House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, may add spectrum auction authority to a larger spending package that’s to be voted on this week on the House floor, a Boehner spokesman told us Friday. Boehner is discussing using spectrum as a “pay-for” for a payroll tax extension, the yearly pay correction for doctors serving Medicare patients and other items in the package, the spokesman said. If the spectrum proposal goes straight to the floor, it would skip a vote by the full Commerce Committee that had also been expected for this week. The House Communications Subcommittee approved draft spectrum legislation on Thursday (CD Dec 2 p1) amid objections by Democrats.
Spectrum legislation survived a lengthy House Communications Subcommittee markup in which the political parties squabbled over many details of the complicated bill. The subcommittee voted 17-6 to approve the GOP draft bill with amendments. Every Democrat voted no except Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga. The approved version would authorize voluntary incentive auctions and give public safety the 700 MHz D-block and $6.5 billion for a national wireless broadband network. The draft would not let the FCC provide for unlicensed use spectrum freed up by incentive auctions. States and a private company would play a large role in governance of the public safety network. And the bill would limit FCC authority to make rules in auctions.
The House Commerce Committee didn’t vote on two FCC process reform bills at a markup Wednesday. Votes were scheduled on HR-3309 and HR-3310, but the committee spent more time than expected debating other unrelated bills. Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said votes on the FCC bills will likely be postponed until next week. The exact day hasn’t been determined, a committee spokesman said. The markup began late Tuesday with opening statements, in which Republicans took shots at the FCC for the agency’s handling of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. “Now that the matter is under consideration by the Department of Justice and AT&T has withdrawn its petition, I question the value of the FCC moving forward until the litigation is resolved,” Upton said. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he was “disappointed” to hear the FCC was planning to reject the deal and had considered not allowing AT&T to withdraw its application. The FCC must “operate in a transparent and accountable manner,” Upton said. “A number of process disputes have arisen in recent years,” under chairmen from both political parties, he said. However, Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the larger bill HR-3309 “would not reform the FCC but disable it.” Waxman said he supported “the purpose” of HR-3310, a smaller bill that would consolidate many FCC reports and eliminate others. “But further work is needed to improve the bill before it goes to the floor,” he said. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., agreed process reform is needed at the FCC, but said the Republicans “go too far” in HR-3309. Dingell complained about the FCC process leading up to the agency’s net neutrality order, and their unresponsiveness to his questions about voluntary incentive spectrum auctions. But Dingell said the GOP bills had “no hope” of being taken up in the Senate.
With an early 2012 timeframe looking more likely for passing spectrum legislation (CD Nov 30 p4), House Commerce Committee Democrats sought to delay Thursday’s Communications Subcommittee markup of the draft bill by Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. In a letter Wednesday to their Republican counterparts, full committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said members need more time to understand the new language of the GOP bill released Tuesday. A delay would also allow members to resume two-party negotiations “that we abruptly ended in early October."
Several top sellers of mobile games will show content ratings on their storefronts, CTIA and the Entertainment Software Rating Board announced Tuesday. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular and Microsoft will participate, and others have expressed interest, CTIA and ESRB said. However, several major app sellers haven’t yet come aboard, including Google, Apple and BlackBerry. Rating of mobile games will be automated, CTIA and ESRB said. When submitting a game, developers will have to complete a multiple-choice questionnaire with questions on the amount of sex, drugs, violence and bad language. The quiz also seeks information on a minimum age requirement, exchange of user-generated content and the sharing of user location and personal information. Once completed, applications are rated “within seconds,” CTIA and ESRB said. Each app is then given a certificate and unique code that may be submitted to other storefronts. To ensure appropriate ratings, the ESRB will test the most popular games and track consumer complaints, it said. If an update changes a game’s content, it must be resubmitted for rating. Developers may appeal to the ESRB if they disagree with a rating, said President Patricia Vance. At a press conference Tuesday, Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., applauded the groups for the ratings initiative. It “makes complete sense” to apply to mobile the ratings system that’s long been available for videogames on other platforms, Ayotte said. Vance and CTIA Vice President David Diggs dismissed the absence of Google, Apple and other major app stores because they said the ratings initiative is still new. The program can be expanded to other app stores, Vance said. Google, Apple, Amazon and Research In Motion didn’t respond when asked why they were not participating.
The Senate won’t move spectrum legislation this year, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday. That development came the same day that House Commerce Republicans reversed position on the 700 MHz D-block, bringing the House and Senate closer to consensus. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who previously supported a commercial auction of the D-block, released a new draft of his spectrum bill that would give public safety the license to the D-block. However, House Commerce Democrats, who still have reservations about unlicensed spectrum and some other issues, released their own rival draft bill. The House Communications Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up spectrum legislation Thursday.
A spectrum auction markup may happen next week in the House Communications Subcommittee, multiple telecom industry lobbyists said Tuesday. Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., had been waiting for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to finish its work; the super committee announced its failure Monday (CD Nov 22 p2). The Commerce Committee didn’t comment. Wireless industry groups lamented the super committee’s failure as a lost opportunity to authorize voluntary incentive auctions. “The wireless industry’s need for additional spectrum is well documented,” said CTIA Vice President Jot Carpenter. “If the supercommittee process doesn’t provide a path to addressing our need for more spectrum, then there are other vehicles available that will ensure our members can access unused or underutilized spectrum and meet consumers’ demand for wireless broadband services.” The Wireless Communications Association is disappointed in the super committee’s failure, WCA President Fred Campbell said. “Failing to adopt spectrum legislation this year would be a significant blow to mobile broadband providers.” Carpenter said in an interview he is optimistic Congress will find a vehicle for spectrum in December or early next year. But he said he doesn’t believe it’s “realistic” to attach it to an appropriations omnibus, as some have suggested, because of procedural hurdles. The spectrum legislation is not a spending bill so there is a “question of germaneness” linking it to appropriations, Carpenter said. In addition, Republicans may object to using the omnibus because the additional revenue from spectrum could be used to increase the size of the spending bill, he said. While there have been attempts, spectrum auctions historically have never made the cut on an appropriations bill, he added.
Congress could still find a way to pass spectrum legislation this year without the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, telecom industry lobbyists said. The super committee’s co-chairs said late Monday that the panel had failed to reach a deal. The House and Senate have signaled that they hope to push spectrum auction legislation forward in December through regular order or by attaching it to a must-pass vehicle like an omnibus appropriations bill. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he'll press to get spectrum legislation passed. “Winning ideas like S.911 cannot keep falling victim to this partisan stubbornness,” he said Monday evening. “I will continue to pursue all avenues to get S.911 enacted this year."
The Senate is on track to finish confirmations of FCC nominees by the end of the year, multiple Senate aides and industry officials said. The Commerce Committee on Friday announced a Nov. 30 hearing for FCC nominees Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai. That’s the same day as the next FCC meeting. The hearing is at 2:30 p.m in Room 253, Russell Senate Office Building. While the nominees are thought to be uncontroversial, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has threatened to derail their confirmation over an unrelated dispute with the FCC.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., plans to keep tabs on the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency as the agencies investigate glitches during last week’s national test of the Emergency Alert System. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with FEMA and FCC officials Thursday, the House Communications Subcommittee chairman said he’s asked the agencies for more information but doesn’t plan any hearings. The FCC and FEMA gave a “very good and comprehensive report,” Walden said. “I think they're on it, I think they get it, and I think they want to make it work.” A broadcasting executive told us an audio problem caused a cascade-like effect during the test, while a public-access channel executive said those networks didn’t get the message.