House Commerce Committee leaders disagreed whether new regulatory reforms by President Barack Obama should apply to independent federal agencies like the FCC. At a House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, an Office of Management and Budget official said current law prevented Obama from applying his recent executive order to independent agencies. Full Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said he will pursue legislation so that no federal agency is exempt. But Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said afterward that he has reservations.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wants tougher net neutrality rules for ISPs. On Tuesday she introduced legislation with Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to create a new section in Title II of the Communications Act to codify the FCC’s six net neutrality principles. The bill would apply equally to wireline and wireless providers. Public interest groups that thought the FCC didn’t go far enough in its order said they supported the Cantwell measure.
Don’t let public safety and some wireless carriers stop the FCC from auctioning the 700 MHz D-block, former government officials and others on the Connect Public Safety Now coalition told Hill staffers in a pair of briefings Monday. In panels on both sides of the Capitol, the auction advocates dismissed public safety concerns about spectrum sharing, and said AT&T and Verizon are only looking out for themselves. The Senate briefing in the afternoon was well attended by staffers for senators on the Commerce Committee, including aides for Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, Mark Warner, D-Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he didn’t “feel a sense of rejection” after losing his bid to become the House Communications Subcommittee’s ranking member (CD Jan 20 p13). But in a keynote Thursday, he also told the Minority Media Telecommunications Council that, “after a brutal yesterday, I needed to be around some friendly faces.” Rush will be ranking member of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, but he said he will remain active on the Communications Subcommittee. A flurry of statements from industry, public industry and other groups applauded the selection of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., as Communications’ ranking member. Other Democrats named to the subcommittee: Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, Doris Matsui and Jane Harman of California, John Barrow of Georgia, Ed Towns of New York, Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Diana DeGette of Colorado. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., is a nonvoting, ex officio member. DeGette will be the ranking member on the Oversight Subcommittee, which is also expected to deal with FCC matters. Other Democratic members of that subcommittee are Markey, Dingell, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Mike Ross of Arkansas, Anthony Weiner of New York, Gene Green and Charles Gonzalez of Texas. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the parent Commerce Committee’s ranking member, is an ex-officio member of all the subcommittees.
Verizon Wireless is moving quickly to upgrade customers to LTE and working with rural carriers to bring wireless to areas it doesn’t serve, Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone said Wednesday in a State of the Net keynote. Verizon expects to upgrade all its 2G and 3G wireless to LTE by 2013, he said. It plans this year to add 140 markets and in 18 months to cover half the U.S. population. In the past six months, the company has signed agreements with at least five rural carriers to build 4G networks using Verizon’s 700 MHz spectrum, Melone said. Verizon has “spent some time” with Chairman Jay Rockefeller of the Senate Commerce Committee and has plans to build out the Democrat’s home state of West Virginia, Melone said. The carrier has committed to spread its network to 10 cities in the state, including Charleston by April, he said. Internet Caucus Chairman Jerry Berman replied, “Charleston’s not rural America.” Also in the keynote, Melone applauded openness and collaboration, saying the days of closed wireless networks are over. “Times have changed. … In a 4G world, that guarded model needs to be turned inside out.”
Nullification of FCC net neutrality rules through the Congressional Review Act topped a list of communications and technology priorities for Republicans on the House Commerce Committee. Also listed in a staff memo Tuesday as “key issues” this year: Spectrum auction legislation, revamping the commission’s processes, broadband stimulus oversight and a Universal Service Fund overhaul. Colin Crowell, former aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said on a panel Wednesday at the State of the Net Conference he doubts that the GOP’s planned resolution of disapproval concerning net neutrality will succeed.
Congress is unlikely to take up a total rewrite of the Telecom Act until late this session at the earliest, telecom trade group executives said Tuesday on a Broadband Breakfast panel. USTelecom, CompTel and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association will be busy early this year lobbying members on broadband issues, they said. But “the next two years are going to go by pretty fast,” and “there just won’t be enough time to address all the issues that we'd like to see addressed,” said Qwest spokesman Tom McMahon.
The House Republican who last year threatened the FCC with defunding if the agency tried to regulate the Internet said Friday he “strongly” opposes Chairman Julius Genachowski’s net neutrality order. House Appropriations Committee member John Culberson, R-Texas, said in an e-mail he opposes “the FCC using our tax dollars for this legal misadventure.” The FCC action “will create regulatory uncertainty, deter investment, stifle innovation, and kill jobs,” Culberson said. “I believe Investment analysts have said the move would put a damper on the economy, and there is no guarantee the FCC won’t impose more burdensome requirements in the future.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., plans to reintroduce his public safety bill during the Senate’s first week back starting Jan. 24, a Democratic Senate aide said. A hearing date isn’t set, but it probably won’t be that week, the aide said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Rockefeller’s bill would reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety and fund the network using proceeds from voluntary incentive auctions.
Two House Republicans think that two bills to scale back FCC authority over the Internet are better than one. Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., each introduced a bill last week opposing the FCC’s recent net neutrality order. A Blackburn spokesman said Wednesday that multiple bills may be necessary to get their point across to the FCC. Meanwhile, former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he doesn’t believe the GOP’s related Congressional Review Act effort is likely to succeed.