FCC process reform legislation will be introduced Wednesday simultaneously in...

FCC process reform legislation will be introduced Wednesday simultaneously in the House and Senate, a spokesman for Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said Tuesday. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Heller plan to unveil FCC reform bills at a 10:30 a.m. press conference in the Senate Press Gallery, the House Commerce Committee said. While Walden’s subcommittee had multiple hearings on FCC reform this year, Heller is the only member of the Senate Commerce Committee who has yet to publicly show interest in the subject. He is the committee’s newest member, replacing Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., earlier this year. Walden and Heller each plan to introduce two bills. The Senate versions circulated among lobbyists Tuesday. One includes process reforms first seen in Walden’s draft bill from earlier this summer (CD June 21 p7). The second aims to reduce and consolidate many of the reports the FCC is required to send to Congress. The latter would require the FCC to publish a “Communications Marketplace Report” in the last quarter of every even-numbered year. The bill would repeal the Orbit Act and satellite competition reports, and consolidate several other reports including on international broadband data, video competition, cable industry prices, market barriers for small businesses, the Section 706 report on broadband deployment and mobile competition. The new communications report would assess the state of competition across the market, including competition for voice, video and data among telecom, mobile, Internet service and satellite providers, multi-channel video programming distributors and broadcast stations. The FCC also would have to determine whether any laws, regulations or regulatory practices “pose a barrier to competitive entry” of new companies or “competitive expansion” of existing ones. Also, the commission would have to describe its agenda for the next two years and discuss how it did on its previous two-year agenda. It’s possible only one of the House bills will be introduced Wednesday, a Walden spokeswoman said. And other members may be listed as cosponsors, she said. The broader FCC process reforms were based on this summer’s draft, but are not identical, she said. “We have been working with Democrats and stakeholders since then to refine the proposal."