FCC Reauthorization Bill Knocked Off Wednesday Senate Commerce Markup Agenda

“Consideration of the bill will be postponed to facilitate an opportunity for the chairman and ranking member to find a consensus way forward among the committee membership,” a spokesman for Thune confirmed.

Thune doubted in an interview Thursday that his FCC Reauthorization Act would be yanked from the agenda (see 1603100049), citing negotiation with Democrats, who separately told us they were reviewing the bill. But he said then the agenda was being “socialized” and that he wasn't entirely sure. Thune also suggested he would mark up the anti-spoofing bill from Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., later this spring, independent of this Wednesday's markup. Thune last week was initially unsure whether the agenda, which is also slated to include reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, would include the FCC reauthorization bill. Thune introduced S-2644 March 7 but had circulated a draft involving FCC process overhaul last June and spoke of wanting to reauthorize the agency since January 2015. The latest version was significantly pared down, compelling a GAO report on FCC regulatory fees and codifying FCC commissioner terms but without earlier controversial items. Free Press judged the bill a generally clean reauthorization for the FCC, which hasn’t been reauthorized since 1990. S-2644 was on the markup agenda online Tuesday morning but was gone by the afternoon.

“Since it’s been 25 years since the FCC was last authorized, the committee needs adequate time and attention to reach a consensus,” a spokesman for Nelson told us. “Senator Nelson looks forward to continuing to work with all of his committee colleagues to try to get this right.”

The decision to pull S-2644 came after Commerce Committee members already had filed several dozen amendments, not publicly released. Many amendments reflect committee members’ previous proposals. Nelson filed multiple amendments, including one requiring the FCC and FTC to “prepare a report on how to increase the effectiveness of the Do-Not-Call registry,” a concern Nelson raised at this month’s FCC oversight hearing. Another Nelson amendment would “extend the statute of limitations for the imposition of forfeiture penalties” and another “to increase the statutory forfeiture amounts that can be assessed by the FCC.”

Three Republicans, including two running for president, targeted the FCC’s reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., filed an amendment simply forbidding such reclassification and attracted the backing of presidential contenders Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Johnson and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., also filed an amendment requiring the FCC, “when making a public statement regarding a notice of apparent liability, to include a disclaimer” asserting that the FCC has not necessarily found “wrongdoing” but instead needed more information, and together filed another amendment preventing the FCC “from making public statements regarding notices of apparent liability.” A separate Johnson amendment would limit the ability of the FCC to issue or modify rules without “clear and convincing evidence of the absence of marketplace competition sufficient to negate the need for the new or modified rule.”

Cruz filed two amendments of his own. One would “overturn the order” of the FCC “removing Cuba from the Exclusion List for International Section 214 authorizations.” Another Cruz amendment would forbid the FCC from beginning a rulemaking “relating to removing certain nondiscrimination requirements relating to Cuba.” President Barack Obama and several members of Congress are preparing for a major trip to Cuba.

Heller filed his FCC Process Reform Act as an amendment, as he had told us last week he was considering (see 1603090044). Some of this bill was originally part of Thune’s reauthorization draft last year. Heller also filed amendments on the establishment of the FCC inspector general. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., had filed her proposal providing “for equitable distribution of Universal Service funds to rural States,” mirroring her legislation on the topic. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., filed her Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act as an amendment. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., filed their Private Spectrum Relocation Funding Act. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., backed by three other committee Democrats, filed an amendment to strike the provisions in last year’s budget law allowing robocalls to cellphones for debt collection. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., offered an amendment to “improve the enforcement of prohibitions on robocalls,” increasing the statute of limitations and maximum forfeiture.

Several amendments came from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. He filed amendments requiring the FCC to begin a cramming rulemaking, another that would require the agency reassess radiofrequency exposure limits as well as policies and rules on human exposure to such electromagnetic fields, and another that would call for a rulemaking on “promoting broadband Internet access for veterans.” Another Blumenthal amendment would increase the amount of time the Antideficiency Act wouldn't apply to certain elements of the universal service program from 2018, as the reauthorization proposal said, to 2021. One Blumenthal amendment would “remove maximum forfeiture penalties for single, continuing violations.” Another would compel the FCC to publish online complaints filed to the commission, and a different proposal would overhaul the FCC’s forbearance processes. One Blumenthal amendment to the FCC bill actually involved the FTC and would require that agency to regulate “regarding the collection and use of personal information obtained by tracking the online activity of an individual,” the Do Not Track Online Act of 2016.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., proposed an amendment requiring the FCC to “submit a report regarding the use of certain proceeds from a competitive bidding process.” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., with the backing of Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., filed an amendment requiring an FCC report on the broadcast repacking process after the FCC’s broadcast TV incentive auction within 90 days of the forward auction closing. The three senators also filed an amendment on improving broadband deployment and access on tribal lands. Daines filed an amendment requiring the FCC inspector general to concurrently submit semiannual reports to Congress and the FCC. Daines and Manchin also filed a revised version of Daines’ Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, with the text of the bipartisan House compromise set for a floor vote in that chamber this week. Daines and Cantwell also filed an amendment requiring any GAO report required on FCC regulatory fees include consideration of whether the FCC’s regulatory fee structure “has a disparate impact on small-sized payors.”

Manchin backed an amendment from Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., “to expedite the deployment of safety technologies that reduce derailments.” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., filed an amendment requiring FCC quadrennial media ownership rules review with a determination of whether those rules are in the public interest and necessary to increase diversity and localism in media ownership. Booker also filed a 31-page amendment to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 “to defer the tax on the gain of the sale of certain telecommunications and media businesses.”

Spokespeople for Thune and Nelson didn’t say when the FCC Reauthorization Act may be marked up. Thune previously discussed an April markup of telecom legislation.