7/31. The House considered HR 3120 [LOC | WW], the "Student Visa Reform Act", HR 6029 [LOC | WW], the "Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act of 2012", HR 6063 [LOC | WW], the "Child Protection Act of 2012", and HR 4362 [LOC | WW], the "STOP Identity Theft Act of 2012". The House debated these bills late in the day, and postponed votes until Wednesday, August 1.

7/31. The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) held an executive session at which it approved S 3410 [LOC | WW], a bill to extend the "Undertaking Spam, Spyware, And Fraud Enforcement with Enforcers beyond Borders Act of 2006", which is also known as the "SAFE WEB Act". The House Commerce Committee (HCC) is scheduled to mark up its version of this legislation, HR 6131 [LOC | WW], on Wednesday, August 1.

7/31. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released an Order [23 pages in PDF] implementing the public safety spectrum provisions of the "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012", enacted in February.

This act requires the creation of an interoperable public safety broadband network using the existing public safety broadband spectrum (763-769 MHz/793-799 MHz) and the D Block (758-763 MHz/788-793 MHz). See, stories titled "Obama Signs Spectrum Bill into Law" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,345, February 23, 2012, "House and Senate Negotiators Reach Agreement on Spectrum Legislation", "Summary of Spectrum Bill", and "Reaction to Spectrum Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,339, February 17, 2012, and story titled "House and Senate Pass Spectrum Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,340, February 18, 2012.

The order notes that before passage of the act, "some public safety jurisdictions were on the verge of implementing statewide or regional networks designed ultimately to support such nationwide interoperability".

The order approves the interoperability showings of the Harris County, Texas and the City of Charlotte, North Carolina.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wrote in his statement that this order "provides a well-defined path for obtaining Special Temporary Authority (STA) where it is warranted and consistent with the statute."

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell only concurred. He wrote in his statement that "I am disappointed with the one-size-fits-all approach set forth here."

He wrote that "Ideally, the Commission would have addressed the existing public safety build-out waivers, as well as the pending requests for waiver, on a case-by-case basis back in March, immediately following passage of the Public Safety Spectrum Act. Acting quickly would have allowed the stakeholders a meaningful opportunity to socialize the legislation and its effect – internally with their management teams, their lenders, and their equipment vendors – and externally, with local government officials and Commission staff. Instead, given the significant passage of time, the Commission has found itself in an untenable position: It can only sweep away all of the waivers, along with the pending requests, and establish a process to obtain a “limited” Special Temporary Authorization (STA) only “in very few instances” where the highly subjective criteria set forth in the order are met."

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai wrote in his statement that he only concurs in the bulk of the order "due to the decision to terminate existing leases on September 2 -- just one month from now -- in favor of the prospect of agency granted special temporary authority (STA) that could enable lessees to finish building out and start operating their networks. Federal law does not mandate this result."

This order is FCC 12-85 in PS Docket No. 12-94, WT Docket No. 06-150, and PS Docket No. 06-229. The FCC adopted its on July 30, 2012, and released it on July 31, 2012.

7/25. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced S 3433 [LOC | WW], the "Radio Spectrum Inventory Act of 2012 ". This bill would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to conduct a spectrum inventory. Similar bills have been introduced in the House and Senate for years.

This bill provides that within one year of enactment, and biennially thereafter, the FCC, in consultation with the NTIA and the Executive Office of the President's (EOP) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), shall prepare "a report that includes an inventory of each radio spectrum band, from 300 Megahertz to 6.5 Gigahertz, at a minimum, managed by each such agency".

These report "shall include ... the licensee or Federal Government user authorized in the band", "the total spectrum authorized for each licensee or Federal Government user ... in the band", and "the approximate number of transmitters, end-user terminals, or receivers, excluding unintended radiators, that have been deployed or authorized, for each licensee or Federal Government user, in the band".

Then, the FCC shall create "a centralized portal or website utilizing data from the Commission and the NTIA to make a centralized inventory of the bands of each agency available to the public via an Internet-accessible and searchable website".

The bill also provides for the withholding of information for national security or law enforcement reasons.

