A divided Senate Commerce Committee finally voted Thursday (March 3) along party lines to send the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the full Senate for a vote, a big step toward her ultimate confirmation. The vote was 14-14, which means the nominee can get a floor vote, but with no favorable or unfavorable recommendation.

The Federal Communications Commission has been at a 2-2 political tie for well over a year, so the tie vote to potentially break it was appropriate.

Sohn would be the fifth Democratic commissioner, giving the Biden administration the majority it needs to tackle some tough issues, including network neutrality and media ownership/equity.

Also reported in a partisan vote was a fifth Federal Trade Commission member, Alvaro M. Bedoya. The vote on Bedoya was also 14-14.

Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said Sohn needed to be seated, in part because of the importance of the Administration's broadband priorities. Cantwell thanked all her colleagues for being there, which may have been a reference to reports that Republicans had considered not showing up to deny a quorum, and thus a vote, on Sohn.

Ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he could not vote for Sohn or Bedoya. He said he appreciated Sohn's responsiveness, but said she was not the right choice to fill the FCC vacancy because she would continue to have an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Sohn was nominated last year but had to be renominated in January after the committee Democrats were unable to secure enough votes, then her first vote had to be postponed after one of the committee Democrats — Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico — suffered a stroke.

Lujan got a lengthy standing ovation when he entered the chamber for the meeting.
Also: Sohn Says Fox Criticism Does Not Extent to Viewers

Republicans have pushed back on her nomination over past criticism of Fox News Channel and her relationship to Locast, the shuttered streaming service that was found by a court not to be entitled under a copyright carveout from streaming TV station signals without having to ask permission or pay for the transmissions.

But her backers have suggested that internet-service providers were pushing back because they did not want the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules, and Republicans were pushing back generally because they wanted to stall the Biden regulatory agenda until the midterms.

If the Republicans took over the Senate and House, they could nullify any FCC attempt to reinstate the rules, as they did to a privacy regulatory regime under Obama-era chairman Tom Wheeler.

Wicker took issue with Cantwell's phrasing of the nomination as being reported to the floor, saying only that the tie vote was being reported to the floor. Though Cantwell first said she thought that was the proper wording, she agreed that that technically constituted reporting a tie vote to the floor. 

According to the Congressional Research Service, "a Senate majority can vote to discharge a committee from consideration of a matter, including a nomination, if it is not reported because of a tie vote in committee."

That means a Senate majority will first have to vote to discharge the nomination from committee consideration, then vote on the nomination, but both those things will almost certainly now happen. 

It is unclear whether Sohn will get the Senate vote anytime soon. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has pledged more than once to put a hold on the nomination, though his office had not returned requests for comment on whether that hold was still going to be placed.

Consumer Technology Association president Gary Shapiro; Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association; and three former heads of the FCC's Homeland Security Bureau, among others, had publicly endorsed Sohn.

Tillis, ranking member of the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee, had earlier asked President Joe Biden to withdraw Sohn‘s nomination, saying he had many concerns, but copyright was chief among them.

As head of Public Knowledge, Sohn had long advocated for fair use carveouts from copyright law and argued that content providers were being overprotective, but she has pointed out that the FCC is not in the business of regulating copyrights and, in any event, as a commissioner she would look at all issues on a case-by-case basis and rule accordingly.

Following the vote, Cantwell gave the Republicans a chance to talk, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) extensively, about their opposition to the Sohn nomination.

Responding to that Republican criticisms, Cantwell said she did not think Sohn would engage in partisanship or censorship. 

“At a critical moment in our nation’s history, Gigi Sohn and Alvaro Bedoya will bring sterling credentials, deep expertise, and an unrelenting commitment to consumer protection to their posts," said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the committee, following the vote. "The challenges facing consumers today are significant, and President Biden has chosen nominees that are up to the task. The American public deserves our best and brightest at the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to accomplish pressing priorities, such as keeping the internet free and open, closing the digital divide, protecting online privacy, stopping scams, and promoting competition. I am proud to vote for Ms. Sohn and Mr. Bedoya, two eminently qualified nominees, and I look forward to their swift confirmation by the United States Senate.“

Joshua Stager, deputy director of New America's Open Technology Institute, urged the full Senate to take action.

