House Commerce Divided Over What Democrats Consider Partisan FCC Reauthorization

“I’ve reviewed the draft legislation and concluded in effect it is meant to squeeze an agency that is already operating at the lowest number of full-time staff in 30 years,” said subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. “We shouldn’t be horsing around with [FCC budgeting], in plain English.” A review period of 48 hours for Democrats is “insufficient,” she said.

Walden’s discussion draft, circulated Tuesday, would freeze the FCC budget at $339.8 million for the next four years and make changes to the FCC inspector general office. The agency has requested more than $50 million more for its FY 2016 budget.

No reauthorization draft has emerged from the Senate. “We’ve looked at what they did on the House side,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday, suggesting the House version marked a start but not what he considered a final product: “It would be really nice to figure out how to do something with net neutrality in there but I don’t know, we’ll see what the traffic will bear. I think there are things we can do that are pretty basic reforms that are independent of that issue.”

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., questioned GOP sniping about FCC process, wondering “whether we first have to make sure our house is in order.” He blasted Walden’s proposal as “a partisan discussion draft that would completely overhaul the FCC’s funding.” He warned against creating “another funding cliff.” Pallone would “like to see us go back to a tradition, process, whatever it was, that we have a week prior to a legislative hearing,” he said. “We need to have more than the 48 hours. … This agency is too important to play these types of games with its funding.” Pallone cast more doubt on bipartisan net neutrality legislation: “After what has taken place over the past few days, I wonder if bipartisanship may only be in the eye of the beholder,” he said, saying he's opening to enshrining open Internet protections into law, but it can’t be “at the expense of all the other work” the agency does.

“This isn’t a markup, this is a hearing,” Walden countered, saying Democrats didn't always give the week that Pallone contended was tradition.

Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, worried about how the reauthorization draft bill would tie USF funding to the appropriations process. That would “risk a lot of instability down the road,” he said, asking Wheeler’s thoughts. Wheeler said rural telecom companies “say we need certainty,” as the USF program has been run. It would be “a serious concern” if that certainty changes, with appropriations battles “dealing with CRs [continuing resolutions] or whatever the case may be,” Wheeler said.

Lawmakers pressed Wheeler on the agency’s proposed closing of field offices (see 1503110054). “Isn’t that where the enforcement activity generally takes place?” Walden asked. Wheeler repeatedly emphasized strained FCC budgets. “We need to be making sure that in flat budgets or reduced budgets, that we’re spending our budget efficiently,” he said. “When you have more trucks than you have agents, you’ve gotta ask yourself the question -- are you distributing resources as they ought to be distributed?” Wheeler later told Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., that he planned to close 16 offices, saying “centralized operations” would cost less. “We can get greater productivity if we follow the kind of model the FAA is doing,” Wheeler said. “We have a flat or diminishing budget. We have unfunded mandates imposed by the Congress.” Wheeler laughed about the prospects: “Do I want to close these offices? ... But I’ve got a fixed amount of dollars to work with.”

Wheeler defended FCC process and announced the creation of a task force “to begin a review of all similarly situated agencies” under the leadership of his special counsel Diane Cornell “and that can be a baseline by which we measure our procedures,” Wheeler said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly “has raised some really good questions,” Wheeler said. He wants each commissioner’s office to contribute one staffer to the task force. He said 90 percent of the decisions under his leadership have been unanimous and he has made an effort to get orders out quickly. Of the 253 votes, 21 have been 3-2 partisan votes, Wheeler said.

Pallone asked about the designated entity rules, expressing concern about those that “game” the system. Thursday, he introduced the Small Business Access to Spectrum Act, which would compel the FCC to update its competitive bidding rules, its text said.

“We will issue shortly a public notice making sure the discussion is broadened out, the record is built, on the question of the AWS-3 auction and some of the very legitimate concerns raised about that,” Wheeler replied. “Our rules have not kept up, but the slick lawyers sure have figured out how to do it.” Wheeler made an “iron-clad” pledge to have a new set of designated entity rules in place before next year’s broadcast TV incentive auction.

All five commissioners testified, and lawmakers raised a variety of issues. Walden pressed on commission items that had lagged. He asked Commissioner Ajit Pai if the FCC had acted on AM modernization or a program access rulemaking on buying groups. Pai said no to both. “I voted on the NPRM about three years ago,” Pai said of the latter. “Not sure what the status on that is.” Pai also told Walden the FCC hasn't completed its media ownership quadrennial review: “We need to put the quad back in quadrennial.” Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., asked what the FCC task force on stingray surveillance devices yielded. Wheeler told her the task force found the agency’s jurisdiction over the cell site simulator devices is limited to radio frequency interference aspects but that the commission would likely have enforcement authority over unauthorized use if the devices were sold illegally. Matsui also noted she plans to reintroduce the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act with Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky.

During a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee FCC oversight hearing, Thune wondered what the commissioners thought of FCC reauthorization, which hasn’t happened since 1990.

“That’s a decision that you make,” Wheeler said. “You’re the Congress, you make the rules.” Pai and O’Rielly supported reauthorization. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told Thune that overhauling the sunshine rules would be at the top of her list of desired changes. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said she thinks the agency needs more engineers. Pai praised the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act and Process Reform Act. Wheeler will mull it over and strive to be “more forthcoming” and offer “a laundry list” of what Congress could do in any reauthorization process, he told Thune.