Hill, The

[Commentary] Network neutrality started out at the Federal Communications Commission as a set of reasonable and bipartisan, pro-consumer Internet freedom principles. Of late there has been precious little reason behind net neutrality policy, which is precisely why it is at such risk with the new Trump Administration and Republican-controlled Congress and FCC. Republican Congressional leaders have long offered to negotiate a reasonable compromise with Democrats to define and resolve the net neutrality issue once and for all in law. They have signaled they remain open to a reasonable negotiated solution going forward. How did a reasonable issue become so unreasonable over the last decade? The story is telling.

[Cleland is president of Precursor LLC, an internetization consultancy for Fortune 500 companies, and chairman of NetCompetition, a pro-competition e-forum supported by broadband interests.]

Rep Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, blasted a New York Times column blaming climate change for the plight of starving children in Africa as “fake news.” In a brief House floor speech, Chairman Smith dismissed columnist Nicholas Kristof’s documentation of severe droughts in the island nation of Madagascar as hyperbole aimed at “climate alarmists.” “A good example of fake news appeared in Sunday’s New York Times. It’s a column headlined, ‘As Trump Denies Climate Change, These Kids Die,’ ” Chairman Smith said. “This may be a new high, or maybe a new low, for climate alarmists and their exaggerations.”

While Congress continues to pursue legislation, we think there’s direct action the next Federal Communications Commission Chairman can take on day one that would immediately improve the quality of public debate on pending agency action. And that is to hold a second monthly meeting, during which FCC staff gives presentations on major items that might be brought before the Commission at least 60 days before any vote. This second, forward-looking monthly meeting would provide the public--the real party of interest—the information needed to provide meaningful input to the Commission prior to its decision-making. It would also improve the Commissioners’ own ability to respond to policy recommendations on an informed basis.

President-elect Donald Trump is set to meet with two top executives from Univision after repeatedly clashing with the Spanish-language broadcaster during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump is set to meet at Trump Tower with network CEO Randy Falco and head of news Isaac Lee, according to transition spokesman Sean Spicer. The meeting is a chance for the two sides to mend fences after an acrimonious campaign season. The feud dates back to when Trump announced his candidacy in the summer of 2015, when he made disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants. When Univision anchor Jorge Ramos attempted to question Trump about his comments at an August 2015 news conference, the candidate ejected him, telling him to “go back to Univision.”

President Barack Obama and Democrats are making a last-ditch try to get Jessica Rosenworcel back on the Federal Communications Commission. President Obama renominated Rosenworcel for a five-year term. Rosenworcel, a former FCC commissioner, failed to be reconfirmed at the end of the 2016 legislative session, after a two-year fight over her nomination. Rosenworcel failed to get a vote, despite efforts from lawmakers to try and cut a deal and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's offer to step down in exchange. Wheeler is still stepping down when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office. Control of the FCC will swing to Republicans, but two of the five commissioners must be Democrats. That has Dems hopeful that Rosenworcel can return, but its unclear if anything will be different this time around. Republicans will likely be reluctant to work out a deal on Rosenworcel with Trump slated to take office in two weeks. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) has said that while he respects her work, he'll wait on confirmations until Trump is in the White House.

Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) will be the new chair of the House Communications Subcommittee. Rep Blackburn is replacing Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), who left the post after being elected by House Republicans to chair the full Energy and Commerce Committee in December.

“It is an honor to have been chosen to serve as the Chairman of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee," Rep Blackburn said. "I look forward to working with Chairman Greg Walden and my great colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee.” “We’ve got a lot of work to do this Congress when it comes to fixing our broken health care system, advancing solutions that empower consumers and small businesses, and valuing low-cost, transformative energy solutions,” Chairman Walden said. “It will be an all hands on deck effort, and I’m confident that the team we’ve assembled will put forth the hard work needed to get the job done.” Rep Blackburn was previously the vice chairwoman of the committee, a post that is now being filled by Rep Joe Barton (R-TX).

Rep Peter King (R-NY) says lawmakers should investigate leaks of US intelligence to the media exposing Russian interference in the 2016 election. “This is not a trivial matter,” he said. "This is supposed to be top secret, classified information, which they won’t even give to the [House] Intelligence Committee but they’re leaking to the press. “That’s what’s really disgraceful about this,” Rep King added, noting how most lawmakers had not seen a classified report on Russia’s election meddling. "I think there should be a federal investigation into how that was leaked out.”

Civil libertarians are blasting new rules from House Republicans that would impose fines on lawmakers who take pictures or live-stream video on the House floor. The fines are intended to prevent a repeat of protests like the sit-in by House Democrats in 2016 calling for gun control legislation after the mass shooting in an Orlando (FL) nightclub. Democratic Reps broadcast their sit-in on social media, including Periscope and Twitter, after GOP leadership cut the camera feed that was being aired by C-SPAN.

Democratic Reps in the House Judiciary Committee released a letter by a group of law professors denouncing the fines, which they believe pose “significant constitutional and policy problems.” “If adopted, the new provisions would undermine core constitutional protections under Article I of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” wrote the group, which included Laurence Tribe of Harvard University and scholar Norman Ornstein.

Legislation to allow Congress to repeal in a single vote any rule finalized in the last 60 legislative days of the Obama Administration sailed through the House Jan 4, the second time in less than two months. The GOP-backed Midnight Rule Relief Act, which passed the previous Congress in November, was approved largely along party lines by a vote of 238-184 on the second day of the new Congress, despite Democratic opposition. If passed by the Senate and signed by President-elect Donald Trump, the legislation would amend the Congressional Review Act to allow lawmakers to bundle together multiple rules and overturn them en masse with a joint resolution of disapproval. That could include things like Federal Communications Commission broadband privacy regulations or Lifeline subsidy reforms that drew fire from Hill and FCC Republicans. The White House has already threatened to veto the bill if it were to make it to President Obama's desk before he leaves office.

[Commentary] Sewlyn Duke’s recent op-ed for The Hill, “Antitrust should be used to break up partisan tech giants like Facebook, Google,” addresses the serious problem of how a few privately owned internet companies have unprecedented control over the distribution of information. Breaking up the actual platforms would seriously harm consumers.

Google’s algorithm improves with more searches and Facebook’s users value the ability to connect with the other billion people on the network. Reducing their size eliminates these benefits without increasing free speech. Antitrust regulators recognize this type of economy of scale, known as network effects, when evaluating a company’s market concentration. Increased social media censorship did not result from the market share of any company or even the political ideology of its executives.

[Mark Epstein is an attorney practicing regulatory and antitrust law in Washington, D.C.]