Week ahead in tech: Crunch time for internet handoff opponents

It’s crunch time for opponents of the White House’s plans to hand off oversight of the internet.

The fight, which has been heating up in recent weeks, is now coming down to the wire, with the transition planned for Oct. 1.

The plan would see the U.S. relinquish oversight of the internet domain system to an international governing body. Critics say that move could leave the internet under the control of countries like Russia and China and restrict online freedoms.

{mosads}Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been the most vocal Republican opposing the plan. He has championed legislation against it and held a Judiciary subcommittee hearing this week where he hammered witnessesand blasted the plan.

Now, he’s weighing trying to push a measure in a must pass short-term spending bill to delay the transition.

Lawmakers must pass a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1. The Senate has scheduled the first procedural vote on a short-term spending bill to run until mid-December this Monday.

But even Republicans like Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) who have concerns about the handover are not sure if Cruz’s efforts will be successful — or if a rider to the spending bill can actually stop the handoff.

Over in the House, the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) is also floating using a short-term government funding spending bill to block the internet transition

Lawmakers will have a busy week in addition to the spending bill and internet handoff.

On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s tech subcommittee will host a hearing on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

“As technology evolves, so too should our laws,” said subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) in a statement. “The TCPA should be ensuring Americans receive the calls they want without being harassed by calls they don’t. Instead, it’s a prime example of an outdated law that lags behind modern communications technology and consumer preferences.”

The hearing comes after committee Democrats asked for the panel to consider the law, responsible for protecting consumers from unwanted robocalls and spam texts.

“The public has clearly spoken, and it is time for Congress to explore whether there is more we can do to protect consumers from these unwanted intrusions and examine whether the laws should be updated for the 21st Century,” said three high-ranking Democrats on the committee.

Robocalls have become a bipartisan issue as of late. Earlier this year, in the upper chamber, Sens. Thune and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) asked the wireless trade group CTIA about creating a list of reassigned numbers that shouldn’t receive robocalls.

Off Capitol Hill, on Monday, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute hosts an event on government hacking.

“The prominence of these issues forces us to ask hard questions: Do we need new laws to regulate government hacking, or the government’s disclosure of vulnerabilities, and if so, what should they look like?” the organization said about the event. “Should law enforcement be allowed to hack, or participate in the market for hacking tools, at all?”

The event will feature representatives from Brookings, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others. It will include two panels.

Also, listen for continued chatter about the Federal Communications Commission’s revised set-top box plan.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said this week she doesn’t think the agency has the authority to push a key element of the proposal. Now all eyes are on Chairman Tom Wheeler as he looks for a path forward on the plan to shake up the television box market.

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