Telecom Legislation to Get Higher Profile in New Congress
With strengthened Democratic majorities, Congress may move quickly on telecom issues such as broadband, net neutrality and media ownership, speakers said Monday at a Pike & Fischer conference. Many Democratic lawmakers view the new Congress as a “unique opportunity,” said e-Copernicus President Greg Rohde, a former Clinton administration official and Senate staffer. Members have told him the combination of a Democratic White House and a potentially filibuster-proof Democratic Congress “creates a new dynamic,” Rohde said.
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Changes in House and Senate Commerce Committee leaders also could signal increased telecom activity on the Hill, Rohde said. President-elect Barack Obama’s focus on increasing broadband deployment will stimulate activity and could be included in the economic stimulus package that Congress takes up, said Gloria Tristani, a former Democratic FCC commissioner. Congress will take a more active role in net neutrality and media legislation, she predicted. Rohde said public broadcasting will find a more favorable climate in the new Congress.
But one concern is whether Congress would eye spectrum auction revenue as it grapples with soaring budget deficits, Rohde said. It won’t take long before budget pressures force lawmakers to look at solutions. “We need to ask what the role of telecom policy should be in an era of budget cutting,” he said. Much of existing spectrum policy has come about because Congress eyed sales as a way to generate budget income, Rohde said. “Budgeteers have not forgotten that and may revisit it.”
It will take several months before Obama can appoint and Congress approve new FCC commissioners and others, said former FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy: “The goal will be to get the permanent folks in as quickly as possible.” Jay Rockefeller, D-Va., the incoming Senate Commerce Committee chairman, may play a central role in who works at the FCC, since the committee confirms appointees and “historically has played a very significant role in selecting commissioners,” Rohde said.
“Rockefeller may have some of his own appointees in mind,” Rohde said. The new “administration will have to negotiate with him because he will have the power and ability to control the process.”
Tristani said the appointment process will be more involved under Obama than in previous administrations because he’s asking candidates for a great deal of detailed personal information. “The Obama questionnaire has 63 questions, up from the 25 or so that I had 10 years ago,” said Tristani, who served 1997-2001. Questions delve into details on Internet use and ask candidates if they've ever sent an e- mail that could embarrass the president of the U.S., she said. “The process is long and cumbersome and Senate leadership will certainly play a key role in approving candidates.”
“Many of the telecom appointees” go through the Senate Commerce Committee, giving senators a chance to air their views on what should be proper telecom policies, Rohde said. Confirmation hearings give members a chance to have an influence on the FCC, he said. “They will take full advantage of that.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “innovation agenda,” which called for universal broadband deployment, could see a revival in the next Congress, Rohde said of the California Democratic leader. Pelosi released that agenda when Democrats took control two years ago, but she didn’t pursue it due to anticipated opposition from the Bush administration. Pelosi, who is interested in telecom issues, has close working relationships with newly elected House Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., and will work with them on enacting her agenda, he said.
Waxman, however, is less focused on telecom policies than exiting Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., Rohde said. That could give Markey or whoever runs the Telecom Subcommittee a wider legislative berth, he said. Dingell’s fall from power marks a tidal shift for many of the lawmakers on the committee who have never served under any other chairman. But Rohde predicted that those who supported Dingell for chairman won’t face retribution from Waxman. “Everything I've heard says ‘Let’s heal the wound.'”
While broadband will be a focus, the FCC has many tools at its disposal to carry out Obama priorities, Rohde and Tristani said. “A lot of the broadband agenda could be implemented without Congress,” he said, except for tax policies. The commission “has plenty of existing authority,” he said. Tristani said the commission could shape broadband through changes it makes to the universal service fund. “You don’t want to see a bigger fund,” she said, but a more targeted fund could help get broadband more broadly available throughout the country.
Abernathy said the commission’s legal authority over broadband is a bit murky, making it difficult for regulators. The Communications Act doesn’t specifically address broadband, she said, adding that the law is “woefully out of date and will continue to pose a challenge” for regulators until it is rewritten. “The FCC is still struggling with the difference between Title 1 and 2” of the Telecom Act, she said.