Thei own. What will the chairmano in response to that is that going to force him to move more quickly, or is it going to put him in a position where hel have to do some horse trading with Congressional Republicans. Thats not clear yet. Thats something well be watching early in the year. Host and youe written about this ho quickly do you expect a bill . Guest i think were looking at next month. Early in the year yes. Hos in january . Kate tam ril low, Net Neutrality. Guest were also talking about Net Neutrality against the backdrop of the Communications Update which is this big, multiyear that republicans in congss have undertaken. They kind of have that working as well. The rpublicans in the house have said they want to get pen to paper starting in january, so we could see some movement on that very soon, and thats a ol for the Congressional Republicans to kind of push back to thinkn any Net Neutrality rules they think are an overreach on wheelers part. Host how much groundwork has been done on a rewrite . Guest weve had a lot of hearing, a lot of white papers touching on these issues. It seems like telecom is very hot in congress right now, so theyve definitely had lots of opportunities to talk about these issues and three things specifically about the commerce update which is kind of the moniker theyve been using for it so theres definitely been a lot of groundwork laid. We havent seen drafting any kind of language, but theyve had a lot of time to talk about it. Host how much of a change is it going to be with Frank Pallone as the Ranking Member of the enc committee mr. Thune take over commerce over in the senate etc. Guest well, i think we know where senator thune stands on a lot of these issues because hed been the Ranking Member so he made it pretty clear where he stands on things. The Communications Act update for example is very importan to him. Hes also taken a look at tv regulations and how broadcasters deal with Cable Companies, so there are some ideas we have of whether senate thune stands on these things. I think Frank Pallones a tossup. He hasnt been as involved in these issues as anna eshoo who he beat for the position for Ranking Member. Anna eshoo will still be on the communicions subcommittee, so its unclear how much say shell have vers pallone, but again, theyre going to be in the minority still, but at the end of the day its still up to congressmen walden and upton to decide these issues in the house. Guest i think it could be interesting to see how pallone interacts with the majority on this. You know with eshoo as the ranking democrat, you would have seen a lot of back and forth between republicans and democrats on tech issues that would have made for some really interesting fireworks. Here i think, with pallone leading things you might see a little bit more consensus, a little bit more cooperation. Again, we dont really know a whole lot about pallone, but some people have said to me, you know, pa loans from new jersey pallones from new rsey, new jersey is where at t had a lot of its roots going back to the, you know 40s and 50s when it was a big monopoly. Pallone might be more inclined to work with industry. Thats a direction that he could go in there. But, you know in general we probably wont see the kinds of fireworks that we might have seen with eshoo as the top democrat. Host whats ott issue another issue that the fccs going to be looking at with regard to Net Neutrality . Guest i think one thing theyll continue to work towards is spectrums and incentive auctions. You know, the fcc is still working through a tremendously successful auction of government airwaves right now and one big question is does that set up Telecom Companies to spend more in an upcoming auction for broadcast airwaves, or does this mean that theyve depleted themselves and now wont be able to spend as much . And thats going to be one big question moving forward the fcc will continue to be working on developing how it holds the auction the broadcast auction. I think thats going to be one big with area moving forward. Guest well, i think another big issues going to be the moriers and then, you know mergers, and in 2015 on whether to allow comcast to buy Time Warner Cable whether to allow at t to buy directv. Those are major decisions on the way we watch television the way we access the internet. Those e decisions that are going to have to be made. If they allow the mergers to go forward, there will be conditions. So what sort of conditions will be placed on the companies a lot of interplay with the Net Neutrality proceeding. I think most people expect at t and directv is getting a lile bit less pushback. Time comcast and Time Warner Cable is more controversial so thats going to to be the big decision that chairman wheeler and the fcc and the Justice Department will have to make. Host Brendan Sasso when do you see the time frame for Decision Making . Guest i think were saying the first part of 2015. Therea timeline that the fccs supposed to stick to, but of course, when there are disputes, they pse the shot clock. But were sll expecting the first part of 2015. Host kate . Guest youll see a lot of reactions on the hill especially. There have been some members who are pretty vocal about this stuff for and against so thatll be an a interesting kind of how that all plays out in the backdrop of the Net Neutrality process and the com act update press. Host whats tom wheelers relationship with the hill, especially now with a complete Republican Congress coming in . Guest i would say tense. Hes very personal, and kind of im sure he is charming at hearings and stuff buteve definitely seen him come in and, you know republicans are not afraid to really a drill into him, especially when they dont like what