Upton, Walden Conference Appointments Seen Positive for Spectrum Bill
The House GOP authors of spectrum legislation hope to negotiate the payroll tax cut extension with the Senate, but that could be tough because senators have largely returned to their states for a month-long break. After voting Tuesday to move to conference, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, named as conferees House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich. However, at our deadline, Senate and House Democrats still had not agreed to participate. Members of the Senate have already left for the holidays, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., refused Tuesday to call back his members. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also said she would not appoint conferees.
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"It’s time now for the House and Senate to come together and get a bill done by the end of the year,” Walden said in a YouTube video posted Tuesday. He named spectrum legislation as a key part of the plan proposed by House Republicans. Upton and another conferee, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., also discussed spectrum in floor statements Tuesday. “If anything comes of the effort to go to conference on the payroll tax extension, three of the conferees are talking about the need to include spectrum legislation,” said Vince Jesaitis, a director of the Information Technology Industry Council. “Should an extension longer than two months be negotiated, additional revenue will be needed to offset it, and spectrum auctions offer one of the least controversial options with a lot of upside in private investment and job creation."
The naming of Walden and Upton is “a pretty solid signal that the House wants spectrum” in the final deal on a one-year extension,” said a broadcast industry lobbyist. The Senate appeared to be open to including spectrum in a one-year deal, but dropped spectrum when it opted for a two-month plan because the offset was no longer needed to cover the price, the lobbyist said. The fact that Walden’s spectrum bill was in the House’s original payroll bill (HR-3630) “gives both House and Senate conferees procedural and budgetary incentives to use spectrum auction receipts” as an offset for the other spending measures in the payroll tax bill, said David Taylor, managing partner of Capitol Solutions.
The Walden-Upton appointments are moot if House conferees have no one to meet with, several telecom industry lobbyists noted. “Our inclination is to think that over the next 10 days, nothing is going to happen other than a debate between House [Republicans] and the Senate in the press and through the party propaganda mills,” said a broadcast industry lobbyist. “After the first of the [new] year, when the public begins to feel the fallout from the impasse … then you will see pressure ramp up on Congress to cut a deal."
Reid refused Tuesday to reopen negotiations on the payroll tax cut extension until the House passes the two-month extension agreed to 89-10 by Democratic and Republican senators. Rather than vote on the Senate-passed measure, the House on Tuesday approved procedural motions to set up the House-Senate conference. The Senate returns to Washington Jan. 23, according to their 2012 calendar.