Adam Bender

The FCC is reviewing what changes might make sense for the agency’s retransmission consent dispute policies (CD March 11 p8), Chairman Julius Genachowski told the Senate Commerce Committee. “The events of the last two or three months confirmed that this is a subject that should be looked at seriously,” he said in a hearing Thursday. He and Christine Varney, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department Antitrust Division, pledged to narrowly review on the merits Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal.

The House Commerce Committee unanimously approved an amended spectrum inventory bill (HR-3125) with stronger national security protection. The panel also Wednesday unanimously approved a bill (HR-3019) by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., that would streamline moving federal users off bands to be reviewed by a three-member technical panel reporting to the agencies. And the committee approved without objection an amended Caller ID spoofing bill (HR-1258) by Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., that would ban manipulation of Caller ID information. All three bills were reported to the full House.

Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., of the House Communications Subcommittee is “very close” to completing his Universal Service Fund bill and hopes to take it to markup sometime this month, he told reporters Wednesday. “We are spending many hours every day working to finalize it” and “get the consent of stakeholders,” he said after a House Commerce Committee markup. (See separate report in this issue.) He wouldn’t say whether he will introduce the bill before or after the FCC’s National Broadband Plan is released. Boucher and the FCC share a goal to switch the fund to supporting broadband, but “the methodology may prove to be somewhat different,” he said. “We will review that broadband plan when it comes forward very carefully, and then we'll be making well-informed decisions as we pursue these goals together.” Boucher said he’s also working hard on his privacy bill, but action on that likely will wait until after USF. “We are working simultaneously on both drafts.” Boucher plans to release a discussion draft in the “near term,” but he wouldn’t specify a date. He said he wants privacy legislation to preserve “all the legitimate advertising practices,” adding, “Our goal is not to interfere with legitimate targeted advertising [or] behavioral advertising practices. Our goal is to give Internet users a greater confidence that their experience on the Web is secure.” Boucher declined to give an example of a legitimate practice before he circulates a discussion draft.

Retransmission consent is expected to come up at Thursday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on media competition and the Comcast-NBC Universal deal, Senate staffers said. The issue has heated up in Washington since last week’s dispute between Cablevision and ABC. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was invited to testify at the hearing. Retransmission consent will “definitely” be discussed, a staffer said. Another noted that the hearing’s original title had referred to the Comcast deal, but it was changed this week to reflect a broader discussion of broadband and media competition. The shift increases the chances of a retransmission-consent discussion, the staffer said.

House Republicans fear already-served areas have received broadband stimulus funding from the NTIA and Rural Utilities Service, they said in a Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing Thursday. And members from both parties questioned shortening the time frame for incumbents to protest applications to 15 days from 30. It’s “absolutely not the case” that NTIA is funding broadband overbuilds, said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling.

The Senate Commerce Committee plans a hearing next Thursday on the Comcast-NBC Universal deal, Senate and industry officials said Wednesday. Senate Commerce will be the last Hill committee with jurisdiction over the deal to hold a hearing. The House Commerce and both chambers’ Judiciary committees held hearings in February (CD Feb 26 p3).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., expects to debate the jobs bill with satellite TV reauthorization “for at least the duration of the week,” and it “could go into next week,” said spokeswoman Regan LaChapelle: “We are expecting an open amendment process so a lot depends on how many amendments are offered.” Separately, the Senate late Tuesday finally overcame the objections of Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., to a package that included a 30-day extension of last Sunday’s deadline. Satellite TV companies continued operations through the license’s sunset at the urging of House and Senate Judiciary Committee leadership, who said upcoming legislation would retroactively push back the expiration date (CD March 2 p2). The 30-day extension brings satellite TV providers back into compliance for the rest of the month, but leaves them vulnerable to legal challenges about providing unauthorized service on Monday and Tuesday, said Senate and industry officials. So far, no legal challenges have been brought against the companies who imported the signals during that period, said two executives. The five-year reauthorization in the jobs bill includes a retroactive provision.

Broadcasters should seek a deal with the recording industry on performance royalties due to current “political realities,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher in a keynote at an NAB conference Tuesday. Broadcasters in the audience objected strongly to the concept. Boucher also praised the FCC’s proposed voluntary approach for taking broadcast spectrum, and said spectrum inventory legislation is nearing a full committee vote.

The National Academy of Sciences would scrutinize FCC process and technical expertise under a bipartisan bill (S- 3042) introduced last week by Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Ted Kaufman, D-Del. The Academy would do a study and make recommendations on the FCC’s technical policy decision- making process, current technical staff levels and agency recruiting and hiring processes. “The FCC must be better equipped and more agile to address the ever-changing technical landscape from a regulatory perspective,” Snowe said Monday. Kaufman said it’s “critical that we include engineers in our nation’s technical policy and decision making, at the FCC and across the government.” Since 1948, the number of engineers at the commission dropped 62 percent to fewer than 300. In its 2011 budget proposal last month, the regulator asked for $11.1 million to add 75 full-time employees (CD Feb 3 p7). Snowe introduced a related bill (S- 2881) in December with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., that would allow each FCC member to hire an additional technical staff member (CD Dec 15 p5). The new bill complements that legislation, with S-2881 addressing the eighth floor and S- 3042 tackling general technical staffing and FCC rulemaking processes, said a Senate aide. The bills could be consolidated into one at a future markup, the aide said.

The Senate failed again Monday to extend satellite TV companies’ authorization to use distant signals, permission which expired Sunday. The satellite TV industry is avoiding service disruptions by violating copyright law, as suggested by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees in a letter late Friday (CD March 1 p1). The Senate now seeks to attach a long-term extension to the second item in the Democratic leadership’s jobs agenda, expected to receive votes this week, Senate and industry sources said. A five-year satellite TV reauthorization was included in jobs legislation introduced late Monday by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.