"[I]t’s time for Majority Leader Schumer to get to work. He needs to schedule floor votes for Ms. Sohn and Mr. Bedoya immediately," he said. "The American people cannot afford to wait any longer. It’s been more than a year since we had a fully functioning FCC and FTC. These agencies oversee some of the nation’s most problematic companies, including AT&T, Comcast, and Facebook.” ■

It was all over in a matter of a few minutes, but Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a new member of the committee, is officially installed as chairman of the Senate Communications Subcommittee. 

That came on a unanimous vote at an executive meeting in the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday (Feb. 25). Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said Lujan was "dedicated to working on issues of broadband inequities." 

Lujan had already been named to head the subcommittee, but the vote made it official.

The full committee historically has done most of the heavy lifting on communications issues, especially under former chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) a decade ago, but the subcommittee's profile has grown in recent years under the chairmanships of Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and John Thune (D-S.D.).

Thune will continue to serve as ranking member of the subcommittee. 

Luján, who had been a member of the House before being elected a senator in 2020, was on the House Energy & Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee  and is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Before being elected to the House, he was the chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.

While in the House, Luján pushed for rural broadband deployment and for unlimited voice minutes and data for the FCC's low-income Lifeline subsidy-eligible households for the duration of the pandemic.

He also spoke out publicly against threats by President Trump to pull TV licenses. "I am both shocked and disappointed that President Trump today suggested the revocation of a major network’s broadcast license because he doesn’t like the negative light in which he has been portrayed in their newscasts," he said.

Also Read: Democrats Seek Political Ad Disclosures

That included introducing a bill, the Protecting Dissenting Viewpoints and Voices Act, that would have prevented the FCC from targeting broadcasters "or anyone else" on the basis of viewpoint, toughen FCC political ad disclosure rules, and boost broadcast diversity.

In a hearing on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's nomination Thursday (Jan. 21), the former South Bend mayor pledged to support the "dig once" policies that help drive broadband adoption.

Asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) about her "dig once" legislative efforts to coordinate the deployment of broadband and road building and improvements, Buttigieg said that one of the reasons his home state of Indiana had "phenomenal connectivity" because people remembered to lay conduit along highways and railways. He said that even if the effort were driven by another department, DOT would be open to supporting dig once.

Also Read: Communications Industry Extends Congratulations to President Biden

Committee chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) presided  over the hearing because a power-sharing agreement has yet to be struck between the Senate majority and minority leader, but he signaled that there could be a symbolic passing of the gavel to new chair and current ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

If that Buttigieg hearing was any indication, there is some hope for greater comity in the new Congress. 

Wicker said he was "absolutely delighted" that the first nominee the committee was vetting was Buttigieg, who he said would bring a valuable perspective to the post and who he said would definitely be confirmed. Buttigieg was introduced by Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who called Buttigieg a professional friend and colleague and someone for whom he had a great deal of respect. 

Cantwell talked about the "great, collegial working relationship" she had, and expected to continue to have, and to grow in this Congress, with Wicker. For his part, Wicker thanked Cantwell for her cooperation in the past and said he was committed to working in a bipartisan manner. 

The newly evenly split Senate Commerce Committee has also scheduled a hearing for Jan. 27 to come up with the rules governing the committee, a traditional effort given new emphasis since Senate is split 50-50, with Democrats controlling due to Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote and a pandemic that has caused hearings to be hybrid in person/virtual proceedings.

The rules include time and place of hearings, notice of those hearings, requirements for testimony, composition of subcommittees, budget approval, and much more.

The Ensuring Network Security Act and the Beat China by Harnessing Important, National Airwaves (CHINA) for 5G Act of 2020 were both reported favorably out of the Senate Commerce Committee by voice vote, which essentially means unanimously.

They now move to the Senate for a full vote, and were among a host of bills getting quick resolution and the executive session Wednesday (Nov. 18). The markup was brief, but Committee chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) took the time to point out to the streaming audience that it was just the tip of an iceberg of staff work, including up to late the night before, to get it to the point where the bills could be voted quickly and with bipartisan agreement.

