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FARNET Washington Update
- From: Jeff.Ogden
- Date: Fri Mar 31 17:49:10 1995
There are three issues of the FARNET Washington Update
included here. Most replies that I got when I posted
my first copy of this asked that I continue to send them
out. Two people asked that I setup a separate list.
I'll look into creating a separate list, but until I
do that, I'll continue sending this information out
to these lists.
-Jeff Ogden
Merit/MichNet
_________________________________________________________________
Message: 44180820, 149 lines
Posted: 10:05am EST, Fri Mar 17/95, imported: 10:06am EST, Fri Mar 17/95
Subject: FARNET Washington Update
To: Jeff Ogden, members@farnet.org
From: heather@farnet.org
FARNET Washington Update --- March 17, 1995
IN THIS ISSUE:
Telecom Reform
Telecom reform legislation set for markup in Senate
House Telecommunications & Finance subcom. ready to introduce draft
Congressional Funding
Rescissions Bill passes House after floor rules struggle
NTIA, Dept. of Ed rescissions cut "information superhighway" funds
NSF finds little opposition to FY96 budget proposals
Patrolling the Internet
Rep. Tim Johnson's H.R. 1004 is counterpart to Exon's S.314
Federal procurement
Post FTS2000 acquisition program up for review
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TELECOM REFORM LEGISLATION SET FOR MARKUP IN SENATE
Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Commerce committee have agreed on
80% of the issues between their telecommunications reform bill drafts.
Points resolved include interconnection and universal service provisions,
and it looks like there may be a compromise soon on the issue of RBOC entry
into long-distance markets.
The long-distance compromise appears to be a "rotating date certain"
provision, which would require the FCC to evaluate every six months whether
a RBOC's local market was sufficiently open to competition or not. There
would be no specific date by which RBOCs must open the local market, but
they would be denied access to the long-distance market until they did.
Until now, the Democrats have been pushing a "sufficient competition test"
and the Republicans a "date certain" test with early entry for early
competition.
The final sticking point in this compromise may be that the Democrats want
the Justice Department to participate in the evaluation process along with
the FCC. There is also disagreement over foreign ownership provisions and
whether cable should be deregulated.
On Tues. March 21, members of the Senate Commerce Committee will release
the compromise bill in a full committee hearing. A markup session (where
the committee considers amendments to, rejects provisions of, and hopefully
approves, the piece of legislation) has been scheduled for Thurs. March 23.
Commerce Committee Chairman Pressler believes, however, that it "will take
a while" to markup the bill, predicting that much of the final language
will be worked on in Conference with the House.
HOUSE TELECOMMUNICATIONS & FINANCE SUBCOMMITTEE READY TO INTRODUCE DRAFT
Rep. Mike Oxley (R-OH) said that the subcommittee would be ready to
introduce their version of the telecom reform bill early next week. As
noted in previous Updates, the House is starting from last year's H.R. 3636
and working in a much more bipartisan manner. No hearings have been
scheduled yet in the House on this matter.
RESCISSIONS BILL PASSES HOUSE AFTER "FLOOR RULES" STRUGGLE
The House yesterday passed (227-200) a bill to rescind $17B from unspent
FY95 funds. The bill only came to a vote on the House floor after both
Democrats and Republicans were forced to concede several issues. The
Democrats were defeated in their attempts to be allowed to offer several
amendments to the bill on the floor, while Republicans had to drop their
controversial abortion provision as well as an amendment that requires
rescission funds to be used for deficit reduction, not proposed Republican
tax cuts.
Late last night, Leon Panetta, Chief of Staff to President Clinton said
that the President will veto the Rescissions bill if it comes to him in its
present form. Whether that happens depends on what form the bill takes
when it goes next to the Senate, where some say members are not quite as
scissors happy as their counterparts in the House.
NTIA, DEPT. OF ED RESCISSIONS WILL CUT "INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY" FUNDS
As discussed in earlier Updates, the Rescissions bill would cut $30M of
NTIA's FY95 funds. The bill would also cut $40M from the Department of
Education's education technology programs.
One of the affected programs of the $40M is a program announced just last
week by V.P. Al Gore - The Challenge Grants for Technology in Education.
$27M would be cut from the Challenge Grants which are used to help connect
K-12 through cooperative government/private efforts. As fast as the
administration can propose new NII programs, the Congress is able to
rescind their funding.
