House Commerce Leaders Considering Options for Advancing Broadband Legislation

“We’re looking for various opportunities to move forward” on broadband infrastructure-related legislation, though there’s been no commitment to explore attaching language into an NTIA rechartering bill or any other measure, House Commerce Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told us: “We haven’t decided yet” what will be the best path forward. “We are hard at work” deciding “how we are going to bring” broadband legislation forward, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “We’re still talking to the White House” about how they would prefer to proceed, she said. House Communications has been examining broadband infrastructure-related bills it considered during a January subcommittee hearing (see 1801300051).

“A lot of what we do” by necessity gets grouped together into a larger bill to give it a chance of “getting attention on the Senate floor,” Walden said. “We’ll see what we can group together to get this done.” He noted language from the five broadband bills House Communications originally considered in January made it into the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill that Trump signed in March (see 1803210041, 1803210068, 1803220048 and 1803230038). The omnibus also included text of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986).

“We need to make sure as we move forward” that if “we can’t get a broader package” on broadband, “we get more things done in other pieces of legislation,” Latta told us. A NTIA reauthorization bill is just one option for getting broadband legislation through, he said. Lobbyists questioned whether NTIA reauthorization legislation specifically is a viable option for advancing broadband measures. “The message I’m receiving” from Capitol Hill is “it’s possible but probably not likely” it would make it into an NTIA bill, one broadband lobbyist said. “They should have worked harder on that with FCC reauthorization.”

Walden gave no timeline for bringing NTIA rechartering legislation forward to formal introduction, saying House Commerce is “working through various programs and agencies” under its jurisdiction to determine how to renew them. “We’re making good progress” and the committee is ensuring it’s “methodically” examining each agency, he said. House Communications began exploring a possible reauthorization measure last year and Blackburn said last month she intended to bring a bill forward this spring (see 1702010063, 1702020065 and 1803060048). “I’m not sure NTIA reauthorization can happen before the end of the year” given House Commerce’s pace, a telecom lobbyist said. Seven entities lobbied Capitol Hill on NTIA rechartering in Q1, representing no change.

Legislative Vehicles

Broadband legislative language could be attached to any of a number of bills, but “the more we can do to minimize confusion” on federal broadband policy, the better, said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield. “That’s one of the reasons I liked” inclusion of $600 million in the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill for the Rural Utilities Service-administered pilot Distance Learning, Telemedicine and Broadband Program (see 1803210041 and 1803230038), she said: “People don’t have the patience to wait two or three years for the traditional process” for building new broadband programs. NTIA Administrator David Redl's background in telecom policy “really helps,” but the agency’s “sweet spot has always been spectrum policy,” Bloomfield said.

The window for enacting additional broadband legislation in this Congress is dwindling, Bloomfield and others said. Legislative time “becomes short here in Washington once we hit the spring” during an election year, Bloomfield said. “Folks have already seen different pieces moving” via the omnibus, and “that’s taken the foot a little bit off the gas in terms of something comprehensive on infrastructure.” There’s certainly “still time” to advance additional broadband legislation out of House Commerce and even pass it in the House, but “enacting it” is less likely given how the Senate functions, a telecom lobbyist said.

“I honestly wish we had started this Congress with infrastructure,” Bloomfield said. “It would have been a really great bipartisan economic shot in the arm before we got bogged down into more controversial issues.” Trump’s plan proposes $50 billion in federal funding for rural infrastructure projects allocated via state block grants that could be spent for broadband, which “raises a whole different set of discussions that I’m honestly not sure we’ve got the time to work our way through” now, she said. “I also don’t see Congress necessarily inclined to dispense funding when they don’t really have a role in coordinating it. Usually they want a say in where funding goes, so when you give it to the states, you’ve got 50 different directions you could possibly go.”

Forty-eight entities lobbied the Hill on broadband infrastructure legislation in Q1, up from 37 during the same period in 2017 but down slightly from the 51 which lobbied on the topic in Q4. Comcast topped the list of communications sector entities for lobbying expenditures in Q1. Google was again the top tech sector lobbying spender with $5 million in expenditures for Q1. Amazon spent the second most at $3.38 million, and Facebook reported $3.3 million in expenditures.

Comcast said it spent $4.24 million on lobbying during the quarter, up 14 percent. Forty outside firms reported a combined $2 million in income for lobbying on the company’s behalf. AT&T said it spent $4.12 million on lobbying, down 10 percent. Twenty-nine outside firms reported $1.35 million in income from the telco. NAB reported spending $3.89 million, NCTA $3.33 million. CTIA said it spent $3.17 million, and Verizon said it spent $2.8 million. T-Mobile said it spent $2 million, Qualcomm $1.89 million and Sprint $790,000.