FCC Oversight Hearing Focuses on COVID-19
A House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight teleconference Tuesday focused on telecom-related COVID-19 legislative proposals. Chairman Ajit Pai emphasized his FCC's asks for additional funding. House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., focused on the…
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importance of broadband funding provisions in the House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act. HR-6800, which the House cleared last week, would authorize an $8.8 billion Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund and $5 billion for E-rate. “We need to do more” to help ensure broadband connectivity now, including for those unemployed because of quarantines, Doyle said. He urged Pai to “move quickly” to implement HR-6800’s proposed broadband funding if it's enacted. Pai believes Congress needs to expand its E-rate mandate because the current statute “restricts” the FCC to use the funding for services delivered directly to classrooms and libraries, he told Pallone. Pai noted FCC desire for funding to implement the unfunded Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act broadband mapping law (S-1822). Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., criticized the FCC for not moving “more quickly,” citing a “terrible” lack of broadband connectivity on tribal lands within his district. House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, sought information on the FCC’s work on this subject. The agency is “hard at work” to implement S-1822, Pai said. He hopes to “circulate” an NPRM “in the near term.” By Tuesday, the FCC had promised $33 million of congressional telehealth funding to healthcare providers and expects to disburse all the money in subsequent rounds, Pai said. The commission is expected to announce the next round “in the next day or two.” Wednesday, that occurred, bringing the total promised to just over $50 million in the $200 million COVID-19 telehealth program. The FCC moved quickly to begin setting up the disbursal program and tried “do as much work as we can on the front end” to ensure a quick answer, Pai said. He acknowledged to Eshoo that selected providers must submit an invoice and documentation before getting reimbursement, calling it a “critical check against waste, fraud and abuse.” The commission has gotten “only one” certified invoice, Pai said.