S. 4472, Ensuring Network Security Act expands the number of broadband suppliers eligible for $1 billion in funding to rip and replace suspect tech, like that of Chinese telecoms Huawei and ZTE by upping the threshold for companies eligible for the money from those with 2 million or fewer subs to those with 10 million or fewer, and by expanding eligibility to eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs).

S. 4803, the Beat China by Harnessing Important, National Airwaves (CHINA) for 5G Act of 2020, directs the clearing of government users from the 3.5 GHz band so the FCC can auction it for 5G.

The White House and Department of Defense officials last August announced that they had identified 100 MHz of midband spectrum (between 3450 and 3550 GHz) currently used by DOD for key radar applications, that could be freed up quickly for sharing with commercial 5G without sacrificing national security or military uses, specifically critical radar for air defense, missile and gun control, battlefield weapon locations, air traffic control, and more. 

The Senate Commerce Committee waded into the longstanding issue of a national privacy law Wednesday (Sept. 23) with an assist from four former top Federal Trade Commission members and through the new lens of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The committee was holding a hearing on "Revisiting the Need for Federal Privacy Legislation." The revisit was driven in part by the increased use of broadband data during the pandemic, including for telehealth and contact tracing.

Related: Republicans Introduce COVID-19 Tracing Privacy Bill

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the committee, has joined with other Republicans to introduce the American Framework to Ensure Data Access, Transparency, and Accountability Act (SAFE DATA Act).

That bill is a revise of the United States Consumer Data Privacy Act, a draft of which was released in November 2019.

At the hearing, Wicker said that legislation was two years in the making, with input from a variety of stakeholders, and came even as California adopted its own privacy legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act. Wicker said that CCPA is difficult to understand and could become more so, arguing that was one reason that federal legislation was needed.

Related: CCPA Enforcement Begins Without Final Rules

Wicker said that the pandemic has shown that national privacy legislation is more necessary than even, including as more data is collected to do contract tracing.

Wicker said the bill gave them a chance to pass privacy law. He asked his colleagues to look seriously at the bill and work together to pass it.

Ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) agreed COVID-19 had put a spotlight on privacy and Congress needs to establish privacy protections. Her version of that is the Consumer Online Privacy Act. She suggested Republican legislation would maintain the status quo, with loopholes that weaken rights by preempting state laws, like the CCPA--California Attorney General Xavier Becerra appeared at the hearing in defense of the law. He said it was the first time people in the state had the ability to tell businesses not to share their information. He called the states "laboratories of democracy."

One of the things she said needs to be in privacy legislation is a private right of action, which the Wicker bill does not include.

Wicker pointed out that other important national privacy litigation including COPPA (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and HIPPA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) contain no private rights of action and that CCPA's right is only for a breach. He said that the push for that private right of action is a stumbling block that may prevent overarching national legislation from being enacted. 

The divergence that still remained between Cantwell and Wicker on what should and should not be in a privacy bill is emblematic of the divide between political parties on the issue despite the fact that both agree a national privacy bill is necessary.

But there were signs of a thaw. Former FTC commissioner Julie Brill said there were enough similarities among various privacy bills that she was hopeful a bipartisan national privacy law was achievable. Former Chairman Jon Leibowitz agreed that he was heartened by the similarities.

Sen. Wicker said he agreed there is much to be said for Sen. Cantwell's approach and appreciated Brill and Leibowitz for praising both approaches. He said they needed to remember those similarities as they try to iron out "what differences remain."

Among the takeaways from the hearing:

1. Sen. Cantwell said that the committee Democrats would be issuing a minority report next week on the value of local journalism, particularly in the time of COVID-19.

2. Cantwell also said that whether/how the government violates privacy rights is something the committee should also be looking at.

3. Sen. Wicker said he planned to hold a hearing on the invalidated Privacy Shield, the regime that had allowed U.S. companies to meet the EU's data protection standards, but was thrown out by the EU Court of Justice because it did not feel that the U.S. could hold up its end of the data protection agreement to protect data transferred from the EU to the U.S. given the current state of privacy protections, or lack of them.

4. The FTC either needs more authority, or perhaps a new data privacy protection agency should be created. Currently the FTC can not impose civil penalties for first-time offenses and little rulemaking authority, instead enforcing through lawsuits and settlements.

