House Communications Hearing May Clarify NTIA Reauthorization Act's Prospects

“The draft [House Commerce Republicans] put forward is a thoughtful approach to modernizing and updating NTIA,” said committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in an interview: “It’s fairly straightforward” but also “offers us an opportunity to modernize [the agency] to some extent.” House Communications ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said he is “reviewing the draft" but added the current legislative language “doesn’t really do that much.”

House Commerce purposely left several potential provisions out of the NTIA draft in a bid to draw Democratic support, which has been lacking, said communications sector lobbyists. Chief among those provisions left out of the draft is language that would formally elevate the role of NTIA administrator to a subcabinet-level position, lobbyists said. The idea was one of several discussed beginning at the start of work on recertification last year (see 1702010063, 1702020065, 1705300067, 1708310047 and 1803060048). NTIA Administrator David Redl is technically at the subcabinet level -- the person in the administrator position also holds the title of assistant secretary of commerce-communications and information, reporting directly to the secretary of commerce rather than through an undersecretary.

Language to formally make the administrator an undersecretary is mainly “helpful for intergovernmental purposes” given NTIA’s role in international governmental forums dealing with global telecom and internet policy issues, one telecom lobbyist said. A lobbyist who focuses on Democratic lawmakers said there has been chatter that Republicans could choose to place the title change in a revised version of the NTIA bill if Democrats remain ambivalent about the legislation.

Walden acknowledged the NTIA Reauthorization Act still “could be a vehicle” to enact broadband infrastructure legislation, as House Digital Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, floated earlier this year (see 1804170059 and 1804230061). But “I don’t think” the committee will choose to go beyond including the text of the House Communications-cleared Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand Act (HR-3994), Walden said. HR-3994 would establish the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth within NTIA (see 1806130047).

Inclusion of HR-3994’s text and language that would direct NTIA to work with the FCC and consult with other federal and state agencies on broadband connectivity data mapping point to House Commerce’s intent to use the NTIA Reauthorization Act to “fix” the FCC’s broadband mapping accuracy, Walden told us. “That’s really important,” particularly given FCC work on the USF Mobility Fund Phase II auction (see 1802270043). “We’ve wrestled with this mapping issue for a long time, so I think in the course of” the hearing “there will be a lot of discussion about better mapping, and that’s something that the FCC needs to get right,” Walden said.

R Street Institute tech policy associate Joe Kane and others also said the broadband mapping language is an important component of the NTIA draft. “I'm generally skeptical of the ability of government subsidies for rural broadband programs to yield net economic benefits, but, as long as they are going to exist, it's good to have accurate data,” Kane said. “Coordination between the various programs should also enable funding to be allocated less wastefully.”

Free State Foundation President Randolph May doesn’t “find much to disagree with” in the draft, though he “might prefer to see even stronger language directing that federal funds be used only to support broadband in unserved areas.” Wording directing NTIA and the FCC to avoid “overbuilding” broadband infrastructure “appears to be directed towards requiring that funds go to unserved area, but perhaps it could be strengthened to make the prohibition more clear,” May said.

Advance Testimony

Industry consultant John Kneuer is to testify in favor of the broadband mapping language. NTIA’s experience with the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and other programs should help the agency “effectively coordinate the Broadband Map as well as the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth,” said Kneuer, a former NTIA administrator. "Because different government agencies gather information in different formats and from different sources, it makes sense to have a single repository for all of this information that can be synthesized into a format that can be consistently applied and relied upon by various grant and loan issuing agencies across the government.”

Entertainment Software Association CEO Michael Gallagher, a former NTIA administrator, said expanding rural broadband access is a “particularly important” part of the agency’s future mission. “Better policy begins with better data, and I am confident that NTIA can help gather and analyze that data,” he said. Broadband “availability is critical for economic development in rural regions, and we need to consider new ways of collecting and measuring data to help us better serve those communities.” CTC Technology and Energy President Joanne Hovis is also to testify.

Gallagher cited the need for NTIA to “continue the search for additional ways to promote efficient use of Federal government spectrum.” House Communications should “consider focusing on” additional NTIA-led efforts “to make more spectrum available for unlicensed use as part of the reauthorization process,” including prioritizing “technologies and regulations that enable spectrum sharing,” he said.

Kane cited a “sense of Congress” resolution included in the draft that would urge NTIA to ensure multistakeholder internet governance “maintains the security, stability, and resiliency of the internet domain name system” and that new laws globally “do not undermine” ICANN's Whois service (see 1805140001 and 1806060004). The language “highlights the continued clashes we can expect” as the EU’s implementation of its controversial general data protection regulation “results in far-reaching effect on the global internet ecosystem,” Kane said. “It is also a test of what role ICANN will play in either bridging that divide or taking sides.”

NTIA remains “the proper repository for the policy coordination and advocacy before ICANN and is the best suited agency to represent” U.S. interests after the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, Kneuer wrote. Gallagher also supported the Whois language: “Bicameral, bipartisan support for NTIA’s position on Whois would greatly help the agency’s ability to advance the issue before multilateral stakeholders.”