Senate Commerce Has ‘No Plans’ To Take Up FCC Reform

"We have no plans to take up FCC reform” legislation, a Senate Commerce spokeswoman said Monday. Freshman committee member Dean Heller, R-Nev., has a companion bill (S-1784). Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, supports the plan, but no Democrats have joined her. The Walden bill was previously supported by GOP Commissioner Robert McDowell and major industry associations USTelecom, NAB and NCTA.

"Right now, the Senate is sitting on over two dozen bills that would spur job creation and innovation,” a Walden spokeswoman said. “So while it is disappointing, it is not surprising that the Senate Democrats are once again deciding to punt on legislation that would foster an environment of confidence and certainty for the communications and technology sector, which is one of the top economic drivers in our nation. This week, the House will heed the advice of the job creators who have urged Congress to implement these commonsense reforms that improve transparency and predictability at the FCC."

Passing the bill in the House “may lay the groundwork for an FCC reform push in 2013 if the Republicans take the Senate this fall,” said Guggenheim analyst Paul Gallant. “But given the current Senate’s lack of interest, it’s hard to see this going anywhere this year.” Passage in the House likely “will be the high point for the legislation this year,” said Medley Global Advisors’ Jeff Silva. The effort may not be dead for long, he said. “If Republicans were to win big in November, I think the House bill one way or the other could effectively become the governing guiding light of the FCC over the next several years."

"The fact that the Senate may stonewall it is not a good reason for the House not to put it on the table as a model,” Free State Foundation President Randolph May said. “That’s one way ideas get advanced. And maybe House passage will spur the FCC to take some actions itself to ‘repurpose’ itself in line with the legislation.” Both parties in the past have supported process changes at the commission, and the House bill suggests “some useful reforms,” May said.

Hundt is “gravely concerned by both the general direction and the specific details of this proposed legislation,” he wrote House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Sunday’s letter recommended that House members seek the recommendations of current and former FCC members. The proposed law would prevent the agency from moving quickly from rulemaking notice to order, ignoring that a matter may be urgent, as well as the pace of technology, Hundt said. “This new law actually would bring the FCC to a stumbling crawl, if it could move forward to decisions at all.” Hundt also contested language restricting the commission from issuing rules that “impose additional burdens on industry or consumers.” All rules, even pro-consumer regulations, impose “some burden on someone,” said Hundt. HR-3309 “denigrates” the commissioners by requiring the chairman “spoon feed” commissioners a list of their options before voting on a rule. Hundt also rejected a proposal allowing any three commissioners to direct staff to draft orders. That would decrease transparency by allowing rule substitutions after the chairman publicly proposes a rule, he said.

Public Knowledge, which frequently disagrees with House Republicans, never supported FCC reform legislation, President Gigi Sohn clarified Friday. In a letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich, and Waxman, Sohn said her group was quoted out of context in the committee’s HR-3309 report as saying that the FCC needed a “shock to the system” to be more effective. “The ’shock’ that we recommended does not … resemble the legislation the Committee approved and on which the full House will vote,” Sohn said: HR-3309 is “a radical restructuring that will hamstring the agency in the performance of its responsibilities to protect consumers, encourage competition and promote broadband deployment and adoption."

House members proposed nine amendments for approval by the Rules Committee. The committee was scheduled to vote on rules for floor consideration of HR-3309 after our deadline Monday. As expected, Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., seeks another vote on her amendment requiring more political-ad disclosure by broadcast licensees, cable operators and DBS providers (CD March 12 p5). Among other proposed amendments, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., again seeks a vote on his amendment to add an engineer or computer scientist to commissioner staffs. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has two amendments requiring stronger ethics policies at the FCC -- along the lines of her HR-3763 -- and a third amendment to strike language in HR-3309 limiting voluntary commitments on media mergers.