NSF FINDS LITTLE OPPOSITION TO FY96 BUDGET PROPOSAL
The House Appropriations subcommittee on VA, HUD and independent agencies
met on Tuesday to begin considering appropriations legislation for NSF. As
it has previously found in subcommittees of the House Science Committee and
the Senate Appropriations committee, NSF again met with largely positive
comments and few questions.
One answer that the members seemed satisfied with was in reference to high
performance computing and the ratio of government investment to private
investment.
REP. TIM JOHNSON'S H.R. 1004 IS COUNTERPART TO EXON'S S.314
Rep. Tim Johnson (D-SD) has joined Sen. Jim Exon in proposing legislation
that prohibits and fines transmission of obscene or harassing material
through any telecommunications device. It's pretty much identical to the
Exon language and has been referred to the House Commerce Committee as well
as the House Judiciary Committee. Neither of those committees has put the
bill on its agenda yet, and there is no word whether the bill will be
considered as an amendment to impending House telecom reform legislation.
Odds are that whichever way the Exon bill goes, so goes the Johnson bill.
As of now, it looks like Exon's bill will get an extensive rewrite at the
minimum and fail as a stand alone bill at most.
POST FTS2000 ACQUISITION PROGRAM UP FOR REVIEW
The House Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee
will hold two hearings, March 21 and March 28 on the Post-Federal
Telecommunications System 2000 Acquisition Program. A number of industry
representatives will be testifying at the March 21 hearing. Agenda for the
March 28 hearing has not yet been released.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FARNET's Washington Update is a weekly electronic newsletter written by
Heather Boyles at FARNET's office in Washington, DC. Still in its
developmental stages, current issues are distributed via e-mail. Moving
upward and onward however, you can now find the 3/3 and 3/10 issues at
FARNET's new web-site, http://www.farnet.org. Comments and suggestions are
welcome at heather@farnet.org.
*****************************************************************************
Heather Boyles
Policy Analyst
Federation of American Research NETworks, (FARNET)
"The Internet Builders"
1511 K Street, NW
Suite 1165
Washington, DC 20010
Phone (202) 637-9557
Fax (202) 637-9563
E-mail:heather@farnet.org
_________________________________________________________________
Message: 44377864, 202 lines
Posted: 10:00am EST, Fri Mar 24/95, imported: 10:00am EST, Fri Mar 24/95
Subject: FARNET Washington Update
To: Jeff Ogden, members@farnet.org
Cc: cascmem@osc.edu
From: heather@farnet.org
FARNET Washington Update ---- March 24, 1995
IN THIS ISSUE
Telecom Reform
Senate Commerce Committee votes 17-2 to approve 1995 telecom bill
Advanced Telecommunications Incentives provision reappears in telecom bill
House leadership has moves to delay any hearings not related to budget
-could stall telecom bill
Obscenity on the Internet
Re-write of the Exon Decency bill approved as amendment to telecom bill
Funding
Rescissions package may go to Senate floor by Monday
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE VOTES 17-2 TO APPROVE 1995 TELECOM BILL
The Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995 has been
reported to the Senate floor, subject to amendments by the Senate Commerce
Committee by a vote of 17-2. After reports by the Chairman that markup
could be long and drawn out, leadership - specifically Senate Majority
Leader Bob Dole - evidently decided that a long markup would not be the
case, and the bill would move to the floor immediately.
Even before amendments were heard in the Committee's markup session, all
but Senators Packwood and McCain voted to approve the bill in "chairman's
mark" form, which had been completed by staffers just hours before. It has
long been rumored that Packwood and McCain were not with their Chairman on
the issue of telecommunications reform, and it came as no surprise that
they rejected the bill.
The major sticking point in the bill - provisions for RBOCs to enter the
long-distance market - was evidently resolved with the Chairman's so-called
"competition checklist." RBOCs would have to meet criteria before being
allowed to participate in the long-distance markets within their LATA. The
checklist includes:
-nondiscriminatory access to services and facilities
-unbundled access to facilities
-neutral telephone number administration
-number portability
-local dialing parity
-directory listings
The FCC would make the determination no later than 90 days after receiving
application. Application is allowed upon enactment of the bill.
Other amendments discussed:
Cable: This has been a contentious issue from the get-go, with Democrats
reluctant to repeal the 1992 Cable Act and Republicans anxious to
deregulate the entire industry. Basic rate regulation will come off when a
phone company offers video service in an area where a cable company already
operates.
