Adam Bender

The FCC would get $352.5 million in fiscal 2011 under an appropriations bill approved Thursday night by voice vote in the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee. That’s the amount President Barack Obama requested and 5 percent more than the $335.8 million the commission got for fiscal 2010. The FTC would get $319 million in fiscal 2011 under the House bill, $5 million more than Obama’s request and 9 percent more than the commission got for fiscal 2010. Earlier Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill to give the FCC $355.8 million for fiscal 2011, a committee spokesman said. The FTC would get $314 million, the amount approved earlier in the week by the Financial Services Subcommittee (CD July 28 p13). Senate Appropriations voted 18-12 to report the measure, Republicans casting all the “no” votes. They objected not to the FCC or FTC budget but to the total spending proposed by the Senate. In the House subcommittee markup, Chairman José Serrano, D-N.Y., said the FTC is one of two agencies that “will improve their websites and telephone services for all consumers, including Spanish speaking consumers.” Subcommittee member John Culberson, R-Texas, didn’t make good on his threat to offer an amendment to prevent the FCC from spending money to regulate the Internet. He no longer plans to offer it, a House staffer said.

The FCC could use auction proceeds to pay spectrum users that voluntarily give up their frequencies, under bipartisan legislation introduced Thursday by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. The narrowly written, three-page bill would help the U.S. achieve the National Broadband Plan’s goal of finding 500 MHz of spectrum for broadband in the next 10 years, said Boucher. “It’s great to see the movement in Congress we're seeing on incentive auctions,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in an interview.

Equipment makers could seek grants to develop public-safety devices that support voice, data and video communications in the 700 MHz spectrum, under a bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. HR-5907 would set up a $70 million competition, run by NTIA, for research and development grants. “This process will produce devices ready for first responders’ use within five years -- hopefully sooner,” Harman said Wednesday on the House floor.

House Democrats’ “jobs agenda” includes expanding broadband and bridging the digital divide, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday at the Communications Workers of America’s legislative conference. “We cannot succeed, compete, prevail in the international marketplace; we cannot protect the American people and have real national security if we [allow] erosion of our manufacturing, our industrial and technological base to continue,” she said. Later, the union asked its members to work for narrow legislation confirming the FCC’s broadband authority. “There is a broad feeling in Congress on all sides -- Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative -- that Congress is the right place to fix this,” Shane Larson, a CWA director, said at the conference. “They just need to feel that sense of urgency.” Congress should remember that ISPs provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, while Craigslist, for example, supports only 30, he said. Communications workers won’t vote strictly by party in the November congressional elections, said CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and other Democrats shouldn’t count on CWA’s support if they haven’t helped workers, Hill said. “Those days are gone, brothers and sisters, and it’s about damn time.” The union endorsed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s unsuccessful primary challenge to Lincoln. CWA will work to re-elect senators only if they support revamping Senate procedural rules to remove filibusters and other roadblocks to passing legislation, Hill said. “This Senate is the worst excuse for a democracy I have ever witnessed.” Larson agreed, saying the Senate has “totally constipated the federal government.”

Small businesses face barriers to selling cybersecurity services to the federal government, managers of such companies said at a hearing Wednesday of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. Chair Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., agreed it’s tough for companies with limited money to break into the Washington government market and asked for specific suggestions “about what we might change."

The Senate failed to close debate on the DISCLOSE Act, as expected (CD July 27 p8). S-3638 responds to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizen’s United. Splitting on party lines, senators voted 57-41, falling short of the 60 votes needed to end debate. The vote was “disappointing but not unexpected,” because Republicans were under great pressure to vote no, bill sponsor Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. Democrats will hold another vote on the bill as soon as they can convince a Republican to support it, he said. Schumer is open to editing the bill to get the 60th vote, he said. He declined to guess when the vote would occur. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he hoped the Senate will pass the bill before political advertising for the November election heats up. “This new law will not stifle anyone’s speech or their ability to advertise -- it merely requires them to do so out in the open,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor. Big corporations should be required to stand by their ads, agreed Schumer. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters that the bill is a “transparent effort” by Democrats to “rig the November election.” The latest version of the Senate bill doesn’t contain lowest-unit-charge provisions that broadcasters opposed.

The Senate may hotline a disabilities communications bill in a unanimous consent vote as soon as Tuesday, a Senate staffer told us. The House was expected to pass its own version Monday night, industry officials said. The House considered HR-3101 in the afternoon, but postponed votes until after our deadline. Monday was the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Rural wireless carriers didn’t endorse but some may be open to Universal Service Fund overhaul legislation by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. The bill (HR-5828) is backed by major wireline associations, the cable industry and AT&T and Verizon (CD July 23 p1). Some expected a competitive bidding rule to alienate rural wireless carriers that compete for USF dollars as competitive eligible telecommunications carriers. Wireless CETCs have concerns, but believe Boucher and Terry listened hard to all stakeholders and came up with a “solid compromise,” said Rural Telecommunication Group General Counsel Carri Bennet.

Wireline telcos of all sizes plus the cable industry backed comprehensive Universal Service Fund legislation introduced Thursday by Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., of the House Communications Subcommittee and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. The sponsors are upbeat about winning FCC support and getting the long-gestating bill through Congress, they told reporters Thursday. The measure will rein in the size of the fund and spur broadband deployment, they said. The legislation will make USF “durable and sustainable in the long term,” said Boucher.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved Thursday a spectrum bill to streamline relocation for federal users. By voice vote, the committee reported S-3490 to the full Senate with a substitute amendment by sponsor Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. The legislation aims to set up a more orderly process for moving federal users off bands that would be reviewed by a three-member technical panel reporting to the FCC and the NTIA. At the markup, Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the bill would ensure that relocation is open and transparent. But it may need further adjustments before it hits the Senate floor, he said. Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and John Kerry, D-Mass., have concerns, but Warner and Wicker plan to work with them before the next vote, said Warner. The Wireless Broadband Coalition, representing AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cisco and Qualcomm, welcomed approval by the committee. The bill “doesn’t make spectrum allocation decisions, but it does make future spectrum allocation decisions easier to implement,” said the coalition’s executive director, David Taylor. “Delays in the AWS spectrum relocation process have slowed broadband deployment. The WBC believes that Federal policy should seek to promote infrastructure investment and broadband deployment, not slow it down.” The Warner-Wicker bill will spur broadband deployment and investment and create jobs, and the coalition believes it “can and should be enacted into law this year.” The legislation “will make the spectrum relocation process more predictable and transparent, thereby producing a more efficient relocation process for all parties and advancing the broadband deployment goals we all share,” said CTIA President Steve Largent. “We hope the full Senate will act on S. 3490 as soon as possible.” The spectrum bill is similar to House legislation HR-3019 by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., but it addresses some concerns that had been raised by the White House (CD June 17 p6). The House Commerce committee passed the Inslee bill in March.