5. Former FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said that the fact that he is opposed to preempting state laws does not mean it passing a weaker federal law. He said any new federal law should be at least as strong as the CCPA. Wicker agreed that preemption did not mean weaker protections.

6. Asked by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) whether they think that greater transparency from internet platforms about how they filter content is something congress should "address," all four of the former FTC officials said "yes."

TikTok and WeChat will have to be out of app stores by Sept. 20, according to the Commerce Department.

Commerce is implementing President Trump's executive order banning the Chinese-backed social media aps from the U.S. Commerce said that both social media aps collect "vast swaths" of data and search histories and that both are
"active participant[s] in China’s civil-military fusion and subject to mandatory cooperation with the intelligence services of the [Chinese Communist Party]."

Related: Imagining a U.S. Based TikTok
 
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” said U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.”

Specifically banned as of Monday (Sept. 20):

1. "Any provision of service to distribute or maintain the WeChat or TikTok mobile applications, constituent code, or application updates through an online mobile application store in the U.S.;

2. "Any provision of services through the WeChat mobile application for the purpose of transferring funds or processing payments within the U.S."

In addition, as of Sept. 20 for WeChat and Nov. 12 for TikTok, also prohibited are:

1. "Any provision of internet hosting services enabling the functioning or optimization of the mobile application in the U.S.;

2. "Any provision of content delivery network services enabling the functioning or optimization of the mobile application in the U.S.;

3. "Any provision directly contracted or arranged internet transit or peering services enabling the function or optimization of the mobile application within the U.S.; and

4. "Any utilization of the mobile application’s constituent code, functions, or services in the functioning of software or services developed and/or accessible within the U.S."

The House Energy & Commerce Committee has scheduled a joint subcommittee hearing June 24 to look at the impact of disinformation online. 

The issue is one of the hottest in Washington, with the President pushing back on his tweets being fact checked and constantly branding stories critical of him as fake news. 

The Communications and Consumer Protection Subcommittees will hold the hearing, titled “A Country in Crisis: How Disinformation Online Is Dividing the Nation.” 

Appropriately, or ironically, the hearing on the spread of misinformation and dangerous disinformation online will be held online.  

The remote hearing will take place via Cisco Webex and accessible on the E&C website.  

No word yet on witnesses. 

The Senate Commerce Committee approved a handful of communications-related bills Wednesday (May 20), favorably recommending them to the full Senate for a vote and passage.  

Getting the thumbs up were S. 3704, the Advanced Technological Manufacturing Act; S. 3712, the Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems (CYBER LEAP) Act of 2020; and S. 3717, the Spectrum IT Modernization Act of 2020. 

The Advanced Technological Manufacturing Act would reauthorize the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program but also retool it given that COVID-19 has put an exclamation point on the need for more high tech workers in a world having to connect remotely.  

The Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems (CYBER LEAP) Act of 2020 would set up various competition, with cash and non-cash prizes, to come up with "high-priority breakthroughs in cybersecurity by 2028" in areas including combatting cyber attacks, cyber education, workforce training, AI, next-gen communications tech, and more.  

The Spectrum IT Modernization Act of 2020 would require the head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) to submit a plan to Congress for the modernization of NTIA's IT systems. 

The Senate Commerce Committee has approved S. 1046, the Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access, and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand (ACCESS BROADBAND) Act, as well as two-other communications-related bills.  

That came at a markup Wednesday (March 11). The bills will now head to the Senate for a floor vote whose scheduling will be up to the majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

The bill creates the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth within the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the White House's chief communications policy adviser. The office will track the construction, use and access to broadband infrastructure built with federal subsidies. Those include USDA-funded rural deployment programs and the FCC's Universal Service Fund.  

Related: House Authorizes SAFE WEB Act

The bill was sponsored by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.). 

Also approved at the Wednesday (March 11) markup were S. 3132, which extends the Undertaking Spam, Spyware, And Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers beyond Borders (US SAFEWEB) Act of 2006 (bill sponsors were Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and S. 3191, Industries of the Future Act of 2020 (sponsors were Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.). 

