MEDIA OWNERSHIP LIKELY TO DOMINATE CONGRESSIONAL TELECOM AGENDA
As Congress returns from its Aug. recess, it brings with it the question whether the focus on media ownership has lost any momentum. Controversy over the FCC’s rules was mounting, and the Senate when it left a month ago was prepared to vote to overturn all of the FCC’s new ownership rules. The Senate Appropriations Committee is likely to act on the 35% broadcast ownership cap by including it in its Commerce Justice State (CJS) spending measure. Such a rider would accompany a similar measure that passed the House.
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A spokesman for Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said a floor vote hadn’t been scheduled yet for S. Res-17, the “legislative veto” of the FCC’s rules. Under special rules for such action, a “resolution of disapproval” is treated as a “privileged resolution.” The resolution already has more than the 30 signatures needed to bypass the Commerce Committee, and Dorgan has said that Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-Tenn.) would schedule a floor vote in early Sept. Dorgan acknowledged that such a broad measure wasn’t likely to move in the House, but Senate passage would put more pressure on the House to adopt at least some media ownership regulations, such as the 35% broadcast cap.
Before Congress left on vacation, network lobbyists and others interested in preserving the FCC’s rule changes said they would use the recess to try to change the tone of the debate. Many said it wouldn’t be clear whether there would be such a change in tone until Congress returned. Not only will legislative aides and lobbyists be watching the Senate to see what action it takes, but there will be a continued focus on the House, specifically a letter being circulated by Rep. Cannon (R-Utah).
That letter, endorsed by House Majority Leader DeLay (R- Tex.), would attempt to show President Bush there wasn’t enough support to override a veto of the CJS appropriations bill or other media ownership legislative vehicles that might reach his desk. Sources said the letter fell short of the number of signatures needed -- about 140 -- to prevent a veto override. However, industry and Capitol Hill sources said there probably would be a fresh effort to get signatures on the letter now that the recess is ending.
One lobbyist said the FCC hurt chances to let the debate go stale by unveiling its localism initiative in the middle of the recess (CD Aug 21 p1). FCC Chmn. Powell said he would form a task force to study the impact of ownership on localism, a major argument for those that support stricter ownership limits. Critics said the FCC should have studied localism before issuing new ownership rules. The announcement, and its timing, gave the media ownership issue another news cycle and gave proponents of stricter ownership rules such as Dorgan an opportunity to again issue statements on media ownership. “They gave it another turn of the crank,” the lobbyist said.
Conservative policy adviser Grover Norquist, pres. of Americans for Tax Reform, has supported the FCC’s rule changes and characterized congressional attempts to overturn the rules as a “liberal onslaught” to “muzzle” conservative radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. ATR has created a Web site, www.stopmediaregulation.org, in an effort to quell the ownership issue.
While media ownership will be the hot issue to begin the session, other issues are sure to emerge. House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) will meet early in Sept. to finish the committee’s telecom agenda, spokesman Ken Johnson said. “Freddy’s our quarterback and we're going to give him the ball and let him run with it,” Johnson said.
While there will be several telecom issues on the agenda, Johnson stressed that the Committee’s priorities weren’t with telecom. Sheparding an energy bill through House-Senate conference and finishing work on Medicare modification are the Committee’s top priorities, Johnson said. It also has scheduled 2 days of hearings on the power blackout. However, Johnson said the committee still had “the time and resources for an active telecom agenda.”
As for telecom law, the top priority is to get the spectrum relocation trust fund (HR-1320) to the President’s desk without the controversial “Northpoint amendment” that was added when the Senate Commerce Committee marked up the bill. The amendment, which would give Northpoint and other similar companies access to spectrum without going through an FCC auction, would have to be removed on the Senate floor or in conference or Tauzin would strenuously oppose the bill, Johnson said. The Senate hasn’t yet voted on the bill.
The House Commerce Committee has several items on its “to do” list that Johnson said members would like to get to. The Committee intends to move E-911 legislation (HR-2898) by Rep. Shimkus (R-Ill.), a co-chmn. of the Congressional E-911 caucus. The Senate Commerce Committee already has moved a similar bill (S-1250) by Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.).
The House Commerce Committee will schedule a hearing on access charges assessed by telecom providers, including a focus on allegations by AT&T and Verizon that MCI/WorldCom fraudulently avoided paying access charges. Johnson said those allegations would take “a big part of the hearing” but would not be the exclusive focus.
The House panel also will continue its series of hearings on telecom competition, which Johnson said would be particularly relevant following the recess-release of the FCC’s Triennial Review order. The Committee also will try to move a bill to reauthorize the FCC, which the Senate Commerce Committee already has done, and will try to schedule a hearing on universal service and to move antispam legislation.
Johnson said the committee would schedule a “roundtable” discussion between industry and legislators on the DTV transition. The roundtable had been scheduled for July, but had to be postponed, he said. The roundtable would help lawmakers decide whether DTV legislation was necessary.
The agenda on the Senate side is less clear, partly because Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) spent much of the recess visiting spots of international interest, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey. However, a Commerce Committee spokeswoman said he was anxiously awaiting the General Accounting Office report on cable rates, which is expected in Oct. That report could lead to a hearing on cable rates, she said. For the first week of its return, the Commerce Committee has hearings scheduled on the Space Shuttle Columbia crash and the leasing of Boeing air tankers by the Air Force.