Until then though, rate regulation will remain. Although rate regulation
in the upper tier of services will be limited to a "bad actor" clause.
Senator Packwood may make an amendment to strike that language.
Broadcast: Byron Dorgan(D-ND) has an amendment that would keep foreign
ownership restrictions for telecommunications companies in place. The
current compromise is a "reciprocity-base" foreign ownership provision,
whereby only companies from countries determined by the FCC to meet certain
open market standards for U.S. companies would be allowed to own a telco.
Another broadcast issue, broadcast ownership, concerning whether a single
company can own more than the current 25% limit, would be raised to 35% by
the current compromise. Dorgan wants to offer an amendment that would
require the FCC to conduct a rulemaking on this issue.
Both of the amendments on broadcast were withdrawn until floor debate.
PEG Access: Senator Kerry (D-MA) offered an amendment that would require
video platform providers to offer the same incremental cost-based rate
already required for broadcast affiliates to Public, Educational and
Governmental entities. After heated debate, the amendment was re-worked
and passed.
Universal Service: Senators Rockefeller (D-WV) and Snowe (R-ME) offered an
amendment that would give schools, libraries and public health facilities
access to telecommunications services under the universal service fund.
Even though the amendment is more narrowly defined than the same language
which was approved as an amendment to last year's S.1822, the
Rockefeller-Snowe amendment encountered significant opposition - prompting
one Republican legislator to respond that this year's Congress is quite a
bit different than last year's. The amendment was adopted.
ADVANCED TELECOMMUNICATION INCENTIVES PROVISION REAPPEARS IN TELECOM BILL
This provision was included in last year's S.1822, but left out until
recently in 1995 draft bills. Rendered narrower this year, it nevertheless
says that the FCC "shall encourage the deployment on a reasonable and
timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability (including, in
particular, elementary and secondary schools) by utilizing, in a manner
consistent with the public interest, convenience and necessity, price cap
regulation, regulatory forbearance, or other regulating methods that remove
barriers to infrastructure investment."
While not a total victory, it nevertheless leaves room for some concessions
to educational and other public institutions in their efforts to build out
the NII.
HOUSE LEADERSHIP MOVES TO DELAY ANY HEARINGS NOT RELATED TO BUDGET BILL
-COULD STALL TELECOM BILL
While the Senate is trying to achieve a floor vote, perhaps even before the
Easter recess (unlikely), the House, on the other hand, has been instructed
by its leadership to consider no extraneous legislation until the budget
resolution is passed (which now looks not likely until late May). This
means telecommunications legislation in the House has little chance of even
seeing a hearing before the Memorial Day recess.
Given the fact that the House is reportedly working strictly from 1994's
H.R. 3636, which is substantially different than the Senate bill just
approved by the Senate Commerce Committee, a conference between the two
houses on the bill looks likely, and could be lengthy. This could put
passage of the final bill well into June or July.
RE-WRITE OF THE EXON DECENCY BILL APPROVED AS AMENDMENT TO TELECOM BILL
The much maligned Exon Decency Bill (S.314) was offered as an amendment by
Sens. Exon and Gorton. It was approved by unanimous vote. The
bill/amendment has had a major rewrite after a number of organizations
objected to the liability it placed on intermediate carriers of electronic
messages. Specifically, the rewrite says that whoever "knowingly makes,
creates, or solicits, and initiates the transmission of, any comment,
request, suggestion...." This replaces contentious language which said,
whoever "makes, transmits, or otherwise makes available any comment,
request, suggestion, proposal, image or other communication" would be
punishable.
In addition, there have been a number of paragraphs changed which list
"additional defenses," i.e. cases in which persons can not be held liable
under the Act. For example: "No person shall be held to have violated this
section...with respect to...the provision of access, including
transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, navigational tools, and
related capabilities not involving the creation or alteration of the
content of the communications, for other persons' communications to or from
a service, facility, system or network not under that person's control."
However, the bill does go on to name good faith efforts a defendant must
have made as a defense to prosecution, including: "provide users with the
means to restrict access...provide users with warning concerning the
potential for access to such communications...provide mechanisms to enforce
a provider's terms of service governing such communications..." and
perhaps _most troublesome_, "... such other measures as the *Commission*
may prescribe..." This means the FCC, and it at least from my perspective
gives the FCC new room to make decisions about what measures carriers must
take to protect themselves.
