Wheeler, Pai on Deck Before Senate Appropriators Next Week

“The hearing next week will be primarily about the finances,” said Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., in an interview. “They’d like to increase their budget, things like that. Really just determine what their reasoning is for that. And so it’ll be primarily that topic here.”

But net neutrality “of course” will come up, said subcommittee ranking member Chris Coons, D-Del., who has defended strong net neutrality protections. “I would assume it’ll be the main topic. … Given the breadth of the potential impact of the regulatory process Chairman Wheeler has set in motion, I can’t see how it would fail to be a central point. Given the contention with the other commissioner who is testifying, given the amount of interest we’ve all heard from our constituents and given its potential long-term impact, I think it will be an important part of the hearing.”

The hearing will be at 10:30 a.m. in 138 Dirksen and include testimony from Wheeler, a Democrat, and FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, a Republican, a Boozman spokeswoman said. A public notice was expected to go out for the hearing after our deadline. The pairing of Wheeler and Pai “should make for interesting dynamics,” Coons said.

Pai asked Congress to defund the FCC’s net neutrality order during a House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing in March (see 1503230067). The FCC’s budget has been frozen at around $340 million annually for years despite requests for more. Wheeler has emphasized the FCC’s need for funding an agency headquarters move and IT upgrades in FY 2016, asking for about $50 million more than the FCC’s current funding level and consistent with the White House budget proposal for next year. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., circulated a draft reauthorization bill that would restrict the agency to $339.8 million annually for another four years. No FCC funding proposal has emerged from the appropriations committees in either chamber, though House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., recently touted that the House has started the appropriations process for the earliest time since 1974.

“I think that’s probably the case, that there’s simply not a lot of money to go around for anybody, so it’s just a problem," Boozman said, considering the FCC's frozen budget.

“I would assume there’d be a great deal of conversation both about their budget request -- that is an increase -- and also about net neutrality,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., a member of the subcommittee. “That will most definitely be on the table as a major point of conversation. Lifeline, there will be others as well.”

Boozman, despite saying the focus will be finances, predicted "there’ll be some questions that come up regarding net neutrality.” But Boozman stressed that Financial Services is “working with the authorizing committee” and talking to Thune, “trying to see what our place will be as time goes on.”

Thune has helped lead the charge for FCC reauthorization this year as well as repeatedly calling for bipartisan net neutrality legislation.

The appropriators should “give us a little bit of time to try and see what the traffic will bear with the Democrats on a legislative solution,” Thune told us. “There are a lot of people who want to do something, make a statement, but the only way to get a result is to get the Democrats on board for some type of legislative solution. So that’s kind of the current state of play.” Industry stakeholders recently requested a stay of the FCC’s net neutrality order, which “helps” net neutrality legislative negotiation, Thune said. “A stay would speed things up with negotiations,” agreed David Schwietert, GOP staff director for the Senate Commerce Committee.

“Those discussions are ongoing," Thune said of the dynamic with the Senate appropriators. "We want to do an FCC reauthorization this year, hopefully before the end of the fiscal year … some budget, some process and some transparency issues that we’d like to address, so we want to make sure the appropriators are sensitive to that and working with us on those types of timelines.”

The Financial Services Subcommittee has three Republican and two Democratic members. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., is the other GOP member and formerly led the subcommittee Republicans. Moran, also a Commerce Committee member, told us in December that appropriations provides a “useful position” to influence the FCC on net neutrality (see 1501090038). In a February statement, Moran underscored his favoring of “commonsense legislation” on the topic but feared the FCC would leave Congress with “no choice but to consider all options to scrutinize these rules.” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is the other Democratic member of the subcommittee. Durbin, the minority whip, staked out his defense for FCC net neutrality protections during a January floor speech (see 1501070049).

Coons didn’t directly endorse the FCC’s net neutrality order when asked. “I am a strong supporter of net neutrality,” Coons replied. “I look forward to learning more about the consequences of the order. I am generally a supporter.”

Thune warned of potential problems he has with the FCC budget proposal for FY 2016. “We’ve expressed concerns to the FCC how they’re using, for example, some of the USF funds for administrative purposes,” Thune said. “So there are a few appropriations issues that, yeah, we’re probably paying some attention to. … So it’s a work in progress. There are a lot of moving parts, like there always are in any of these things around here.”