A Federal Court overturned the FCC's attempt to preempt state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina that limited municipal broadband buildouts, so some Democratic Senators (and one independent) are trying to do it themselves.

Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Angus King (I-Me.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have introduced a bill they say is intended to give cities the "flexibility" to meet the broadband needs of their residents when it is not being met otherwise.

The Community Broadband Act would amend the 1996 Telecommunications Act to ban state, local or tribal statutes or regs that prohibit cities from providing high-speed broadband.

Actually, the FCC effort was not aimed at preempting laws preventing buildouts, authority it conceded it did not have, but to preempting laws that limited expansion of already-authorized municipal nets. 

The bill covers that, too, saying that the laws can't inhibit "any public provider from providing telecommunications services or advanced telecommunications capability or services to any person or any public or private entity."

Republicans in Congress have generally opposed preemption, citing, among other things, failed public buildouts leaving taxpayers holding the bag and the overbuild impact on private providers.

The senators have tried to address some of those issues.

The bill says that if any project fails, no federal funds will be provided to a public entity "specifically to assist" it in preserving or reviving the project--unless it was in a "disaster area" as declared by the President.

A public, or public/private broadband project must also first announce its intentions, publish notice of those intentions, describe the service and coverage area, and provide the private sector and the public with an opportunity to weigh in, and give the private sector a chance to bid on providing the service.

The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded last year that the FCC’s authority to promote advanced telecommunications deployment in a reasonable and timely manner did not extend to deciding whether a state or its municipal subdivision gets to control broadband buildouts, unless Congress has explicitly granted the FCC that power. Markey and company are trying to make that explicit grant.

Still, a Democratic bill in a Republican Congress has a steep climb to the President's desk. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif. ) introduced a muni broadband bill in the last Congress that did not get traction, patterned after one introduced in 2005 by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The FBI's redacted release to the media and public of 911 calls placed by the Orlando shooter caused a bit of a row in D.C. Monday (June 20).

The FBI scrubbed the transcripts of mentions of ISIS or terrorist leaders, but eventually released the full transcripts.

“The purpose of releasing the partial transcript of the shooter's interaction with 911 operators was to provide transparency, while remaining sensitive to the interests of the surviving victims, their families, and the integrity of the ongoing investigation," the Justice Department said, adding "We also did not want to provide the killer or terrorist organizations with a publicity platform for hateful propaganda."

"Unfortunately, the unreleased portions of the transcript that named the terrorist organizations and leaders have caused an unnecessary distraction from the hard work that the FBI and our law enforcement partners have been doing to investigate this heinous crime," the FBI said. "As much of this information had been previously reported, we have re-issued the complete transcript to include these references in order to provide the highest level of transparency possible under the circumstances.”

One of those complaining had been House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), who got creative with his criticism, supplying both a redacted and unredacted version (see photo).

"Chairman McCaul: “The Obama Administration just redacted the BLANK out of the Orlando shooter’s 911 transcripts. I am greatly BLANK at the Administration’s denial of reality. How in the BLANK does censoring this BLANK make us safer? This is in line with the Administration’s long string of BLANK of the threat Islamist terror poses to our homeland. The victims and their loved ones deserve justice, and the American people deserve all the facts. The terror threat to our nation cannot be redacted.”

"Chairman McCaul’s Unredacted Statement:

“The Obama Administration just redacted the truth out of the Orlando shooter’s 911 transcripts. I am greatly disturbed at the Administration’s denial of reality. How in the world does censoring this truth make us safer? This is in line with the Administration’s long string of denials of the threat Islamist terror poses to our homeland. The victims and their loved ones deserve justice, and the American people deserve all the facts."

Even as ISPs were pushing a new proposal on set-top boxes in hopes of heading off FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal, the Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee was charting its own route to heading off the FCC's "unlock the box" brand of promoting competition.

The committee approved a fiscal year 2017 FCC appropriations bill that would require the FCC to conduct an impact study before voting on Wheeler's set-top plan, which is to require MVPDs to make their programming and data available to third-party navigation devices and apps so it could be searched alongside over-the-top content. The goal is to promote a retail market in third-party devices given that 99% of subs still rent a box from their MVPD.

The House Appropriations Committee last week passed its FCC appropriations bill with the set-top pausing rider. Now Senate Republicans have followed suit, much to the chagrin of set-top proposal backers. 

“We are disappointed by the Appropriations Committee targeting the FCC for working to protect consumers, as Congress directed," said Kate Forscey, government affairs associate counsel for Public Knowledge. "This attack is a rider which attempts to stymie the Commission’s ongoing proceeding to ‘Unlock the Box’. The rider hitched onto this bill would further forestall a truly competitive video marketplace, for which consumers and creators yearn and which the FCC now stands poised to deliver."

“Congress has twice asked the FCC to examine this monopoly control over set top boxes to free both prices and innovation, most recently in 2014," said Computer & Communications Industry Association Ed Black. "It makes no sense to use a backdoor policy rider to delay the very reforms the full Congress asked the FCC to consider. This delay by rider would just allow the cable industry more months to gouge customers. Why would we do that?”

CCIA members include Google, Netflix and Amazon.