FCC Would Face Push for Consumer Focus under Rockefeller
The FCC would face change if Sen. John Rockefeller, D- W.Va, were to chair the Senate Commerce Committee, said Hill and industry sources. Speculation arose about Rockefeller temporarily assuming the chairmanship a few weeks ago, after Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., was hospitalized. But Byrd was back on the Senate floor immediately after his release from the hospital, and has made clear he isn’t ready to yield his duties yet.
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“It’s a sensitive situation,” a Democratic lobbyist said. Rockefeller is loyal to the 90-year-old Byrd, the longest serving senator in congressional history. “My only adversity is age. It is not a bar to my usefulness,” Byrd said last summer in a speech defending his job performance. When Byrd became ill at the beginning of March, some thought he would stop chairing the Appropriations Committee. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, 83, is in line to assume that position, one of the most powerful in the Senate.
Under ordinary Senate rules, Inouye would have to give up the Commerce chair if he decided to chair Appropriations. If that happened, Rockefeller is next in line for the Commerce chair -- if the Democrats retain control of the Senate.
Rockefeller has clear ideas about what he thinks the FCC should be doing, and would take the chair ready to pursue them, several lobbyists said. The Commerce Committee, a highly desired assignment, hasn’t taken an active role on telecommunications policy this year. “There’s practically no floor time for anything” unless related to the war or having bipartisan political appeal, a staffer said.
Inouye has chaired several oversight hearings on the digital transition, with another set for April 8. He has been responsive to members’ initiatives such as one by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. Dorgan, a foe of the FCC broadcast media ownership rules wants to move a resolution of disapproval through the Senate. A markup of that resolution is scheduled for April 2. Inouye also held a hearing and markup on a VoIP E-911 bill (S-428) that Sen. Bill Nelson, D- Fla., championed.
“I believe it’s time to start a new course,” Rockefeller said at a December Commerce Committee oversight hearing on the FCC. He urged members to begin work on an FCC reauthorization bill timed for the next administration that would “revamp” the FCC’s mission and examine “the terms of the commissioners.”
The last FCC authorization was in 1990. In 2003 Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pushed a four-year reauthorization bill that would have raised fees for rule violations, prevented use of bankruptcy to avoid making spectrum payments and altered the media ownership review process. While McCain’s approach dealt more with appropriations issues, Rockefeller wants reform. He envisions a reauthorization bill prompting the FCC to be a “better regulator, advocate for consumers and resource for Congress,” he told the December oversight hearing.
Among issues needing attention: Affordable broadband, “high” cable rates, policing inappropriate content and strong consumer protection for wireless customers, Rockefeller said at the Commerce hearing in December. Rockefeller condemned proposals to cap the universal service fund, voicing bitterness that telecom companies follow “profit-making lines” and neglect rural areas.
The FCC “appears to be more concerned about making sure that policies they advocate serve the needs of the companies that they regulate” than serving the public interest, said Rockefeller. “We cannot allow that to happen,” he added, stressing that policy should focus on consumer interests.
He also raised concern over FCC personality clashes, a problem that has intensified in recent months. He said two commissioners gave contradictory testimony about how much the agency communicated while considering media consolidation rules, calling the disconnect an example of the “sense of discontinuity and lack of common purpose” at the FCC. This detracts from the agency’s ability to take a broader focus, Rockefeller said.