In the final analysis: The language has been rewritten to focus on the
originator of the offending material instead of the carrier. However,
there may still be some vagaries that could put restrictions on what
providers can and can not do. Certainly a good faith effort from Exon's
office, but does it go far enough?
Although the amendment was approved unanimously in committee there is still
a chance of having it stricken in floor debate.
Give me a call if you want a copy of the re-write.
RESCISSIONS BILL MAY GO TO SENATE FLOOR BY MONDAY
With full Senate Appropriations Committee markup scheduled to take place
today, the Senate may be ready to discuss their version of the 1995
Rescissions bill on the Senate floor on Monday. The House passed their
rescissions bill on March 16. Senate Appropriations Committee members said
their cuts will be similar in scope, but differ somewhat in detail from the
House's.
Remember, $30M or almost 50% of NTIA's TIIAP program is at stake in the
House version. There is a Senate amendment out there that would strike the
remaining $34M from TIIAP for 1995, thus zeroing out TIIAP's funds.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FARNET's Washington Update is a weekly electronic newsletter written by
Heather Boyles at FARNET's office in Washington, DC. Still in its
developmental stages, current issues are distributed via e-mail. Moving
upward and onward however, you can now find the 3/3, 3/10 and 3/17 issues
at FARNET's new web-site, http://www.farnet.org. Comments and suggestions
are welcome at heather@farnet.org.
*****************************************************************************
Heather Boyles
Policy Analyst
Federation of American Research NETworks, (FARNET)
"The Internet Builders"
1511 K Street, NW
Suite 1165
Washington, DC 20010
Phone (202) 637-9557
Fax (202) 637-9563
E-mail:heather@farnet.org
_________________________________________________________________
Message: 44587657, 189 lines
Posted: 1:59pm EST, Fri Mar 31/95, imported: 2:14pm EST, Fri Mar 31/95
Subject: FARNET Washington Update
To: Jeff Ogden, legup@farnet.org, cascmem@osc.edu
From: heather@farnet.org
FARNET Washington Update --- March 31, 1995
IN THIS ISSUE:
Telecom Legislation
Senate Commerce Committee's markup and report of telecom bill
Analysis of Snowe/Rockefeller amendment to provide Universal Service to
public
institutions
Obscenity on the Internet
Further Fallout from the Exon amendment
Funding
Rescissions bill cut back in the Senate
NSF
NSF subject of hearings in Senate subcommittee
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE'S MARKUP AND REPORT OF TELECOM BILL
We expect a late Friday afternoon official release of the
Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995 markup and
committee report. As reported last week, an amendment co-sponsored by Sens.
Snowe and Rockefeller regarding universal service for elementary and
secondary schools, libraries and public health institutions was approved.
Furthermore, a re-write of the Exon Decency bill was also amended to the
bill. Both of these are discussed in greater detail below.
Although Minority Leader Bob Dole had earlier said that he wished to move
the telecommunication bill to the Senate floor for vote as soon as
possible, there has been no schedule set to do so. As the Senate recesses
on April 7 for the Easter holiday, it is likely that they will not yet have
debated the bill on the floor.
ANALYSIS OF SNOWE/ROCKEFELLER AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE UNIVERSAL SERVICE TO
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
FARNET has obtained a copy of the final language that was approved as an
amendment to the telecommunications bill markup. The purpose of the
amendment is to include public institutions in the universal service fund.
(revised language includes the phrase "*If* the Commission adopts rules for
the distribution of support payments...") This language was testily
debated in last week's markup session, and has been changed to reflect
concern by some Senators about the inclusion of health care institutions in
the amendment. Some Republican senators contended that not all health
institutions would be in need of universal service support, citing examples
of relatively wealthy hospitals.
In the final language, "public or nonprofit health care" providers who
provide "health care services, including instruction relating to such
services, to persons who reside in rural areas" have been separated from
schools and libraries. While elementary schools, secondary schools and
libraries would be eligible for rates not higher than the "incremental
cost," telecommunications carriers would only be required to provide health
care providers with rates "that are reasonably comparable to rates charged
for similar services in urban areas."
Additional language has also been added to clarify the term "health care
provider" to mean: post-secondary ed. institutions, teaching hospitals,
medical schools, community health centers, local health dept.s or agencies,
community mental health centers, not-for-profit hospitals and rural health
clinics.
Stricken from earlier versions of the Snowe/Rockefeller amendment and from
last year's S.1822 language, is a passage that would have allowed the
Commission to designate other public institutions eligible for universal
service support.