hes doing. Theres a lot of, you know, tension over how wheeler treats the republicans on the commission. Commissioners pai and oreilly say eyre not getting a fair shake, they dont get to vote on things they want to vote on, wheeler doesnt care abt consensus. He would push back with, obviously, but i would say the relationship is tense, and no matter what he does hes going to get called down to the hill for hearings and kind of get grilled by these people. Host whats his relationship with the president in. Guest also a little bit tense, especially in the wake of the president sNet Neutrality statement. The sense that i thk a lot of people have is the chairman feels like he was thrown under the bus by the president when it comes to reclassification of broadband as a title ii service. And then on top of that, you know theres just als a sense that Net Neutralitys a much more complicated issue than plans the white house will perhaps the white house will let on publicly. Theres a lot of legal back and forth that has to go on lot of political tussling that goes on. And for the white house i think a lot of it is political but in the context of congress mainly. And this is a populist issue th they can rally the base around, you know set up a confrontation with Congressional Republicans whereas, you know, at the fcc their job is to actuallyreate the rules that everyone has to live under which is a much more complicated procs. Host carol tunnel ril low kate tam ril low, we havent talked about cybersecurity and congress. Guest that a has been a hot topic aftethe sony hack which you know, apparently came from north korea. So cybersecuty is definitely going to be an issue everyones mind, especially as this congress picks up in january because this is also recent and kind of shocking in a way we havent seen before. Past hacks whether its target home depot, it kind of made sense we wanted financial information. It wasnt this censorship of free speech and the arts. So thats going to be an iss thats on everyones mind. This has been something weve be talking about for years, will the sony hack what pushes us over the finish line . Well see. Guest i think the hack definitely increases urgency. It puts pressure on people to push forward a bill. I dont know that it necessarily alters theort of fundamental calculus of getting cyber done. Theres still a big privacy concern. You know the white house, you know issued a veto threat twice on privacy issues related to the cybersecurity bill, and so that hasnt gone away. Theres a big question as to, you know, whether, yes like the cybersecity incident does increase pressure, but does it actually change the terms of debate . Guest well, i think, you know everybody is onboard with the basic id that they want informatn sharing, they Want Companies in the government to be able to do a better job sharing the sort of data about the attacks, what sort of viruses are coming at us. So the question is how much Privacy Protection do you put into the ll . Thats the debate thats going on. I dont know if this incident necessarily changes that but with republicans in control they might be able to set the debate. If they send a bill to the president and hes not thrilled with the Privacy Protections but will he veto it if this is the cybersecurity legislation that comes forward . I dont know. Will there be a filly buster in the senate with the democrats still being able to block leslation . I think things are different now with the republicans controlling the senate. Theyve been pushing a lot of sort of smaller scale cyber bills. There have been a number recently, bu theyre all sort of minor, putting, you know, codifying certain programs and trying to address the quality oryou know, the experience of the workers in the federal government on these issues. So they keep passing bills, but theyre all sort of the smaller issues, and the question is whether they can do something bigger or more subantial. Host kate, whats another issue were going to be looking at in 2015 . Guest we will see surveillance reform debate pick up right off the bat which is, obviously, something that any company that deals th communications are watching for. Key parts of the patriot act are set to expire in june, so can the reform add slow dates advocates get substantial reform new or is it going to be done last minute . Thats a debate thats raged on since the Edward Snowden leaks. So this has been happening for a while and, you kn, we saw a lot of movement and then stop with surveillance reform last year. It passed the house and then Nothing Happened for months, and then we thought we were going to see something in the senate but it couldnt, ultimately come to the floor, it didnt have the votes. So now were going to see this kind of urgency pick up because if they dontass something the u. S. Government will lose the sur Surveillance Authority starting in june. Guest and thats a boon to folks who are defenders of strong surveillance programs, right . The closer you get to the deadline, the more of an argument you can make is, hey, this iabout to go away, we need to ramp things up here. Guest i think it could play for both sides. We have to protect the country, we have to get this done, but ere may be some in congress who are willing to go with nuclear and say were not going to pass it if its not substantial reforms. That will be a very intense game of chicken when it comes down to it if thats what happens. Youre also seeing a lot of companies who really wanted usa freedom, the last bill to get passed and were very disappointed when it couldnt. I think theyre going to be more willing to get a little riskier and say were not going to back something we dont like and, you know times on our side. Itll definitely