House Republicans as expected included the draft spectrum bill by Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in spending legislation to extend the payroll tax cut and other items. The House GOP unveiled the text of the “extenders” bill Friday morning (http://xrl.us/bmkks2). The chamber is likely to vote on the package this week, the House Rules Committee said. The extenders bill is unlikely to survive in its current form, but could foreshadow a final deal that includes spectrum, said telecom lobbyists and analysts. Also Friday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., condemned House proposals to provide $3 billion for broadcaster relocation and to force public safety to return narrowband spectrum.
It will be “more of the same” for the FCC in 2012, Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told the Practising Law Institute conference Friday. The FCC still has significant work left expanding broadband adoption and addressing the country’s spectrum deficiencies, he said. Privacy experts on a separate panel said they expect the FTC and FCC to increase their focus on online privacy and cybersecurity issues in the coming year.
A House subcommittee approved a bipartisan bill providing $13.4 million annually from 2012 through 2016 to the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS), the next-generation emergency alert and warning network. HR-3563 was unanimously approved in a voice vote Thursday morning in the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications. The bill will ensure that the IPAWS programs “work reliably, effectively and efficiently to ensure the appropriate use of taxpayer funds,” said Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla. It authorizes $5 million less than the program received in FY2011, and provides the IPAWS program with “needed direction,” Bilirakis said. The subcommittee approved by voice an amendment by Ranking Member Laura Richardson, D-Calif., that would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more training for senders of alerts. Richardson withdrew another amendment requiring testing of the IPAWS system at least every two years. Bilirakis said he'd work with Richardson on the amendment before the bill moved to a full committee markup.
Spectrum and cybersecurity are top priorities for Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Commerce committees, committee aides said Thursday. On a panel at the Practising Law Institute conference, the aides said the House and Senate are close to consensus on a spectrum bill and agree on several areas related to cybersecurity. FCC process reform action will likely continue in the House, but Senate Democrats remain uninterested, the aides said.
The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved FCC and FTC nominations, setting up votes by the full Senate before the chamber leaves for the year. Voting by voice off the floor in the President’s Room, the committee approved the nominations of Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai for the FCC and Jon Leibowitz and Maureen Ohlhausen for the FTC. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, threatened again to block the FCC nominations due to his ongoing concerns about the LightSquared network.
The Justice Department has seen Internet “bottlenecks,” justifying net neutrality actions, DOJ Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis Pozen of the Antitrust Division said Wednesday at an antitrust oversight hearing in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Internet. She declined to name any of them. Also at the hearing, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz raised concerns with ICANN’s plan to roll out hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Pozen said nothing new on DOJ’s lawsuit to block the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile USA.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., will seek middle ground with the House on spectrum legislation, including reducing his proposal for funding a national public safety network, Rockefeller told reporters Tuesday after Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. The House-proposed figure of $6.5 billion comes “close” to what’s needed for the network, but $7 billion or $7.5 billion would be “a whole lot better,” the Senate Commerce Committee chairman said. The extra money could make the difference on whether the network gets built, Rockefeller said.
Senators showed support for televising the U.S. Supreme Court, but at a hearing Tuesday some voiced reservations that it may be unconstitutional for Congress to make rules for an equal branch of government. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts debated S-410, a bill requiring cameras in the courtrooms. There’s “nothing I would love more than to watch Supreme Court arguments on television,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said at the hearing. “At the same time, as a coordinate branch of government, the Supreme Court is entitled … to determine how it operates."
The House Commerce Committee hit the pause button on spectrum legislation after House leaders said they're discussing adding spectrum auction authority to a larger spending package that may be voted this week on the House floor (CD Dec 5 p7), a GOP committee aide said Monday. The committee had considered marking up the spectrum bill by Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., this week. “House Leadership has indicated they want to include spectrum in an end of the year package, so at the moment we are waiting to see how things develop on that end,” the committee aide said. Auctions would be used as one way to pay for a payroll tax cut extension, the yearly pay correction for doctors serving Medicare patients and other items in the package.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote Thursday on FCC and FTC nominations, a committee spokeswoman confirmed Friday. The committee scheduled a markup to consider FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, FTC nominees Jon Leibowitz and Maureen Ohlhausen, and the nominee for Commerce Department deputy secretary, Rebecca Blank. A time and location hasn’t been announced. The vote is more likely to happen at a quick meeting just off the Senate floor, the committee spokeswoman said.