Thune Still Hopes Senate Logjam on Rosenworcel, Legislation Frees This Year
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., still holds out hope that his bevy of bipartisan telecom bills can clear the Senate this year alongside reconfirmation of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat who will have to leave the commission…
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within weeks if Congress fails to act, he told reporters Tuesday. Congress is expected to remain in session for about two weeks. Thune said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s choice of whether and when to leave the agency is still a factor. He dubbed that concern, long judged a driving force for the GOP holds preventing Rosenworcel’s reconfirmation, an “extenuating circumstance that I think bears on that process” that he called complicated. But he declined to tell reporters whether Senate leadership was coordinating with Wheeler on a path forward. “I guess I don’t want to characterize discussions that might or might not be taking place,” Thune said. “But my hope is that that issue will get resolved before the end of the year. And we’ll probably have more to say on that at a later time.” Out of frustration over the Rosenworcel stall, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has blocked Thune’s Mobile Now spectrum bill (S-2555) and his aide told us in September he also would block the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-2644). Also pending on the floor is the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act (S-827) and Securing Access to Networks in Disasters Act (S-2997), as Thune’s office noted recently when two Democrats briefly also put holds on Rosenworcel’s renomination, which were both lifted within a day (see 1611170061). All of these are bipartisan bills that cleared the Commerce Committee with minimal objections. Senate Commerce released its formal 10-page report on S-827 Monday. The Democratic blocks are ongoing. “We’re still trying to hotline it,” Thune told us of Mobile Now. Spokespeople for Reid and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., didn’t comment Tuesday. Thune told reporters he expects his legislation will move once Rosenworcel does. “That would be nice,” he said. “They should. I mean, that’s been kind of the reason the Democrats have stated for holding up a lot of that agenda, much of which has broad and bipartisan support. … I’m hoping we’ll still be able to move some of our telecom agenda.” Of the measures pending before the Senate, Mobile Now and the FCC Reauthorization Act lack precise House companions. The House earlier this year approved companion measures to the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act and Securing Access to Networks in Disasters Act.