Election Year Means Talk, Little Action, Hill Staffers Say
NEW ORLEANS -- Expressions of concern were coupled with predictions that there would be little action on telecom legislation in this election year, said a panel of Hill staffers at the NCTA convention. A discussion about network neutrality legislation produced few fireworks, with House Commerce staffers from both sides agreeing that market solutions would be the first option rather than legislating a regulatory framework. Amy Levine, counsel to Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., said that “where we go from here depends a lot on what happens out in the marketplace.”
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Net neutrality legislation is even less likely to move through the committee in an election year, Levine said. But another high-profile incident like the Comcast-BitTorrent controversy could “increase the impetus for Hill action,” she said, adding that industry initiatives to deal with the problem such as the Comcast-BitTorrent deal and recent industry P4P Working Group lessen the sense of urgency for legislative action.
P2P and network management are akin to a growing adolescent, said Commerce Committee minority counsel Neil Fried. “In terms of where the industry developments are, we're still in our teenage years… and the last thing we want to do is stunt that growth.” Fried praised network managers’ attempts to cooperate with software developers. He also lauded improvements in P2P technology and network management techniques as “the market process we want,” but was skeptical of a legislative solution.
Levine and Fried agreed that transparency and disclosure were key points of any network management regime. Levine said there had always been an exception in network neutrality principles for “legitimate, non-discriminatory network management” to protect customer quality of service. Fried said “the biggest issue is disclosure so consumers can express their frustrations” and emphasized that the market can only work “if everybody knows what’s happening.”
House Judiciary aide Dave Whitney pointed out that during the 109th Congress a bill sponsored by then-Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and then-Ranking Member Conyers had been reported out of committee but was never brought to the floor by the Republican leadership. Whitney said the bill was controversial even among Committee members, since its function had been to expand the antitrust authority of the Justice department “to pursue either unreasonable or discriminatory actions with regard to network management.” He said many members, especially Republicans, prefer market- based solutions rather than government-mandated solutions.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has no network neutrality bills pending and is unlikely to take any action on the issue, according to Antitrust Counsel Seth Bloom. There is no demonstrated need for legislative action now, Bloom said. If there is misbehavior by network operators either in network management or advertising, the FTC has the authority to take appropriate action under antitrust law, he said.
A House bill (HR-3679) on video service taxes is on hold awaiting feedback from members, said House Judiciary Counsel Norberto Salinas, but no markup has been scheduled.
Universal service has accomplished its goal but needs to be updated, House Commerce Counsel Neil Fried said. Referring to a measure sponsored by Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, Fried defended Barton’s view that “reverse auctions” would promote competition for telecom providers to compete to provide the best service to rural areas. Levine agreed that USF is “broken” but said a different solution, proposed by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., would provide needed “comprehensive reform.”
Re-authorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Act could prompt a reform of retransmission procedures between cable and DBS providers, Whitney said. Both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees are awaiting a report from the Copyright Office due June 30 which could provide a foundation for discussion of retransmission consent reform with the goal of “parity” between cable, DBS, and telephone companies. Levine said the other issues that could effect retransmission consent reform are carriage rights for sports programming and video on demand.