Congressional Telecom Action Unlikely As Session Winds Down

The Senate rolled into Wed. morning with several telecom bills to be considered but its focus firmly on intelligence reform. The House passed intelligence legislation Tues. evening. The House has finished its business this year, sources said, and though it’s scheduled to meet Fri. to formally end the session, it’s unlikely to address any legislative matters.

Congress probably will adjourn without addressing 4 substantial telecom bills: (1) Spectrum trust fund legislation (HR-1320), which would help fund the Defense Dept.’s move out of 3G spectrum. (2) Universal service fund accounting corrections. The one-year exemption of USF and its E-rate program from Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) provision was perhaps the most aggressively lobbied measure during the lame-duck session, as industry and members of Congress sent scores of letters urging action on the bill. (3) E-911 funding -- money for the $250 million-a-year program to help states deploy location technology for wireless 911 calls. (4) Junk fax legislation to loosen some requirements on industry to collect approval before sending faxes to customers.

The House has passed all 4 measures, in some cases more than once. HR-5419 cobbled together the spectrum, USF and E-911 legislation. And the House passed HR-4600, the junk fax bill, in July. But sources said HR-5419 was a compromise by House members who didn’t want to take E- 911 and USF without getting the spectrum bill.

Much attention has been paid to Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.), who sources said placed a hold on HR-5419 after the House passed it 2 weeks ago during the first part of the lame-duck session. McCain adamantly wanted the House to approve his boxing legislation, which would create a national commission to regulate the sport. With the House unwilling to take up the bill, McCain retaliated by holding HR-5419, then relented Mon. to allow a bill (S-2994) from Sen. Snowe (R- Me.) addressing only the USF issue. House sources have said there were concerns that McCain’s bill was over- regulatory and hadn’t been thoroughly vetted by the House Commerce Committee. But some industry and Senate sources speculated that the objections to boxing legislation were political retaliation for McCain’s vote against energy legislation favored by House leadership.

While all attention focused on McCain’s stand on boxing, sources detailed various nits that picked by members of both parties and chambers. These “little grudges,” as one industry source described them, appeared to derail all remaining telecom legislation.

According to a variety of congressional and industry sources: (1) McCain and Senate Appropriations ranking Democrat Byrd (D-W. Va.) had concerns about the spectrum trust fund bill. Sources said Byrd, who also placed a hold on HR-5419, worried that the bill usurped appropriators’ power. (2) House leaders didn’t like E- 911, which got a poor score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). (3) Senate Budget Committee Chmn. Nickles (R-Okla.) placed a hold on S-2994, expressing concerns about its CBO score, though one Democratic Senate source said that was a “sham argument” to justify retaliatory holding of the.

In the end, much of the controversy surrounded the USF provision, which would temporarily exempt the federal telephone and Internet subsidy program from Anti- Deficiency Act requirements. Without the exemption, USF probably can’t supply about $400 million for the E-rate schools and library funds. It would also likely cause an increase in contribution rates and drive up consumers’ phone bills, officials have said.

Several sources said the prospect of diverting funds from kids while simultaneously raising phone rates -- the likely effect of no ADA exemption -- was used as a wedge to force action on other issues. Several sources said McCain released his hold on S-2994, the stand-alone USF ADA provision, to “save face” and not appear to hurt education because of politics over the boxing bill.

Yet a number of sources said Republicans -- particularly in the House -- have never been enamored with the E-rate program, or “Gore Tax,” as it’s known by some, since it was pushed by the former vice president. Sources -- a Democrat and a Republican on the Senate side -- said the Republicans were willing to use the E-rate bill as leverage to get what they wanted most of all: The spectrum trust fund bill. As one Senate source said of S-2994: “It was caught in the crossfire.”