Obama's Title II Support Lights Fire for Hill Republicans, Setting Up Fights

House Republicans are seeking to bring all five FCC commissioners in for an oversight hearing in early December, said a veteran telecom industry lobbyist. A media industry official said there was buzz preceding Monday’s White House announcement that such an oversight was coming at an undetermined date. A House Commerce Committee spokesman did not confirm nor deny the possibility.

House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, will reintroduce his net neutrality legislation next Congress, his spokeswoman told us. The bill would prohibit Title II reclassification. “Congressman Latta believes that his bill, HR-4752, is the correct vehicle for Congress to take when preventing this gross regulatory overreach, protecting the billions of dollars in investment that have been made in the Internet and promoting future innovation within the broadband marketplace,” the spokeswoman said. “He continues to work with leadership on the bill and will pursue the legislation next Congress.” Telecommunications Industry Association Vice President-Government Affairs Danielle Coffey had predicted last week that this legislation could advance through a Congress with both chambers controlled by the GOP (see 1411050046).

FCC staff met with Hill offices Monday to brief them on net neutrality, House Democratic staffers told us, meetings that were scheduled before the White House message and still underway despite it. An FCC official confirmed staff were planning to hold bipartisan meetings with House and Senate committee leadership this week to discuss open Internet approaches as well as holding previously scheduled meetings with stakeholders. Lobbyists and Hill staffers said their understanding was that the briefings would focus on Wheeler’s purported hybrid net neutrality approach, which would involve some Title II reclassification. One Democratic Hill staffer said the focus would be on multiple hybrid proposals and their legal risks.

The veteran lobbyist called Obama’s endorsement of Title II unprecedented. He expressed astonishment that it was through such public channels -- with a presidential statement, video and even reddit chat -- and not delivered as a comment through NTIA, as administration comments on telecom policy typically are. The only recent comparable example of such White House involvement was 30 years ago when the Reagan White House stepped in with former FCC Chairman Mark Fowler’s proceeding on the TV syndication rule, said the lobbyist.

Thune Blasts 'Stale Thinking'

Congressional Republicans jeered Obama’s message loudly. while some Democrats praised him. Senate Commerce Committee Republicans in particular savaged the idea.

Ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., likely to chair Commerce next Congress, slammed Obama’s “stale thinking,” which would “invite legal and marketplace uncertainty and perpetuate what has needlessly become a politically corrosive policy debate.” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., expected to soon chair the Communications Subcommittee, said Obama’s “regulatory proposal would undoubtedly be tied up in the court system for the foreseeable future.” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he “strongly” opposes reclassification, which he said would “stall investment and innovation and inject uncertainty into the market through burdensome rules and legal challenges.” Johnson will “remind the FCC that as an independent agency, it answers to Congress, not the White House,” he said. Obama’s call represents a “doubling down on the ‘regulate first’ mentality that inhibits innovation and growth in the tech industry,” said Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blasted net neutrality as “Obamacare for the Internet.”

Senate Democrats welcomed the message. “I join the President’s call for the FCC to preserve net neutrality by using the full scope of its authority, including Title II, subject to appropriate forbearance,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Other Senate Commerce Democratic members including Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., lauded Obama. “When the leader of the free world says the Internet should remain free, that’s a game changer,” Markey said. Reclassification is “simply common sense,” said Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., chairman of the Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee.

“I strongly urge the FCC to adopt the President’s approach,” said Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., vying to lead full Commerce Committee Democrats in the next Congress. Commerce Committee ranking member ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called Monday “a great day for the Internet.” Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., praised Obama “for calling on the FCC to explicitly ban so-called Internet fast lanes or paid prioritization deals,” she said.

Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, was the one dissenter among Democrats. Relying on Communications Act Section 706 for net neutrality rules "is the best course for American consumers, and will help avoid years of litigation and uncertainty for Internet users and stakeholders that would come with Title II reclassification," Green told us in a statement Monday.

Latta joined House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., to attack reclassification. They are “extremely troubled and disappointed,” they said, arguing the Internet should not be treated as a utility. “Today’s post-election announcement that the President supports Title II Net Neutrality rules is a Trojan horse for a government takeover of the Internet,” said House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., referring to court rejection of net neutrality rules. “The President’s pledge of rules preserving 'openness' sounds eerily similar to 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.’”

Distraction from Rewrite?

Lobbyists predicted the fight over Title II reclassification will carry over into next Congress and may derail efforts to overhaul the Communications Act. Top Republicans in the House and Senate have outlined a desire to tackle such an update.

It may be harder for Republicans to concentrate on smaller communications policy items after Title II reclassification, said a communications industry lobbyist whose clients oppose Title II. He said the biggest telecom companies hunger for a Communications Act update to kill old phone regulation silos but questioned where that desire fits into the hierarchy of priorities that includes a much-feared Title II regime. Title II would be a constant overhang, he remarked, also stressing an update would likely take years and warning against any myopic overread focused on the present.

Congressional Republicans will be all the likelier to up the scrutiny on Wheeler in oversight hearings now, as well as go after the FCC’s purse strings through the appropriations process, that lobbyist predicted. It’s still unlikely Congress could pass net neutrality legislation due to Senate Republicans falling short of 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster, but Wheeler, who had outlined many priorities he wanted to accomplish, could suffer a much more difficult chairmanship now, the lobbyist said.

Obama’s declaration will likely nudge Democratic lawmakers on the fence about Title II, one House Democratic staffer mused. He said it’s possible the White House delivered this message as political cover for Wheeler. Before Monday, that staffer thought Wheeler would advance a net neutrality proposal that relied on Communications Act Section 706 plus industry pledges to forbear from paid prioritization and certain practices. Now Title II is a far bigger prospect, the staffer said.

Thune and Upton will have to respond and likely tackle Title II by going after the Congressional Review Act, a tool that Republicans tried to use in 2011 and a way to kill agency rules in an expedited fashion, the veteran telecom lobbyist said. Title II and the administration’s outspoken stance Monday may well render any Communications Act update attempts null and void, he judged, sensing any compromise is now impossible. Democrats will unify behind Title II and Republicans will remain entrenched in opposition, he said. The midterm elections appeared to have inspired Obama’s clarion call, the lobbyist said -- the administration has decided it will aggressively seek to enact its priorities through its agencies.