The SAFEWEB Act provides tools to help consumers combat fraud that originates overseas by affirming the authority of the FTC to go after foreign actors affecting U.S. consumers and businesses, as House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) pointed out at the markup Thursday (Nov. 14). 

The law also helps the FTC exchange information and provide assistance to foreign law enforcement. Pallone said those authorities are crucial. 

The industries of the Future Act:  

1. "Requires the Administration to develop a report on the research and development programs of the federal government that focus on Industries of the Future;  

2. "Requires a plan for doubling the baseline investments in such industries by 2022 and a plan for increasing civilian spending on Industries of the Future to $10 billion by fiscal year 2025. The bill would also require the Administration to propose legislation to implement such spending plans.  

3. "Requires a Coordination Council that would better focus existing entities and require those entities to focus on advancing Industries of the Future."  

The Senate Commerce Committee has approved, S. 2204, the Data Analytics Robocall Technology Act (DART Act).

That came at a markup in the committee Wednesday (Dec. 11). 

The bill would give the FCC 180 days to initiate a rulemaking to consider maintaining a list of numbers that are not eligible to be blocked (as part of default robocall blocking). 

Those numbers could include, said the bill, public safety answering point outgoing calls, emergency calls generated by a government entity, school-related notifications, and weather-closure related calls, other automated emergency calls. 

The FCC would also have to report back to Congress on the effectiveness of "various categories of call-blocking tools" and any legislative recommendations. 

The FCC under chairman Ajit Pai has clarified that carriers can block unwanted robocalls by default, urged them to do so by the end of the year, and will mandate it if carriers don't meet that deadline, says Pai.

The Senate Commerce Committee Security Subcommittee hosted the latest in a years-long conversation Tuesday (April 30) about cybersecurity, but with the new impetus of billions of IoT devices, bipartisan support for overall online privacy (and security) legislation, and the growing impatience of Democrats unsatisfied with the current public-private partnership, voluntary efforts, approach toward what one senator called the "Internet of Threats."

Industry witnesses at the hearing, entitled "Strengthening the Cybersecurity of the Internet of Things," were Michael Bergman of the Consumer Technology Association, Matthew Eggers, U.S Chamber of Commerce; Harley Geiger, Rapid7; Robert Mayer, US Telecom – The Broadband Association; Charles Romine, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Related: FTC Settles with Allegedly Cyber-Insecure Sites

Generally the industry witnesses said that the current track of working with NIST on voluntray baseline standards and labels and certifications, rather than ones imposed by the government, was the way to go. The arguments were that industry was more nimble and flexible to address the constantly evolving changes driven by AI and Big Tech and 5G than federal regs.

Mayer extended that to state efforts as well. He said a patchwork of such cybersecurity regs would add unnecessary complexity, while a voluntary industry effort could adapt and evolve with the threat in as close to real time as was possible. He said that could only happen when policies are "aligned with market dynamics.

Gieger was the exception, saying purely voluntary wasn't enough and government would need to step in in some capacity. The witnesses also pushed back on legislators suggesting that banning Chinese telecoms Huawei and ZTE would be one way to improve cybersecurity.

Geiger said a better approach would be to set baseline standards that would be the quid pro quo for access to the U.S. market. Bergman pointed out that a chip may be developed in one country, fabricated in another, built in another, labeled in another, and sold in yet another.

Eggers said that the chamber wanted to focus on expanding commerce, not slaying dragons. He said a company "blacklist" would be hard to sustain long term. Bergman said that the fastest and best way to get to secure IoT was continuing to work with NIST on voluntary baseline standards--he pointed out that CTA has a long standards-setting track record.

Related: IoT Security Bill Teed Up

He also pointed to the anti-botnet guide CTA had released and the groups it had convened to weigh in on a consensus approach. Rather than government mandates, he suggested that protecting customers was an already necessary and powerful marketplace incentive that his members were responding to.

Bergman said the keys to IoT security were promoting global harmonization rather than a balkanized approach; harnessing market forces; coming up with a common language so everyone was working off the same playbook, and influencing policy here and abroad, with government's role primarily that of a partner and convener toward the goals of tech consensus, voluntary standards and best practices, and market-driven standards that are scalable.

