Senate Commerce Clears Mobile Now, Other Telecom Measures By Voice Votes

“We’re going to do FCC reauthorization,” Thune told reporters. “We’d love to see if we can do something with the open internet rules. And we’re going to try and restart those negotiations. And that’s going to depend largely on whether the Democrats have any interest in the negotiations there. I think a lot will depend on what the new FCC decides to do.” He referred to some of these priorities in a speech Monday (see 1701230071). Thune also spoke on CNBC Tuesday, favoring net neutrality legislation, and touched on the same topics during remarks on the Senate floor. "I'm confident that we can attract the bipartisan support that's needed to move legislation modernizing the FCC," Thune said, also stressing desire for open internet legislation. "Ambiguous regulations that shift with the political winds aren't in anyone's best interests."

Thune told reporters later that he hopes the Senate will take up Chao’s confirmation vote as early as late Tuesday. “If I were a betting man, it’s probably more likely that Chao would make that cut than Ross today,” Thune said. “It’d be great if they would take them both because neither of them is controversial.” Neither vote was scheduled as of our deadline.

The Commerce Committee approved several bills without disagreement, all reintroduced from last Congress: Mobile Now (S-19), the Senior Fraud Prevention Act (S-81), Digit Act (S-88), Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act (S-96), Sandy Act (S-102), Kari’s Law Act, Spoofing Prevention Act (S-134) and the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (S-174). The advance of Mobile Now was a far simpler process than its markup last year, which involved much greater negotiation and amendments being proposed and drawn into the measure. That spectrum bill ultimately died last month amid an unrelated leadership battle. The House approved companions for several of the bills on the floor Monday. Mobile Now was cleared with an uncontroversial substitute tweaking the text and an amendment from Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., requiring NTIA to develop recommendations to “prioritize or streamline certain construction permits.” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., also filed a slightly altered text for the Sandy Act that was incorporated. The measures are expected to undergo unanimous consent requests on the floor, but Thune said earlier it’s possible they could be packaged for a roll-call vote if need be (see 1701190068).

“Many of these agenda items also passed the Senate or House, but for a variety of reasons, were not enacted into law,” Thune said in his opening statement. “In many respects, this is a ‘clean-up’ agenda of unfinished business before we embark on a new slate of bills for the current Congress.”

Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., named certain subcommittee ranking members during Tuesday’s markup. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, will remain ranking member of the Communications Subcommittee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will remain ranking member of the Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee, Nelson said.

Several groups lauded the Senate and House for efforts to take up legislation that stalled last Congress. “I’m pleased that the Committee advanced the MOBILE NOW Act to support 5G spectrum and streamlined deployment, especially in rural and hard-to-reach areas, including federal lands, and the DIGIT Act to keep focus on potential IoT services that will utilize next generation networks,” said Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry.