We Go from Here?". The speakers will be Scott Bain (Software and Information Industry Association), Andrew Berger (Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt), and William Dunnegan (Dunnegan LLC). Prices vary. CLE credits. See, notice.

12:30 PM. Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) will give a speech. Sold out. Prices vary. Lunch will be served. Location: Ballroom, National Press Club, 13th floor, 529 14th St., NW.

1:00 PM. The US Telecom will host a webcast presentation titled "Turning Wi-Fi into a Viable Extension of Your Mobile Broadband Offering". Free, See, notice.

2:30 PM. The Senate Intelligence Committee (SIC) will hold a closed hearing. See, notice. Location: Room 219, Hart Building.

The House will meet at 9:00 AM for legislative business. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule.

8:30 AM. The Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is scheduled to release its advance estimate of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, 2nd Quarter 2011. See, BEA schedule.

9:30 AM. Day three of a three day meeting of the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) to mark up bills. The first of five items on the agenda is HR 1981 [LOC | WW], the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011", a bill to mandate data retention. See, stories titled "House Crime Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Data Retention Bill", "Summary of HR 1981, Data Retention Bill", and "Summary of Existing Data Retention Mandates" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,257, July 13, 2011. The fourth item is HR 83 [LOC | WW], the "Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act of 2011". See, story titled "House Judiciary Committee to Mark Up Data Retention and Bullying Bills" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,267, July 23, 2011. See, notice. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

12:15 - 1:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Young Lawyers Committee will host a brown bag lunch titled "A Reduced History of Telecom Regulation: From the Railroads and the Titanic to iPad Snooki". The speaker will be Dan Brenner (Hogan Lovells). For more information, contact Evan Morris at Evan dot Morris at harris dot com, Mark Brennan at Mark dot Brennan at hoganlovells dot com, or Brendan Carr at BCarr at wileyrein dot com. Location: Wiley Rein, 1776 K St., NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division (CSD) regarding its draft SP 800-63 Revision 1 [110 pages in PDF] titled "Electronic Authentication Guideline".

Rep. Cantor's schedule for the House states that "Members are advised a weekend session is possible".

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the report submitted to the FCC on June 30, 2011, by the technical working group co-chaired by LightSquared and the U.S. Global Positioning System Industry Council (USGIC). See, FCC International Bureau's (IB) order dated June 30, 2011. It is DA 11-1133 in DA 11-1133. See also report, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, and part 7.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division (CSD) regarding its draft SP 800-90 A [135 pages in PDF] titled "Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators".

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division (CSD) regarding its draft NIST IR-7802 [25 pages in PDF] titled "Trust Model for Security Automation Data 1.0".

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division (CSD) regarding its draft SP 800-126 Rev. 2 [51 pages in PDF] titled "The Technical Specification for the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP): SCAP Version 1.2".

Deadline for the federal government to raise the limit on federal borrowing.

9:00 AM. The Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) Materials Processing Equipment Technical Advisory Committee (MPETAC) will hold a partially closed meeting. See, notice in the Federal Register Vol. 76, No. 138, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, at Pages 42678-42679. Location: DOC, Hoover Building, Room 3884,14th Street between Pennsylvania and Constitution Aves., NW.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold a hearing titled "Cybercrime: Updating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to Protect Cyberspace and Combat Emerging Threats". The witnesses will be James Baker (DOJ's Associate Deputy Attorney General) and Pablo Martinez (U.S. Secret Service). See, notice. The SJC will webcast this event. Location Room 226, Dirksen Bulding.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee (HSC) will hold a hearing titled "Impacts of the LightSquared Network on Federal Science Activities". See, notice. Location: Room 2318, Rayburn Building.

EXTENDED FROM JULY 5. Extended deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Inquiry (NOI) [46 pages in PDF] regarding how its rules and policies could be modified to provide greater economic, market entry, communication adoption opportunities, and incentives for Native Nations. This notice is FCC 11-30 in CG Docket No. 11-41. The FCC adopted it on March 3, 2011, and released the text on March 4, 2011. See, notice in the Federal Register: April 5, 2011, Vol. 76, No. 65, at Pages 18759-18761. See also, extension notice (DA 11-873).

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response its 3rd Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [110 pages in PDF] regarding extensive revisions to its Part 11 rules governing the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The FCC adopted this NPRM on May 25, 2011, and released the text on May 26, 2011. It is FCC 11-82 in EB Docket No. 04-296. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 118, Monday, June 20, 2011, at Pages 35810-35831.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Public Notice regarding whether certain docketed FCC proceedings should be terminated as dormant. See, June 3, 2011, Public Notice (DA 11-992 in CG Docket No. 11-99), and notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 118, Monday, June 20, 2011, at Pages 35892-35893.

7/27. Stuart Goldberg was named Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, and David O'Neil was named Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General, James Cole. See, Department of Justice (DOJ) release.

7/27. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a notice in the Federal Register that announces, describes, recites, and sets the effective date (July 27, 2011) for, its rules changes relating to the election for claiming the reduced research credit. See, Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 144, Wednesday, July 27, 2011, at Pages 44800-44802.

7/27. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Media Bureau (MB) announced, but did not release, three more staff reports regarding ownership of media. See, FCC release. The titles and authors are:
 • "Media Ownership Study 2, Consumer Valuation of Media as a Function of Local Market Structure", by Scott Savage and Donald Waldman.
 • "Media Ownership Study 8A, Local Media Ownership and Viewpoint Diversity in Local Television News", by Adam Rennhoff and Kenneth Wilbur.
 • "Media Ownership Study 8B, Diversity in Local Television News", by Lisa George and Felix Gee.

7/26. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) sent a letter to Groupon regarding the July 11, 2011, article in the Washington Post titled "Groupon changes privacy policy to collect, share more information". The letter propounds numerous interrogatories to be answered by August 10, 2011. See also, Rep. Markey's release.

Tech Law Journal publishes a free access web site and a subscription e-mail alert. The basic rate for a subscription to the TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert is $250 per year for a single recipient. There are discounts for subscribers with multiple recipients.

Free one month trial subscriptions are available. Also, free subscriptions are available for federal elected officials, and employees of the Congress, courts, and executive branch. The TLJ web site is free access. However, copies of the TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert are not published in the web site until two months after writing.

For information about subscriptions, see subscription information page.

Tech Law Journal now accepts credit card payments. See, TLJ credit card payments page.

TLJ is published by David Carney
Contact: 202-364-8882.
carney at techlawjournal dot com
3034 Newark St. NW, Washington DC, 20008.

Privacy Policy
Notices & Disclaimers
Copyright 1998-2011 David Carney. All rights reserved.