Daily Digest 5/10/2018 (Senate will vote on net neutrality)

One after another, 15 Democratic senators — nearly a third of their caucus — stepped to a microphone on Capitol Hill to call for tough rules to protect net neutrality. The turnout, which included Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), showed they believe that they could win politically on the issue even if they ultimately fail in their long-shot attempt to reinstate the rules. "We're now one step away from allowing the American public to see where their elected officials stand on protecting their internet service," said Sen Schumer. "Are they protecting average consumers and middle-class families, or are they protecting the big corporate special interests?"

[Op-ed] How can civic leaders ensure that their communities have the needed broadband connectivity to strengthen current businesses, catalyze local entrepreneurs, and attract new investment? 

1. Establish a connectivity vision. Creating a well-connected city is not a matter of chance. It’s not a single step, a single investment, or a single plan.  It is a series of policies, investments, and partnerships that realize your vision.  Without a vision, policies and investments will be fragmented and results will be limited. The vision can be set by the Mayor or Council, by a broadband task force or steering community, or by the economic development council.  Engage stakeholders to refine the vision and build community commitment.
2. Assess broadband capabilities and needs. Sometimes broadband needs are self-evident – like when residents or business-owners walk into City Hall with complaints about service gaps or when your economic development officer says that a new business prospect selected another location with better connectivity. To get a more complete picture, consider conducting a survey or holding an open meeting. Evaluating the broadband deployment data that the Federal Communications Commission collects from service providers could also be helpful.  
3. Leverage public assets and investments. When cities make local assets available for provider use, they can reduce costs, streamline deployment, and incent investment. Government staff can create a comprehensive inventory of public assets that providers may use to offset deployment costs. This could include conduit, fiber, vertical assets like poles and street lights, public structures, real estate, or power facilities. In addition to physical resources, catalogue the city’s investments in telecommunications. Could those investments be directed or rebid in ways that encourage new public-private partnerships?
4. Develop investment-friendly deployment policies. Broadband-friendly deployment policies are business-friendly policies. A permit and rights-of-way authorization kit can help service providers understand the steps needed to deploy equipment and infrastructure in your city.  Online applications that clearly state response intervals provide clarity for providers. Another tool could be establishing a dig-once policy so that carriers can install fiber when street work is being done, and creating simple lease agreements for providers.  More information on these concepts is available in the BroadbandUSA publication: Implementing a Broadband Network Vision:  A Toolkit for Local and Tribal Governments.
5. Engage partners. With a connectivity vision, an understanding of needs and assets, and a strong set of investment-friendly policies, city leaders are poised for detailed conversations with existing or new service providers to find solutions that are wise and efficient, fair and long-lasting.  Service providers make choices on where to invest, but community clarity, available assets, and business-friendly policies can improve the business case and create the foundation for a true partnership.  A number of state and federal programs provide grants and loans to support broadband deployments. You can learn about federal funding opportunities in the BroadbandUSA: Guide to Federal Funding of Broadband Projects.

21st Century Fox signed a definitive agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media to acquire seven stations for approximately $910 million. The move is designed to speed federal approval of the $4.6 billion Sinclair-Tribune merger and follows news of spinoffs of 23 other stations from that deal. The transaction will grow Fox Television Stations' coverage to nearly half of all US households, and its market presence to 19 of the top 20 DMAs, including the addition of key markets that align with Fox's sports rights. Currently, Fox reaches 36.8% of homes, but, with the Federal Communications Commission’s UHF discount, the figure shrinks to only 24.3%. With the purchase of these seven stations, its reach will grow by 9.1 points to 45.9% but, with the discount, it will still be at just 30.4%, well below the FCC’s 39% cap.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is “committed to a free press” after the president threatened to strip reporters of their credentials. Sanders said during her daily press briefing that “this is one of the most accessible White Houses,” a sentiment she insisted reporters share. “We are committed to a free press. We demonstrate that every single day,” she said. But Sanders chastised news organizations for what she said were false reports. “At the same time, the press has the responsibility to put out accurate information.”

Essential Consultants, a shell company owned by Michael Cohen, has no other known employees or directors. It was incorporated in Delaware on October 17, 2016, 10 days after the Access Hollywood tape went public and a couple weeks before the 2016 election. If AT&T paid a monthly fee of $50,000, Essential Consultants would have received more money in the year than AT&T’s highest-paid lobbying firms, Mayer Brown and Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer, and Feld, which were paid $420,000 and $400,000 respectively. In 2017, AT&T paid 14 firms at least $200,000 to work Washington for the telecommunications giant. Essential Consultants does not appear in the public disclosures that AT&T filed about who they paid for lobbying, and AT&T says Essential did no lobbying or legal work for the telecom giant—but AT&T certainly had important issues before the government.  Among the more charitable interpretations of AT&T’s payments to Essential Consultants is that they were a pay-for-play scheme to get access to the newly elected president. Less charitable interpretations go well beyond the baseline level of corruption that Americans have come to expect from their government. People know that powerful interests pay for access to American politicians, but they likely do not expect the president’s personal lawyer to commingle the money of corporations, adult-film actresses, and Russian oligarchs. Maybe there is an explanation for all this. Maybe none of it will actually turn out to be illegal, but that may be the most damning indictment of our system.

A Q&A with Mignon Clyburn, outgoing commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. 

Why leave now? "Well, I believe it's time. And I also believe that I can be more effective on the outside. You know that for the past 15 or so months I've been on the other side of the winning debate when it comes to just, reasonable and fair rates for inmates and their families, when it comes to looking out for those individuals who cannot afford a dial tone, with the Lifeline program that would also have enabled them to have broadband affordably. And so, I just found that this was the time, it was the place for me to leave and to be an advocate, a more effective advocate, on the outside versus at the FCC."

Is your work being undone? Well, a lot of the things that we put forth that were hard fought, they have been reversed. But I am uplifted because there are a number of state attorneys general who have said, "Look, the FCC, we believe you are on the wrong side of history, that you are not doing what it takes to protect the privacy of individuals in this nation, to provide broadband-enabled services in which it's a legally sustainable framework. We believe that you've got it wrong." So you notice 23 attorneys general have weighed in and said, "We're going to sue the FCC because of the repeal of net neutrality." And so those states said, "The FCC is punting and won't do anything about it? Then we will."

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai asking for details on the nature of Elizabeth Ann Pierce’s appointment as chairwoman of an FCC advisory committee. Law enforcement officials are alleging that Pierce, the former CEO of an Alaska telecommunications firm called Quintillion, used forged customer contracts to try to attract investors. “[If] the allegations are true, it appears that Ms. Pierce may have been engaging in fraudulent behavior related to her own telecommunications company at the same time she was chosen by you to lead — and was leading — an important FCC committee,” Rep Ellison wrote. “This is deeply troubling, raising questions about the process by which members of the committee were chosen, its deliberations, and its recommendations to the FCC commissioners.” Rep Ellison included a list of questions about the nature of Pierce’s work for the commission. He also pressed Chairman Pai on whether he was aware of the impending allegations while she was advising the FCC. “I am concerned that Ms. Pierce’s involvement in the process of the BDAC irreparably taints any recommendations made by the Committee,” Rep Ellison wrote.