Senate Beats Deadline to Pass Telecom Bills

HR-5419 moved after concerns by Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senate Appropriations Committee ranking Democrat Byrd (W. Va.) were addressed. McCain struck a deal with House Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.) on McCain’s boxing legislation. McCain was holding all bills -- except a stand-alone E-rate fix (S-2994) -- until the House agreed to consider his boxing legislation. Hastert on Wed. assured McCain the House would take up the boxing bill before the Aug. 2005 congressional recess, a Senate Commerce Committee spokesman said. “Senator McCain takes this offer in good faith and has always taken Speaker Hastert at his word,” the spokesman said.

Sources said the deal between McCain and House leadership was struck around 8 p.m., leaving Byrd the only obstacle to the bill. A spokesman for Byrd said he had concerns that the spectrum trust fund bill took spending authority away from Congress and gave it to the administration. Byrd’s spokesman said the spectrum trust fund could grow as large as $15 billion. Senate Appropriation Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) and House appropriators had raised similar concerns. Byrd had proposed a “six word addition” to the bill that would have addressed his concerns, but the White House wouldn’t accept it and it was too late for changes to House language. Byrd’s spokesman said Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-Tenn.), Minority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) and Stevens, who will be Commerce Committee Chmn. next year, reached an agreement that satisfied Byrd. A House source said Stevens agreed to use his position as Commerce Committee Chmn. to address Byrd’s concerns -- though in what way was unclear.

House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) also gave credit to House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R- Mich.) and Committee Vice-Chmn. Pickering (R-Miss.). Pickering’s “work at the critical moment last night made a good idea into a good law,” Barton said. Upton introduced and pushed HR-1320, the House’s first attempt at the spectrum trust fund, which passed in June 2003. Upton also introduced HR-5419, which included HR-1320 and a modified version of E-911 legislation originally introduced by Rep. Shimkus (R-Ill.). A House source said Pickering helped get McCain and House leaders to negotiate. The source said Pickering also helped in the Senate negotiations. Pickering is close to Sen. Cochran (R-Miss.), who will take over as Senate Appropriations chairman next year. CTIA Pres. Steve Largent said both Stevens and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.) refused to let the Senate adjourn without addressing the telecom package.

A large coalition of interests -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Realtors and the American Society of Assn. Executives -- pushed for the junk fax bill. It would loosen FCC rules requiring written permission before an organization can send faxes to customers or clients. While Congress didn’t pass the bill, it has time next year before an FCC stay on the rules expires.

Passage Staves Off USF Contributions Jump

Universal Service Fund (USF) contributors “won a last-minute reprieve” with a one-year exemption from the application of govt. accounting rules to USF programs such as the E-rate, Medley Global Advisors said in an equity brief Thurs. The FCC’s decision to apply the Anti- Deficiency Act (ADA) to USF programs had disrupted the Universal Service Administrative Co.’s (USAC’s) need to commit ahead of time to funding programs for schools and libraries. The ADA doesn’t allow a govt. agency to make funding “obligations” before having funds in hand and USAC’s advance “commitment” letters were interpreted as obligations. As a result, USAC officials said schools were in danger of losing E-rate funded programs and carrier contributions were expected to rise significantly (CD Nov 23 p1, Nov 1 p1), meaning higher bills for consumers as well.

The ADA issue was aggressively lobbied by telecom companies, including several that issued statements afterward taking some of the credit for the last-minute save. “We commend the Congress for recognizing the devastating impact the FCC’s internal accounting modification would have had on rural telephone companies,” said 4 associations -- the Independent Telephone & Telecom Alliance, the National Telecom Cooperative Assn., OPASTCO and the Western Telecom Alliance. “Consumers everywhere have been saved from higher telecom bills, our country’s schools and libraries and rural healthcare providers will see immediate relief and consumers in high-cost areas will have a reprieve from the possibility that their local telecom networks could be in jeopardy,” the groups said in a joint news release.

“The Senate put politics aside in passing legislation to help schools and libraries… stay connected to Internet service while preventing potential increases in consumer and business phone bill fees,” said the E-rate’s original sponsors, Sens. Snowe (R-Me.) and Rockefeller (D- W.Va.). Medley said the E-rate budget fix “comes as a huge sigh of relief for schools and libraries, rural phone companies as well as large long distance carriers such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint and the Bells, who would have been placed in an awkward position with their customers as rates were likely to go up.” The report said the fix also must have been a relief to FCC Chmn. Powell “who would have been forced to impose a sizable rate increase on end- user bills to replenish the program’s budget.”

“Consumers dodged a billion-dollar bullet with this bill,” Upton said. “Consumers will now be spared a billion-dollar increase in their phone rates.”

E-911 Bill Devotes 250 Million Annually to States

E-911 legislation would establish a $250 million matching grant program for states to finance E-911 phase 2, which would allow rescue operators to locate wireless callers. The bill would keep money from states whose legislatures have raided statewide E-911 funds. Several states established statewide E-911 funds, raised through fees on wireless phone bills, later applied by their legislatures to other purposes.

The E-911 bill also establishes a national 911 coordination office in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The National Emergency Number Assn. has said this is one of the most important aspects of the bill. “A national office provides immediate perspective and coordination of the improvement to the 911 system across the country,” said Anthony Haynes, NENA regulatory and legislative committee chmn. NHTSA was chosen to house the office, instead of NTIA, because NHTSA has more experience delivering grant money, sources have said.

Burns, Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.), Shimkus and Rep. Eshoo (D-Cal.) -- all co-chairmen of the Congressional E-911 Caucus -- pushed the bill. Shimkus’s original E-911 bill called for $100 million per year in funding. Burns and Clinton pushed for $500 million but compromised after House members objected to the increase. The White House also objected to the bill, saying other federal law enforcement funds could be used for E-911 deployment. But the bill’s in the package isn’t expected to prevent the Bush from signing it.