The bill was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee (SCC).

Sen. Snowe (at right) stated that "A comprehensive inventory is a critical step in reforming our spectrum policy and management. The FCC manages over 2 million active licenses and NTIA administers more than 450,000 frequency assignments. And while I appreciate the FCC's effort in conducting a ``baseline´´ inventory and NTIA's evaluation -- both the fast track and ten year plan -- I do not believe they are sufficient substitutes to conducting a full inventory since those efforts were limited in scope and seemingly didn't capture or make available more detailed data on spectrum use." See, Congressional Record, July 25, 2012, at Page S5385.

She added that "if we are to examine Federal use, we must also look at non-Federal use in order to gain a truly comprehensive picture and understanding of the heterogeneous spectrum ecosystem."

She concluded that "The ultimate goals this legislation sets the path towards achieving are to implement more efficient use of spectrum and to locate additional spectrum to meet the future demands of all spectrum users--commercial, Federal, and military. A comprehensive inventory would yield a significant amount more of data that would be extremely useful for conducting measurements, implementing more robust management, and developing greater strategic planning of spectrum resources."

112th Congress. This proposal has been introduced in many stand alone bills, and as a component of larger spectrum bills.

For example, Sen. Snowe and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) introduced S 455 [LOC | WW] the "Reforming Airwaves by Developing Incentives and Opportunistic Sharing Act" or "RADIOS Act", on March 2, 2011. The substantive language of the just introduced bill is similar, but not identical, to Section 3 of the RADIOS Act.

HR 2482 [LOC | WW], the "Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act " is a huge bill introduced by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) on July 11, 2011. The language in Section 501 is similar, but not identical, to the just introduced bill.

HR 911 [LOC | WW], the "Spectrum Inventory and Auction Act of 2011", introduced by Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) on March 3, 2011, contains different inventory language.

111th Congress. In the 111th Congress, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced HR 3125 [LOC | WW] and Sen. Kerry introduced S 649 [LOC | WW], both titled the "Radio Spectrum Inventory Act".

The SCC amended and approved one version on July 8, 2009. The SCC approved another version on March 9, 2010. See, story titled "Senate Commerce Committee Reports Radio Spectrum Inventory Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,059, March 19, 2010. However, the full Senate did not pass a bill.

Rep. Waxman and others introduced the House bill on July 8, 2009. See, story titled "Representatives Introduce Spectrum Inventory Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,968, July 9, 2009. The House Commerce Committee's (HCC) Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet amended and approved HR 3125 on January 21, 2010. See, story titled "House Communications Subcommittee Approves Spectrum Bills" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,038, January 25, 2010. The full HCC amended and approved the bill on March 10, 2010. See, story titled "House Commerce Committee Approves Radio Spectrum Inventory Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,059, March 19, 2010. The House passed the bill on April 14, 2010. See, story titled "House Passes Radio Spectrum Inventory Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,078, April 15, 2010. The Senate did not pass the House bill.

7/30. The House Commerce Committee (HCC) released a paper titled "Promises Made, Promises Broken: The Obama Administration’s Disappointing Transparency Track Record".

It states that "In October 2008, then Senator Obama and his surrogates repeatedly stated that meetings between lobbyists and the staff of regulatory agencies should be made public." But then, for example, "A White House official specifically organized meetings related to the LightSquared/GPS interference dispute off White House grounds in order to avoid public disclosure on the visitors' logs."

Moreover, the paper states that White House officials use personal e-mail accounts to avoid creating an electronic record.

It might also be noted that while the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rules that allow entities and people to make ex parte communications, it requires them to minimally disclose such contacts. However, these rules exempt communications with members of Congress and Congressional committees. Neither the FCC nor the Congress disclose all such meetings and contacts.

Moreover, the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the Congress's ethics rules do not hold members of Congress and lobbyists to the same standards of transparency that this report faults the Executive Office of the President for violating.

7/30. The Senate rejected a motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Robert Bacharach to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals (10thCir) by a vote of 56-34. See, Roll Call No. 186.

