Lawmakers Press Wheeler on PTC Implementation Deadline

"This deadline’s real, and unless we change the deadline, we've all got a big problem,” subcommittee ranking member Mike Johanns, R-Neb., told Wheeler. “At the end of the day, it has to get done -- we all face that.” Johanns said he suspected that Wheeler likely considers the deadline in the back of his mind as part of the “must-do checklist for the next few months.”

"It’s not in the back of my mind,” Wheeler replied. “The points you make are all spot on.” Wheeler pointed to two roles the FCC has in addressing the PTC technology implementation: facilitating the spectrum required as well as facilitating the installation of upwards of 20,000 radio antenna poles required for PTC. “On the spectrum side, we get pretty good marks.”

Processing so many antenna applications is the challenge, Wheeler said: “It chokes the system.” One FCC option is to “amend the whole process,” which with court review and other details “probably puts us at the other side of the deadline date here,” he said. Instead, the current FCC hope is to speed up the processing “by doing batching” of the applications, Wheeler said. He emphasized the same focus Tuesday, again at the prodding of lawmakers, when he and Commissioner Ajit Pai testified on the proposed White House budget before the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee (CD March 26 p9). House Republicans wrote to the FCC last August complaining of the “freeze” that the antenna application issue created, with the PTC process then “put on hold” as FCC staff struggled to find a way to deal with such a major application process (http://1.usa.gov/1hexzHY). Last August, Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., introduced S-1462, with 13 co-sponsors well split between parties, that would extend the PTC implementation deadline by five years. It was referred to the Commerce Committee.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) received FCC’s 17-page proposal (http://1.usa.gov/1hyaVGX) March 5. It laid out ways to streamline the applications and add efficiency to the process, in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act’s Section 106 and finding ways around some of the bigger delays. The preservation council accepted comments on the FCC proposal through Thursday. “While the FCC has done extensive public outreach in drafting the Program Comment, the ACHP intends to solicit further input from the railroad industry, preservation community, and cultural resources community to ensure that we have afforded these stakeholders the opportunity to share their views,” it said in early March (http://1.usa.gov/1mwUvWe). “Since the freight railroads and intercity and commuter rail services are responsible for the tracks that carry goods and passengers, implementation of the Program Comment will directly involve them."

Johanns has “no ax to grind” and doesn’t face re-election concerns, he told Wheeler, citing the great interest he has in rural broadband issues as well as the central spectrum and net neutrality challenges before the agency. “Here’s an offer I would make -- I would love to start a dialogue with you in just a general way about these issues,” Johanns said. “I would welcome it.” Wheeler agreed and said his office would be in touch that afternoon.

Wheeler again defended the budget request, which is higher than last year’s, which subcommittee Chairman Tom Udall, D-N.M., called “modest” compared to enacted levels now. Wheeler pointed to expenses that would go to USF revamp, more enforcement and agency IT. “The IT situation at the FCC is intolerable,” Wheeler said, despite bringing in what he called “a crackerjack [chief information officer] who understands what needs to be done.” Resources are required, given the 95,000 different data points throughout the agency, Wheeler said. He and Pai, the agency’s senior Republican who also testified Thursday, would favor crafting an online database of consumer complaints, but Wheeler pointed to the technical challenge and a need to consolidate: “It ought to be online, it ought to be systemized, it’s ridiculous,” Wheeler said of the lack of such a database. His presence at a congressional hearing alone would drive traffic to the FCC website and create “a precipitous amount of tax” on the website, he added. The budget would allow for 15 additional people tasked with enforcement, which he said the agency needs when citing the current number of staffers employed there: “25 people enforcing an $8.4 billion [USF] program doesn’t make sense."

Asked whether the agency should have better IT or more enforcement, Wheeler refused to decide. “I wish I could cut the baby in half, sir."

Both Wheeler and Pai mentioned challenges posed by the broadcast TV spectrum incentive auction. They both said they should make sure to protect TV translators as best they can, within the law. Wheeler doesn’t suspect the translators will face problems, however, given many are in rural areas not subject to spectrum crunch.

Wheeler also plans better outreach to broadcasters to give them an idea of what their spectrum may be worth in that voluntary auction, he told Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. Wheeler is to speak at NAB’s conference in Las Vegas next month and mentioned the importance, from his business days, of having a book full of all the relevant financial numbers for any investment banker to review. “I'm not going to give a speech that says ‘here are all the answers,'” Wheeler said, but agreed meetings with broadcasters will be helpful. “It is incumbent on us to meet with broadcasters and say ‘here’s the book, here’s what it means in your particular circumstance.'” The timeline will entail meetings among the commissioners next week and “working through the options that we see that are on the table and narrowing it down,” along with consultation with Capitol Hill, Wheeler said.