increase the tensions on both sides, i think. Guest i think there were some people on the privacy end of the debate who are eager to see us go towards this cliff, people like rand paul. But, you know, my opinion is i dont know if that was really the, if theyll really have more leverage. Look who in charge of the senate now Mitch Mcconnell. The statement he put out was this is going to help terrorists kill americans. So its hard for me to see him voluntarily push, you know, real sweeping reforms. I think hes probably going to do as little as possible. Therell be some kin of reforms, but thatll force the reformers to try to block that. They do, again, you need 60 votes to pas anything, so can they muster enough to block what Mitch Mcconnell is pushing . You know maybe but i think that theyrobably they probably missed their best shot in 2015 and now thisis going to be 2014, and now this is going to be and the faher away we get from the Edward Snowdens leaks its fading from peoples minds. Theres concern about isis and terrorists, so the momentum is on the side of the people trying to defend the nsa. Host so when you talk about reformers, mr. Sasso, what are you talking about . Guest right. Well, Patrick Leahy the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee in 2014 was the author of the usa freedom act. The main issue is t first leak that came out of Edward Snowdens documents which was this mass collection of information on all of our phone calls. So thats, you know, the time, the phone numbers, the duration of the call. And so that sort of mass surveillance of americans was, i think, the most shocking revelation. Thats been the main debate is how do they address that curb the nsas authority in that area . President obama took some voluntary step toss change how the nsa handles that data, but ultimately, they want to move the reformers in congress, so leahy, senator ronyden and others would like to remove the nsas control of that vast database. Guest short of large scale, comprehensive nsa reform i think one thing that could be prepared to move is reform of the electronicommunitions privacy act which was, got a tremendous amount of support this past year in the house. Its a bill that would, essentially, update the nations laws when it comes to email privacy and requiring potentially warrants for Law Enforcement to get access to email files. You know, this is something that i think a lot of pple would potentially support. And on the senate, in the senate as well. You know, if we cant get Something Like comprehensive nsa reform bill done perhaps something more could be palatabl guest i think if that could get to the floor, that would definitely have the support to pass. The question is, could it get to the floor . It had a majority of the house supporting it this past year but never came to the floor. I think some people in congress are hesitant to bring it up because could change, you know the same arguments we have with nsa reform, it could change Law Enforcements ability to go of after criminals. But, youre right, it is hugely supported, and if it ever got to the floor i have to believe it would have the votes to pass. I wonder now with a governing majority that republicans are very interested in getting things done and making it look hike they can actually govern like they can actually govern instead of being the opposition party, if theres appetite for that. Perhaps this time it could come to floor. Host is there an area of agreement between the Republican Congress and the president on this issue . Guest on the Electronic Communications privacy act . Host rht. On privacy issues. Guest right. I think pretty much everyone is supportive, just for the idea of changing the way that the sort of warrant that police would need to accs emails. The administration the Justice Department was sort of resistant at first but i think theyre on board. It has broad support so the question is why has it not happened . This came up before the Edward Snowden leaks even happened,nd its gone nowhere. What ive heard is theres some resistance from some certa key lawmakers. They might not oppose this generally, but if were going to give to it the privacy side, were not going to just support this without any court sort of any sort of, if youre at the bargaining table, what are you going to giveus . Like kate said, if it goes to the floor i think theres prod support. Question is if theres enoh pressure or attention on this particular issue to the actually force it throughommittee. Host well, kate, what about piracy . Do you thi well see anything done with piracy in 2015 . Guest i cant imagine lawmakers are too eager to touch piracy aer the stop online piracy act protests. But the hse working on a copyright review so thats been goin on for a while now, and theyre going to continue with more hearings and kind of looking to decide what they want to do with the review, and picys easily something that could come up there. You know weve seen a lot of just hesitancy to touch anything involving online piracy that could even ignite a sopalike protest. And i think weve seen google more recently come out against the idea that anything to change dramatically in terms of what people can access on line to prevent piracy from happeni so thats all fresh in lawmakers minds, certainly especially in walk of the sony hack which brought to light some emails that some members of the hollywood industry send about this sent about this. So well definitely see lawmakers lk about copyright broadly. I cant imagine theres a huge hunger to push on something thats been so controversial in the past and cluding the past couple days. Host gentlemen, anything to add to that . Guest well, kates really the expert here. [laughter] host okay. Well,