Top Senate Democrats weren’t ready to say when...
Top Senate Democrats weren’t ready to say when they would take on draft legislation for Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, they told us Tuesday at the Capitol. The House Commerce Committee scheduled a markup of its STELA draft,…
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the only legislative text introduced so far, for Thursday. (See separate report below in this issue.) The Commerce and Judiciary committees in both chambers have jurisdiction over STELA, which will expire at the end of the year unless Congress reauthorizes it. “We're anxiously watching to see what the House will do and see what their final bill looks like,” said Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark. “We'll see what they do and look forward to seeing what they come up with.” He acknowledged legislative days left in the year “are short.” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., seemed familiar with the markup planned in the House but did not pay it much mind: “We don’t sort of decide what we're going to do because the House does or doesn’t do something, but we'll be marking that up,” Rockefeller said of STELA. “We've got about 10 things we have to do, but that’s going to be one of them!” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., declined to weigh in on precisely where his committee stands. But when asked, Leahy said, “I'd love to mark it up today.” Both Commerce and Judiciary have held STELA hearings this year. Pryor also didn’t rule out the possibility the Communications Subcommittee would hold a hearing on Comcast’s proposed buy of Time Warner Cable. “I need to talk with Chairman Rockefeller on that,” Pryor said. “He and I have discussed that a couple of times before, as I have with Senator [John] Thune,” R-S.D., ranking member of Commerce. “But we'll just see what we're going to do on that.”