NTIA must soon convince a Congress concerned about federal spending to pay millions of dollars so the agency can conduct oversight of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. In December, the lame-duck Congress passed a continuing resolution increasing NTIA’s budget by about $20 million to $40.6 million, in part to pay for BTOP oversight. The resolution expires March 4. With one month to go and the GOP-controlled House looking for budget cuts, some fiscal conservatives are looking at NTIA.
The Senate Commerce Committee will have a hearing on public safety spectrum “very soon,” but no date has been set, said a Senate staffer. Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told reporters Tuesday after a Democratic policy lunch in the Senate that he doesn’t know how quickly he can move the bill through the committee, “but it’s going to move. … It’s huge.” Rockefeller said he hasn’t talked with House Commerce Committee leaders about his bill. Last year Democrats and Republicans on the House committee supported a commercial auction of the D-block. “But look, the president wasn’t originally for” reallocation, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski “originally was not for it,” Rockefeller said. Now “everybody’s for it,” and “it’s going to be a happy ending,” he added. Rockefeller said he met last week with auction supporter T-Mobile immediately before the White House endorsed reallocation. He didn’t relate what was said.
The Senate Select Committee on Ethics hired a lawyer for a “preliminary inquiry” regarding ethics allegations against Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member John Ensign, R-Nev., the ethics committee said Tuesday. It hired Carol Bruce, a congressional investigation attorney with K&L Gates. The panel didn’t describe the allegations against Ensign, but the senator previously was accused of covering up an affair with an aide. “The purpose of a preliminary inquiry is to determine whether there is substantial credible evidence that a violation within the Committee’s jurisdiction has occurred,” the ethics committee said. After that, it said the panel could dismiss the allegations, send a letter of admonition, “or, for more serious violations, [conduct] an adjudicatory review.” The panel “has assured Senator Ensign that their inquiry remains in the preliminary stage and that the appointment of a special counsel does not change the course of its inquiry,” said lawyer Robert Walker of Wiley Rein, representing Ensign in the matter. “Senator Ensign is confident that he complied with all ethics rules and laws, and he is hopeful that this appointment will lead to a more speedy resolution of this matter.” Ensign “will continue to cooperate with the committee’s inquiry,” added Walker.
Another wireless bill to give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety is in the works, from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, the Commerce Committee’s ranking member, a GOP committee staffer told us Friday. A White House endorsement late Thursday of D-block reallocation brought cheers from lawmakers with reallocation bills and silence from House Commerce Committee leaders who have supported a commercial auction.
President Barack Obama set a goal of getting wireless broadband to 98 percent of Americans by 2016. In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, he emphasized the importance of building infrastructure and promoting innovation. Obama’s remarks picked up on many themes in the National Broadband Plan that the FCC sent Congress in March 2010.
House Commerce Committee leaders disagreed whether new regulatory reforms by President Barack Obama should apply to independent federal agencies like the FCC. At a House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, an Office of Management and Budget official said current law prevented Obama from applying his recent executive order to independent agencies. Full Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said he will pursue legislation so that no federal agency is exempt. But Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said afterward that he has reservations.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wants tougher net neutrality rules for ISPs. On Tuesday she introduced legislation with Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to create a new section in Title II of the Communications Act to codify the FCC’s six net neutrality principles. The bill would apply equally to wireline and wireless providers. Public interest groups that thought the FCC didn’t go far enough in its order said they supported the Cantwell measure.
Don’t let public safety and some wireless carriers stop the FCC from auctioning the 700 MHz D-block, former government officials and others on the Connect Public Safety Now coalition told Hill staffers in a pair of briefings Monday. In panels on both sides of the Capitol, the auction advocates dismissed public safety concerns about spectrum sharing, and said AT&T and Verizon are only looking out for themselves. The Senate briefing in the afternoon was well attended by staffers for senators on the Commerce Committee, including aides for Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, Mark Warner, D-Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he didn’t “feel a sense of rejection” after losing his bid to become the House Communications Subcommittee’s ranking member (CD Jan 20 p13). But in a keynote Thursday, he also told the Minority Media Telecommunications Council that, “after a brutal yesterday, I needed to be around some friendly faces.” Rush will be ranking member of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, but he said he will remain active on the Communications Subcommittee. A flurry of statements from industry, public industry and other groups applauded the selection of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., as Communications’ ranking member. Other Democrats named to the subcommittee: Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, Doris Matsui and Jane Harman of California, John Barrow of Georgia, Ed Towns of New York, Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Diana DeGette of Colorado. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., is a nonvoting, ex officio member. DeGette will be the ranking member on the Oversight Subcommittee, which is also expected to deal with FCC matters. Other Democratic members of that subcommittee are Markey, Dingell, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Mike Ross of Arkansas, Anthony Weiner of New York, Gene Green and Charles Gonzalez of Texas. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the parent Commerce Committee’s ranking member, is an ex-officio member of all the subcommittees.
Verizon Wireless is moving quickly to upgrade customers to LTE and working with rural carriers to bring wireless to areas it doesn’t serve, Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone said Wednesday in a State of the Net keynote. Verizon expects to upgrade all its 2G and 3G wireless to LTE by 2013, he said. It plans this year to add 140 markets and in 18 months to cover half the U.S. population. In the past six months, the company has signed agreements with at least five rural carriers to build 4G networks using Verizon’s 700 MHz spectrum, Melone said. Verizon has “spent some time” with Chairman Jay Rockefeller of the Senate Commerce Committee and has plans to build out the Democrat’s home state of West Virginia, Melone said. The carrier has committed to spread its network to 10 cities in the state, including Charleston by April, he said. Internet Caucus Chairman Jerry Berman replied, “Charleston’s not rural America.” Also in the keynote, Melone applauded openness and collaboration, saying the days of closed wireless networks are over. “Times have changed. … In a 4G world, that guarded model needs to be turned inside out.”