Hope Vanishes for Senate Telecom Legislation This Session, But Rosenworcel Talks Continue
Members of Senate leadership didn’t rule out a possible leadership-level deal under discussion to reconfirm FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel before Congress leaves in a matter of days. But the bipartisan Commerce Committee legislation stalled as a result of her holdup is likely doomed this session, its author and his principal telecom staffer said. A deal on Rosenworcel is believed to be the key to moving these bills through the Senate.
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“Nothing yet,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of leadership and the incoming minority leader for next Congress, in an interview Tuesday when asked about a new Rosenworcel deal coming together. “There was originally a promise of a Republican and Rosenworcel. The Republican got on and Rosenworcel never did, so that complicates things.”
Schumer referred to a deal last Congress between Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to allow Commissioner Mike O’Rielly through in exchange for the advance of Rosenworcel, a Democrat, this session. GOP holds have prevented her reconfirmation all year. McConnell and Reid are now negotiating on a possible deal that, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., confirmed to us last week and Monday (see 1612050056 and 1611300066), likely would need to involve a commitment to step down from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and reconfirmation for Commissioner Ajit Pai, a Republican whose term expired this summer but who hasn't been renominated. The deal also is believed to involve confirmation for a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member and could take the form of a cloture petition.
“I would ask the leader that question,” Thune told reporters Tuesday on whether Rosenworcel is reconfirmed before the Senate leaves, saying the dialogue goes on: “I think right now those discussions continue.”
But Thune’s legislation is likely without hope for this year, he conceded. Reid has blocked the passage of bipartisan telecom bills on the floor over the Rosenworcel matter. “The answer is unfortunately probably not,” Thune said Tuesday of the prospects for advancing Mobile Now (S-2555) and the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-2644) and possibly others. “They still have to be considered by the House.”
“There’s not a whole lot of time to get nominations through, there’s not a whole lot of time to get legislation through,” said Senate Commerce Committee GOP telecom policy director David Quinalty, speaking Tuesday during a Media Institute event. “It’s a lot of wait-and-see this week.” There’s almost certainly no time for the House to process these bigger Senate measures, which lack companion bills in the lower chamber, Quinalty said, repeating his pessimism from an event Friday (see 1612020035). He and Thune have pledged to revive the measures next year. John Branscome, senior communications counsel for Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., referred to his boss' past commitments for working with Thune on the measures next year, which the senator offered to us earlier this fall (see 1610040022).
Commerce Committee staffers from both parties and chambers anticipated much potentially on deck for 2017. Kelsey Guyselman, Republican counsel for the House Commerce Committee, said chamber Republicans aren't committed to using the Congressional Review Act to tackle ISP privacy rules and other regulation, as staffers considered Friday. "I don't think we've gotten to the point of making decisions on that," she said, calling the CRA a "blunt force tool." David Goldman, counsel to House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said there “could be a legal gap” in privacy protections if Republicans abolish the FCC privacy rules, depending on what happens with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling asserting that the FTC lacks jurisdiction over AT&T in a data throttling case (see 1611080053). Pallone is a “big privacy hawk,” Goldman said, urging quick congressional action if a gap emerges.
Quinalty said Senate Commerce is in “internal conversations” with Thune and colleagues on priorities for the new year, beyond Mobile Now and FCC reauthorization. He said there's still interest in bipartisan net neutrality legislation, which Thune and Nelson attempted to negotiate this Congress. Any FCC action on the net neutrality order “doesn’t guarantee some of these policies will be in place long in the future,” Quinalty said, lamenting the possible FCC status as a “spoil of war with each election.”