7/30. The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) approved the nomination of Patricia Falcone to be Associate Director of the Executive Office of the President's (EOP) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

7/31. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced in a release that it has selected nine more law schools to join the Trademark Law School Clinic Certification Pilot Program.

7/30. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released a notice to be published in the Federal Register that announced and describes rules adopted, pursuant to the America Invents Act, regarding USPTO disciplinary actions. See also, USPTO release.

7/23. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division filed with the U.S. District Court (DC) comments that it received in response to its Tunney Act notice regarding settlements in its e-books antitrust action against Apple and e-book publishers. See, DOJ web page with hyperlinks to comments. The DOJ also filed with the District Court its response [66 pages in PDF]. This pertains to the proposed final judgment as to the settling defendants, Hachette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster. Apple and other e-book publishers continue to contest the action. See, story titled "DOJ Sues Apple and Book Publishers Alleging E-Book Price Collusion" and related stories in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,368, April 11, 2012.

The House will meet at 12:00 NOON for morning hour, and at 2:00 PM for legislative business. The House will consider numerous items under suspension of the rules, including HR 3120 [LOC | WW], the "Student Visa Reform Act", HR 6029 [LOC | WW], the "Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act of 2012", HR 6063 [LOC | WW], the "Child Protection Act of 2012", and HR 4362 [LOC | WW], the "STOP Identity Theft Act of 2012". Votes will be postponed until 6:30 PM. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule for the week.

The Senate will meet at 10:00 AM. It may resume consideration of S 3414 [ LOC | WW | PDF], the "Cybersecurity Act of 2012".

10:00 AM. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's (SHSGAC) Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management will hold a hearing titled "State of Federal Privacy and Data Security Law: Lagging Behind the Times?". The witnesses will be Mary Ellen Callahan (DHS Chief Privacy Officer), Greg Long (Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board), Greg Wilshusen (Government Accountability Office), Peter Swire (Ohio State University law school), Chris Calabrese (ACLU), and Paul Rosenzweig (Heritage Foundation). See, notice. Location: Room 628, Dirksen Building.

DATE AND TIME CHANGE. 12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host a panel discussion titled "Powering the Mobile Revolution: Principles of Spectrum Allocation". The speakers will be Richard Bennett (ITIF), Christopher McCabe (CTIA), Morgan Reed (Association for Competitive Technology), John Liebovitz (FCC), David Redl (House Commerce Committee staff) and Thomas Power (OSTP). See, notice. Location: Room B-318, Rayburn Building.

2:30 PM. The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) will meet in executive session. The agenda includes consideration of S 3410 [LOC | WW], a bill to extend the "Undertaking Spam, Spyware, And Fraud Enforcement with Enforcers beyond Borders Act of 2006", which is also known as the "SAFE WEB Act". The agenda also includes consideration of the nomination of Patricia Falcone to be Associate Director of the Executive Office of the President's (EOP) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). See, notice. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

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

4:00 PM. The House Commerce Committee (HCC) will begin its mark up of four bills, including HR 6131 [LOC | WW], a bill to extend the "Undertaking Spam, Spyware, And Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers Beyond Borders Act of 2006" or "SAFE WEB Act". The HCC will hear opening statements of members on July 31. See, notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for morning hour and at 2:00 PM for legislative business. The House will hold postponed suspension votes on HR 3120 [LOC | WW], the "Student Visa Reform Act", HR 6029 [LOC | WW], the "Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act of 2012", HR 6063 [LOC | WW], the "Child Protection Act of 2012", and HR 4362 [LOC | WW], the "STOP Identity Theft Act of 2012". See, Rep. Cantor's schedule.

The Senate will meet at 9:30 AM. It may resume consideration of S 3414 [LOC | WW | PDF], the "Cybersecurity Act of 2012".

9:30 AM. Two Subcommittees of the House Ways and Means Committee (HWMC) will hold a hearing on removing social security numbers from Medicare cards. See, notice. Location: Room 1100, Longworth Building.

