Overnight Tech: Dems raise pressure over FCC nomination

LEDE: FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel’s stalled nomination is back in the spotlight.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) laid into Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this morning, leveling charges that McConnell hadn’t made good on a promise to move the Democratic commissioner’s re-nomination forward. Reid says Democrats, at the close of the last Congress, agreed to confirm Republican Commissioner Michael O’Rielly’s nomination without a Democrat to pair him with. They did so on the condition that Republicans would move the Democrat nominee forward in this Congress. But, since Rosenworcel was approved by the Commerce Committee last year, her nomination has stalled out, reportedly under hold by at least two Republican senators.

{mosads}”I’m sorry to report to the world, to the Senate, that I was wrong,” Reid said. “Over the last 16 months the Republican leader has refused to fill his commitment. He hasn’t kept his word.” He said he had spoken to McConnell several times over the last few months about the nomination, but the fact that the nomination is still held up forced him to take the floor.

“I’ve waited,” he said. “I’ve waited patiently for my friend to do the right thing. I’ve held off for months coming to the floor. What else would I do? What else could I do?”

Don Stewart, deputy chief of staff to McConnell, said in a statement that Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) “committed to moving the nomination out of committee, and he did.” “Once the nomination was reported, there was a hotline; there were, and remain, a number of objections from Senators. But since Rosenworcel is already serving on the commission and she can continue to serve until the end of the year, today’s remarks were disappointing.”

WHEELER WEIGHS IN: “I was pleased to see Senator Reid’s comments today on the floor,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement. “Jessica Rosenworcel is an integral part of this Commission and should be confirmed. All nominees, no matter their party affiliation, deserve an up or down vote.” Thune has said that Wheeler’s unwillingness to commit to leaving at the end of the Obama administration, as is standard practice, could be a factor in holding up Rosenworcel’s nomination.

SENATE COMMERCE SCHEDULES MARKUP: Thune’s Senate Commerce Committee will mark up several bills next Wednesday, including his FCC reauthorization bill and the Internet of Things-focused DIGIT Act. For more on the bill’s being marked up, click here.

FACEBOOK JOINS ANOTHER TRADE GROUP: On Thursday, Facebook joined the tech industry trade group INCOMPAS, which describes itself as the Internet and competition association. The social media company takes a seat alongside a number of other high-profile companies like Twitter, Google Fiber, Netflix, Amazon, Tivo and T-Mobile.

CARRIERS PRESS FCC ON BIZ DATA DEALS: Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and the Competitive Carriers Association wrote to the FCC to endorse policy on so-called special access data deals consistent with the framework laid out by INCOMPAS and Verizon in an earlier letter. The trade group and telecom giant came together earlier this year, shortly before the commission announced it was going to vote to formally consider a proposal meant to reform access for the high-capacity networks used by certain businesses.

TECH WORDS MAKE IT IN THE DICTIONARY: Merriam-Webster this week added 1,400 new words to its unabridged dictionary. As a sign of the times, many of them were technology and internet related, including dox, revenge porn, and bitcoin. It also added a number of abbreviations including FOMO, a buzzword associated with the startup community that stands for fear of missing out. Read the definitions of more of the newly added words here.

THE MUSIC OF PRINCE: On the day that the Prince’s death was announced, Vice explored why it is hard to find much of his music online. The news outlet noted that the recording artist was a stickler about protecting his music from piracy, including a particularly headline grabbing copyright lawsuit in which the artists’ label unsuccessfully fought to take down a YouTube clip of a dancing baby that featured his song “Let’s go crazy” playing in the background.

ON TAP:

At noon on Friday, the advisory committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus will hold a talk on encryption.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

The FBI paid private hackers more than $1.3 million for custom software allowing investigators to break into the locked iPhone used by a terrorist in last year’s San Bernardino, Calif., attack, Director James Comey indicated on Thursday.

Trade groups representing internet service providers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to give the public more time to comment on proposed rules governing the way providers handle customer data.

The startup TaskRabbit is becoming the first company to partner with the Congressional Black Caucus to adopt goals for hiring more African-American employees.

Verizon said Thursday that a strike by its East Coast workforce could hurt its quarterly earnings.

Uber’s federal lobbying spending more than doubled in the first three months of 2016, according to a disclosure form filed Wednesday night by the company.

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