The House Communications Subcommittee advanced the bipartisan Amateur Radio Parity Act (HR-1301) without controversy but debated fiercely over the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (HR-2666) and a draft of the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act. Bipartisan compromise negotiation collapsed, lawmakers lamented Thursday at the markup. Republicans advanced the two net neutrality measures without changes in partisan votes and defeated all Democratic amendments to modify them.
Net neutrality dominated the House Communications Subcommittee hearing on four legislative measures Tuesday. Some members wondered about revising bills to achieve bipartisan consensus, but they largely showcased partisan divide in how they interpreted possible burdens from the FCC's order. The two heavily debated measures were the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (HR-2666) and a discussion draft of the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, which would codify the temporary exemption small businesses have from the order's enhanced transparency requirements.
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., introduced legislation Tuesday to create a $5 million prize for those who address spectrum efficiency challenges, they said in a joint news release. “The Spectrum Challenge Prize Act creates a new opportunity for the federal government and the private sector to work collaboratively in the pursuit of a spectrum breakthrough, which is ultimately a victory for our 21st century economy,” said Matsui, co-chair of the Congressional Spectrum Caucus. NTIA would have to award the money in consultation with other agencies. Matsui posted the four-page bill text. The legislation would require NTIA to work with the private sector or other government agencies in designing the competition. “Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the [FCC] shall publish a technical paper on spectrum efficiency providing criteria that may be used for the design of the prize competitions,” the bill said.
Not all Democrats on Capitol Hill are fully satisfied with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The lead Democrat on the House Commerce Committee and four other members criticized Wheeler for his behavior during a three-hour Nov. 17 Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing (see 1511170060), according to a letter obtained by Communications Daily. This gesture shows an uncommon split for senior Hill lawmakers and an FCC chief of the same party.
Chairman Tom Wheeler laid out FCC priorities and timetables for members of the House Communications Subcommittee during a wide-ranging oversight hearing Tuesday. He predicted the agency would take a stab at ISP privacy rules early next year, committed to a focus on special access and set-top box concerns and timely attention to the upper reaches of spectrum. He addressed concerns about how the Enforcement Bureau and his office handle communications with other commissioners and also what the agency’s role should be after terrorist attacks in Paris.
The Obama administration may have provided the muscle ensuring inclusion of a spectrum title in the two-year Bipartisan Budget Act deal, released to the public minutes before midnight Monday (see Communications Daily Bulletin Oct. 27). Lawmakers told us the administration exerted its will in the negotiations, which yielded provisions setting up future FCC spectrum auctions with new agency authority and administration-desired flexibility for the Office of Management and Budget Spectrum Relocation Fund.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers are assembling spectrum legislation to overhaul parts of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Spectrum Relocation Fund (SRF), in accordance with pressure from the administration, several staffers on Capitol Hill told us. Bipartisan activity fills both chambers on this front, and Hill staffers say they hope to hitch such an overhaul measure to larger spectrum initiatives coming together.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., immediately drilled down on what specific bands of spectrum Congress could target in legislation, pressing witnesses during a Wednesday subcommittee hearing on the topic. ”We have limited time and resource, too,” Walden told them. “Can you give us some suggestions?”
The Senate Commerce Committee may hammer together a spectrum legislation package “probably end of the year, early next year, I’d say,” Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us Tuesday. “There is” talk of specific spectrum bands to legislatively target for auction, Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, confirmed in an interview, declining to give numbers.
House Communications Subcommittee members focused on the TV incentive auction Tuesday during FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s eighth hearing on Capitol Hill this year. That number of appearances “marks a new record,” said Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., saying no FCC chief has testified that much in a calendar year in at least 14 years. The auction is scheduled to happen by the end of 2016’s first quarter, with March 29 the inadvertently released expected date (see 1507200065).