10:00 AM. The House Commerce Committee (HCC) will meet to mark four bills. The fourth item on the agenda is HR 6131 [LOC | WW], a bill to extend the "Undertaking Spam, Spyware, And Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers Beyond Borders Act of 2006" or "SAFE WEB Act". See, notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The House Judiciary Committee (HJC) will meet to mark up numerous bills. The first item on the agenda is HR 6215 [LOC | WW], an untitled bill to amend the Trademark Act regarding remedies for dilution. See, notice. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee's (HSC) Subcommittee on Research and Science Education will hold a hearing titled "The Relationship Between Business and Research Universities: Collaborations Fueling American Innovation and Job Creation". The witnesses will be William Green (Accenture), Ray Johnson (Lockheed Martin Corporation), John Hickman (Deere and Company), and Jilda Garton (Georgia Tech Research Corporation). The HSC will webcast this event. See, notice. Location: Room 2318, Rayburn Building.

2:30 PM. The House Judiciary Committee's (HJC) Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will hold a hearing on HR 3889 [LOC | WW], the "Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade, and Sales Act", or "PARTS Act". This bill, sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), would amend the Patent Act to provide an exemption from infringement for certain component parts of motor vehicles. The witnesses will be Neal Menefee (Rockingham Group), Kelly Burris (Brinks Hofer), and Jack Gillis (Consumer Federation of America). See, notice. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

2:30 PM. The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) will hold a hearing on legislation that would give states authority to impose and collect sales taxes from distant internet sellers. See, notice. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for morning hour and at 2:00 PM for legislative business. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule for the week.

9:30 - 11:00 AM. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will give a speech titled "Will the Real Internet Freedom Please Stand Up". See, notice. Location: Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold an executive business meeting. The agenda again includes consideration of S 225 [LOC | WW], the "Access to Information About Missing Children Act of 2011". The agenda also again includes consideration of three U.S. District Court nominees: Jon Tigar (USDC/NDCal), William Orrick (USDC/NDCal), and Thomas Durkin (USDC/NDIll). The SJC will webcast this event. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

1:00 - 2:30 PM. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host a panel discussion titled "New Age of Discovery: Government’s Role in Transformative Innovation". The speakers will include former Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Kathleen Kingscott (IBM), Eric Toone (ARPA-E), and Arun Majumdar (ARPA-E). See, notice. Location: ITIF/ITIC, Suite 610A, 1101 K St., NW.

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

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

The House will not meet on the weeks of Monday, August 6, through Friday, August 10, Monday, August 13, through Friday, August 17, Monday, August 20, through Friday, August 24, Monday, August 27, through Friday, August 31, or Monday, September 3, through Friday, August 7.

The Senate will not meet on the weeks of Monday, August 6, through Friday, August 10, Monday, August 13, through Friday, August 17, Monday, August 20, through Friday, August 24, Monday, August 27, through Friday, August 31, or Monday, September 3, through Friday, August 7.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Accenture Global Services v. Guidewire Software, App. Ct. No. 2011-1486, an appeal from the U.S. District Court (NDCal) in a patent infringement case. Location: Courtroom 201.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [182 pages in PDF] regarding its collection of universal service taxes. The FCC adopted this item on April 27, 2012, and released the text on April 30. It is FCC 12-46 in WC Docket Nos. 06-122 and GN Docket No. 09-51. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 110, Thursday, June 7, 2012, at Pages 33896-33944.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [22 pages in PDF] regarding creating a Do-Not-Call registry for public safety answering points (PSAPs). The FCC adopted this item on May 21, 2012, and released the text on May 22. It is FCC 12-56 in CG Docket No. 12-129. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 120, Thursday, June 21, 2012, Pages 37362-37367.

10:00 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) will hear oral argument in Trans Video Electronics v. Sony Electronics, App. Ct. No.2012-1110, an appeal from the U.S. District Court (NDCal) in a patent infringement case involving video distribution technology, D.C. No. 09-civ-3304. Location: Courtroom 201.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a presentation titled "Ethics of E-Mail and Social Media". The speaker will be Thomas Spahn (McGuire Woods). The price to attend ranges from $89 to $129. Reporters are barred from attending most DC Bar events. CLE credits. See, notice. For more information, call 202-626-3488. Location: DC Bar Conference Center, 1101 K St., NW.

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