The section finishes out by requiring the FCC to establish rules to enhance
availability of advanced telecom services to said institutions and ensure
interoperability.
One of the criticisms of this amendment in the markup was that it was
duplicative of another section in the bill, entitled "Advanced
Telecommunications Incentives." This section would require the FCC to
"encourage" deployment of "advanced telecommunications capability" to all
Americans and in particular to K-12.
The FCC would "encourage" deployment by initiating a notice of inquiry, and
upon a negative determination that advanced telecom capabilities were not
being deployed in a "reasonable and timely fashion", "take immediate
action."
Left undefined in all of this are the phrases, "reasonable and timely
fashion" and "take immediate action," although "advanced telecommunications
capability" is defined to mean: "high-speed, switched, broadband
telecommunications capability that enables users to originate and receive
high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications."
In short, as pointed out by Sen. Rockefeller in the markup session, and
evident from a cursory reading of the section, the Advanced
Telecommunications Incentive language has little ummph. "Encourage" is
hardly a mandate to act and the language is far from any preferential rate
provisions of prior years.
The Snowe/Rockefeller amendment attempts to at least ensure that K-12 get
access at incremental cost rates and health care facilities at no higher
than urban rates, but also falls short of last year's provisions.
One can imagine that this is about as generous as this Congress will get
this year. Given the narrow margin by which the Snowe/Rockefeller
amendment passed, it could be a target for floor debate, although we
haven't heard any rumors to that effect yet.
FURTHER FALLOUT FROM THE EXON AMENDMENT
Public interest groups, industry and the press continued this week to react
to the amendment of the 1995 telecommunications bill to include language
taken from Sen. James Exon's Decency Bill (formerly S.314).
As you might have seen in this week's NYT editorial on the subject, the
amendment is now being assaulted on a free speech tack. Ironically, Sen.
Exon has recently announced that he is retiring and will not seek
re-election.
Additionally, there seems to be questions as to how enforceable this
amendment is, as well as how constitutional. Today's WSJ cites a
Department of Justice memo concerned that the Exon amendment is too broad
and gives too many defenses for the Justice Dept. to successfully prosecute
obscenity under current law.
The language of the amendment and its present status were discussed in
detail in last week's Update.
RESCISSIONS BILL TAKES A CUT IN SENATE
The Senate version of the 1995 Rescissions Bill was expected to pass last
night after the Democrats attempted to stall progress on the bill with an
amendment that would restore $1.3B to the $13.4B Senate rescissions
package. The restoration would evidently not include money for NTIA's
TIIAP program, which under the Senate bill would be rescinded by $34M.
Next, the bill will go to conference committee to be reconciled with the
House's $17.7B rescissions package. Apparently, some Republicans want to
couple the bill in conference with the Defense Supplemental Appropriations
bill which would give the controversial rescissions bill a better chance of
passing.
NSF SUBJECT OF HEARINGS IN SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE
The Director of the NSF again testified on the NSF's proposed FY96 budget
before the Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee of the Senate
Commerce Committee on Thursday. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) chairs the
subcommittee and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is ranking minority member.
While most of the hearing was predictable, Sen. Rockefeller expressed - at
length - concern about the Chairman of the House Science Committee, Robert
Walker (R-PA) and his "philosophy" on basic and applied research in terms
of the government's role. Walker has recently been behind attacks on the
U.S. government's Advanced Technology Program and Technology Reinvestment
Program for what he sees as funding "too close to market."
RESOURCES
Senate Telecommunications Bill: I have an electronic version of the
marked-up bill if anyone would like me to email it to them. The same
version is to be had at http://bell.com or by mailing info@bell.com. I
expect to have an official hard copy later this afternoon, along with the
committee's report on the bill.
Snowe/Rockefeller amendment: The revised version is included in the
telecom bill markup.
Exon amendment: I have a hard copy of this amendment. It is also included
in the mark-up.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FARNET's Washington Update is a weekly electronic newsletter written by
Heather Boyles at FARNET's office in Washington, DC. Still in its
developmental stages, current issues are distributed via e-mail. Moving
upward and onward however, you can now find the 3/3, 3/10 and 3/17, 3/24,
3/31 issues at FARNET's new web-site, http://www.farnet.org. Comments and
suggestions are welcome at heather@farnet.org.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Federation of American Research Networks (FARNET, Inc.)
ph: 202.637.9557 fax: 202.637-9563 info@farnet.org
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