The House Commerce Committee didn’t vote on two FCC process...

votes on the FCC bills will likely be postponed until next week. The exact day hasn’t been determined, a committee spokesman said. The markup began late Tuesday with opening statements, in which Republicans took shots at the FCC for the agency’s handling of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. “Now that the matter is under consideration by the Department of Justice and AT&T has withdrawn its petition, I question the value of the FCC moving forward until the litigation is resolved,” Upton said. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he was “disappointed” to hear the FCC was planning to reject the deal and had considered not allowing AT&T to withdraw its application. The FCC must “operate in a transparent and accountable manner,” Upton said. “A number of process disputes have arisen in recent years,” under chairmen from both political parties, he said. However, Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the larger bill HR-3309 “would not reform the FCC but disable it.” Waxman said he supported “the purpose” of HR-3310, a smaller bill that would consolidate many FCC reports and eliminate others. “But further work is needed to improve the bill before it goes to the floor,” he said. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., agreed process reform is needed at the FCC, but said the Republicans “go too far” in HR-3309. Dingell complained about the FCC process leading up to the agency’s net neutrality order, and their unresponsiveness to his questions about voluntary incentive spectrum auctions. But Dingell said the GOP bills had “no hope” of being taken up in the Senate.