Schatz Wants FCC Reauthorization Act To Compel Program Access Rule Report
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, wants the two-year FCC Reauthorization Act (S-2644) to compel the FCC to create a report on program access rules. He filed an amendment last week for a Wednesday markup of the measure,…
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which was postponed, that would have required a report “on the effectiveness of the program access rules after elimination of the ban on exclusive contracts for programming by vertically integrated cable companies,” said the text of the two-page amendment, not publicly released. The FCC would have to submit that report to Congress within a year of the reauthorization bill’s enactment. Schatz’s amendment was one of more than 40 amendments filed (see 1603150049). Schatz also filed an amendment requiring the FCC to release annual reports on the average rates for broadband Internet service, “the types of packages and the limitations of those packages sold by broadband Internet access service providers” and “the average rate for customer premises equipment sold or leased by a broadband Internet access provider to a subscriber of that service.” Schatz filed a third short amendment designed to increase FCC flexibility in administering spectrum auctions that would have slashed a provision in the reauthorization text, which Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., introduced earlier this month. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., filed an amendment requiring an FCC report “on the broadband deployment and data collection practices of the Commission,” which would have to include legislative recommendations. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., filed an amendment that would tweak the FCC Reauthorization Act’s provisions requiring a GAO report on FCC regulatory fees. It would strike the section requiring the GAO report and instead tweak the Communications Act itself. It would strike the act’s section saying how the fees assessed should be derived, and instead insert language saying the fees should be “equitably apportioned among all entities from whom regulatory fees are collected,” based on an annual FCC assessment of its different bureau activities. Udall filed a separate amendment codifying the Office of Native Affairs and Policy, which the FCC created in 2010. Thune has said he now wants to mark up the FCC Reauthorization Act at an April session (see 1603160050).