Passage of health care reform legislation over the weekend may loosen bottlenecks that held back other legislation, industry officials said Monday. But Congress won’t necessarily intensify telecom legislation efforts, they said. An ongoing debate among Hill leadership is whether, in the wake of passing health care, they should lay low or come out swinging, said an industry lobbyist. The health-care debate took some of congressional leaders’ attention from telecom issues, said Hill and industry officials. Health care was a huge priority for Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and it delayed action on telecom, said a Senate GOP staffer. Senate Republicans hope the resolution of health care and the recent release of the National Broadband Plan mean an increase telecom activity in days to come, the Hill staffer said. House Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., was also deeply involved in the health-care debate, said a telecom executive. But lawmakers may want to avoid contentious matters a while, the source said. Cybersecurity legislation has a good chance of moving forward soon, said industry officials. The issue seems to have approached “critical mass,” with a great “sense of urgency” surrounding it in Congress, said Washington Research Group analyst Paul Gallant. Legislation by Sens. Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, is scheduled for committee markup Wednesday morning. Reid has shown interest in the legislation and has been actively coordinating efforts across committees, said Senate and industry officials. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., is expected to soon introduce bills on privacy and the Universal Service Fund. Boucher has said he intends to do USF before privacy. Industry officials said they didn’t expect to see the USF bill before Congress leaves for its spring recess starting Friday. However, it could appear in the “next month or so,” said Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance President Curt Stamp. For communications issues, the health care debate had mostly been a bottleneck at the leadership level, said Gallant. Work on telecom operated on a separate track and committees with jurisdiction had the staff bandwidth to work on telecom simultaneously, he said. Committees still may have had difficulty getting leadership to focus on their issues, coordinating with the White House and the other chamber of Congress while the health care debate was going strong, he said. A House GOP aide said the health care debate never got in the way of committees’ telecom work. Waiting for the National Broadband Plan was the biggest obstacle, the aide said. There are other possible distractions in the coming months, especially the upcoming election, said industry observers. The lead up to November elections historically has meant a light summer, said Stamp. It’s not a sure thing the trend will repeat this summer because the health care debate proved that this Congress will work even through weekends and holidays when necessary, he said. Work on financial reform could take time on the floor schedule, and climate change is still “hanging out there” and could become the next big legislative priority, Stamp said. Congress also still has work to do on appropriations, said an industry lobbyist. The broadband plan could lead to a series of congressional oversight hearings on specific issues, which could eat up the calendar for the rest of the year, said industry officials. It would make sense to hold multiple hearings to focus more intensely on specific issues, but nothing has been finalized, said the House GOP aide. General hearings on the plan are scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in the Senate Commerce Committee and Thursday in the House Communications Subcommittee.

Passage of health care reform legislation over the weekend frees Congress to finish the oft-delayed satellite TV reauthorization and may also loosen bottlenecks that held back other legislation, industry officials said Monday. But Congress won’t necessarily intensify telecom legislation efforts, they said. An ongoing debate among Hill leadership is whether, in the wake of passing health care, they should lay low or come out swinging, said an industry lobbyist.

State chief information officers have plenty of money, despite tight budgets, because of savings from information technology consolidation projects, big-state CIOs said at a TechAmerica conference Monday. Spending probably will increase on health IT, server virtualization and corralling various state components into centrally-managed platforms, they said. But cities and towns, stung just as badly by the recession, may have to wait for state help to achieve IT savings and upgrades.

Meeting Universal Service Fund payment obligations, adhering to the customer proprietary network information (CPNI) rules, and primary jurisdiction referrals are the most daunting enforcement issues for competitive local exchange carriers, lawyers said at a CompTel regulatory workshop. In the collection of USF contributions, the “USAC’s (Universal Service Administrative Company) tactics can be extremely heavy-handed and unfair to carriers,” said Jon Canis of Arent Fox. He called the company a “rogue agency” and said personnel “act in ways that they know to be illegal.” USAC concentrates on collecting as much USF as it can and it generates fines, he said. “Even if you can demonstrate you were acting in good faith, even though you can demonstrate that you did everything possible to comply and everything possible to remediate as soon as you could, it doesn’t matter.” Arent Fox lawyers advised that any CLEC set up a “detailed, documented and consistently applied method of computing USF payment obligations.” Canis also cautioned the telcos about CPNI reporting requirements. The way the FCC handles the requirements “is a regulatory game designed exclusively to extract revenues from victimized CLECs,” he said. In 2008, more than 600 carriers received notices of apparent liability for failing to send compliance letters by the deadline of March 1, Canis said. The action was meant to “demonstrate toughness of FCC enforcement and generate payment of fines,” he said. Some cases in which CLECs are seeking unpaid access charges have been held up awaiting referrals to the FCC, Arent Fox said. Several cases have been pending more than three years.

President David Coen of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners said the National Broadband Plan offers a “blueprint” for improving broadband nationwide. There’s “much to digest,” but “I am positive we will find areas of agreement, just as I am sure we will find areas of concern,” he said. “Our members are particularly interested in how the plan proposes to reform the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. … We are hopeful that the plan recognizes the crucial role of State regulators in developing a `smart’ electricity transmission grid."

The FCC approved Tuesday by a unanimous vote a brief statement of principles on broadband. FCC Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker were sharply critical of some aspects of the plan itself, which was not put up for a vote before being submitted to Congress. Both found lots to like in the plan but said it must not be used as a lever for imposing more regulation. Agency officials said the FCC will offer a list in coming days of more than 40 rulemakings that will be begun as a follow-up to the plan.

The current FCC is more active in finding solutions to broadband issues than its predecessor under Chairman Kevin Martin, telco officials said on a CompTel panel. “I think there has been a change in tune with respect to competition since the Martin administration,” said Tony Hansel, Covad assistant general counsel. Martin said “you have to choose between competition and investment,” and current Chairman Julius Genachowski “has already acknowledged that’s a false choice.” Stephen Crawford, Alpheus senior vice president, said, “It is exciting that they realized they've got to have those long-term goals, but at the same time the FCC is saying tell us what we can do right now."

Some members of Congress may be wary of spending additional money on broadband, said Republican aides at a Broadband Breakfast event Tuesday morning. The FCC’s National Broadband Plan asks Congress for $16 billion for a national public-safety network and $9 billion for a new Universal Service Fund emphasizing high-speed access. Aides from both parties called the plan a step toward broadband for all.

The FCC approved Tuesday by a unanimous vote a brief statement of principles on broadband. FCC Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker were sharply critical of some aspects of the plan itself, which was not put up for a vote before being submitted to Congress. Both found lots to like in the plan but said it must not be used as a lever for imposing more regulation. Agency officials said the FCC will offer a list in coming days of more than 40 rulemakings that will be begun as a follow-up to the plan.

Some members of Congress may be wary of spending additional money on broadband, said Republican aides at a Broadband Breakfast event Tuesday morning. The FCC’s National Broadband Plan asks Congress for $16 billion for a national public-safety network and $9 billion for a new Universal Service Fund emphasizing high-speed access. Aides from both parties called the plan a step toward broadband for all.