Republicans generally did not challenge that approach. Subcommittee Chairman Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), said the hearing was meant to emphasize the value in continue partnership between government and private industry and voluntary and flexible standards, as well as incentivizing cybsersecurity by design in devices and networks.

Bergman and CTA got hammered by some Democrats over that approach, notably Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), though with Republicans in the majority, their regulatory approach is unlikely to win the day, at least in the current Congress.

Singling out CTA, Markey said he had issues with the association talking about technology being complicated and asking for more time back in 1990 when he tried to make sure all TV sets displayed closed captioning, then in 1996 when he wanted a V-chip in every TV, then again in 2010 when he wanted wireless devices to be accessible to the deaf and blind.

Markey said CTA's response was "never today" and not even "soon."

In those cases, said Markey, Congress needed to pass legislation to get it done and he suggested it was the same with insuring cybersecurity in IoT devices. Markey said he thought there would need to be a mandate and a deadline, rather than an "open-ended take home exam." He pointed out he held his first hearing on the "sinister side of cyber" in 1993.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was equally impatient, though he directed his displeasure at industry players in general.

he said his impatience and frustration with the voluntary standards, public-private partnership approach was because he said there was a "tidal wave of anger and alarm" over cybersecurity. Gieger had refused in earlier questioning to label the issue a crisis, but Blumenthal said it, definitely was.

Related" First IoT Device Gets CTIA Certification

Bergman, when asked if the voluntary approach, though it may moving in the right directions, was moving fast enough. Bergman had said it was the fastest possible and most efficient way to move. Blumenthal said the answer should have been "no."

He pointed to devices that currently transmit information about what kids are saying, when people are awake, when they are using the device, and hacking software on Amazon for $20. There were a number of scare stories relayed during the hearing, including the hackers playing audio porn through a baby monitor and a casino high-roller list hacked using the connected thermometer in a fish tank.

"That is why there will be government intervention," he said. "The voluntary approach is failing or has failed and here has to be stronger attention, with a sense of urgency that the subject demands."

There was quite a divergence in the handicapping of the new FCC chairman--Ajit Pai--by the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.

That came in opening statements for the Senate Commerce Committee FCC oversight hearing, the first in that committee in six years Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) pointed out, adding: "A lot has changed since then."

"The FCC’s first actions under Chairman Pai were to make much needed reforms to improve the agency’s processes and transparency," said Thune. "Counter to the trend of Chairman Pai’s recent predecessors, who often sought to amass as much power in the chairman’s office as they could, these simple steps instead empower the public and the other commissioners."

As to the chairman's early moves to roll back some of his predecessor's regs, Thune was also pleased. "While I am sure there are other actions that may need to be revisited, I do think we need to hit reset on both of these items.  And I’m glad to see the FCC has already started that process by staying certain parts of the rules that were set to go into effect last week."

When it was Nelson's turn, he painted a much different picture, praising Pai's Democratic predecessor, who he said had had consumers' backs, and saying Pai had, in only a few weeks--Pai took over Jan. 23: 

1) Acted to prevent millions of broadband subscribers from receiving key information about the rates, terms, and conditions of their service; 2) Acted to guarantee that broadband subscribers will have less protections with respect to the security of their online data, while promising to further weaken the duties broadband providers owe to protect the web browsing history and other personal information of their paying subscribers; 3)Threatened the expansion of broadband into the homes of low-income Americans by limiting the effectiveness of new Lifeline program reforms; and 4) formally rescinded an FCC staff report detailing the implementation of the agency’s comprehensive E-Rate modernization effort," an effort Nelson said "sent shock waves through schools and the libraries across the nation."

Separately, a dozen Democratic Senators, including members of the committee, wrote Pai this week urging him to preserve the program.

Roslyn Layton, who was a member of the Trump FCC transition team, agreed with Thune.

“Today’s oversight hearing confirms the new FCC, under the leadership of Chairman Pai, is finally prioritizing greater economic competitiveness and support for the everyday American consumer," she said in a statement following the hearing. "By bringing economics and consumers back to the central focus of the agency, the chairman and commissioners are encouraging bipartisanship and practical rulemakings that will allow our burgeoning U.S. telecommunications sector to reach new levels of competition and innovation.”