The FCC must ensure sufficient funding for broadband adoption programs as it revamps the Universal Service Fund, Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said in a letter circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday. “A truly complete USF program would include adequate funding to bring critical programs, like broadband adoption initiatives modeled after the Lifeline and Link Up, into the broadband era,” Matsui said. Matsui plans to send the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as early as Friday, a Matsui spokeswoman said. “In today’s economy, the internet has become a necessity, not a luxury,” Matsui wrote. “We must do more to promote subscribership through adoption programs.” Many don’t subscribe because they lack the “necessary equipment, training or education opportunities to take advantage of the benefits of Internet use,” Matsui said. Others can’t afford “even basic broadband service,” she said.
A fresh House bill to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety has the support of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., who serves on the Appropriations Committees, on Tuesday introduced the Help Emergency Responders Operate Emergency Systems (HEROES) Act. Using proceeds from spectrum auctions, the bill would provide $5.5 billion for construction, maintenance and operation of the national public safety network and $400 million to set up a grant program to help first responders upgrade their radios to comply with the FCC’s 2004 narrowband mandate.
The FCC should “maintain the key elements of the America’s Broadband Connectivity and Joint Rural Association proposals” to revamp the Universal Service Fund as the commission considers “other proposals to revise the plan,” Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Mike Ross, D-Ark., said in a letter circulating on Capitol Hill this week. The letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski hadn’t been sent and is dated Sept. 23. The FCC “must ask swiftly yet carefully to enact reforms that allow all Americans -- particularly those in hard-to-serve rural communities -- access to the burgeoning services and opportunities that are being created via innovations in broadband technology,” the lawmaker said. And the FCC “should pursue a USF reform framework that is fiscally responsible, enforceable, and sustainable, providing opportunities for a wide range of robust broadband technologies to compete.” The ABC and Joint Rural Association plans taken together “embody the core principles” of the National Broadband Plan, Terry and Ross said. “While many details remain to be fleshed out by the FCC, this framework clearly creates a path forward for comprehensive USF and intercarrier compensation reform.”
The House Oversight Committee is considering whether to investigate an allegedly cozy relationship between LightSquared and the White House. A Wednesday report from the Center for Public Integrity detailed emails between LightSquared and the White House seeking to set up meetings around the time large donations were made by LightSquared executives, largely to Democrats. The committee received and is reviewing a request by Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, to look into the matter, said a spokeswoman for Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Turner, an Oversight Committee member and chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, at the subcommittee’s hearing Thursday urged Oversight to investigate (CD Sept 16 p1). Meanwhile, the House Commerce Committee “has not scheduled a hearing” about LightSquared, a spokeswoman said. “The FCC has recently put out a request for further testing,” she said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and ensure the FCC does its job to address interference concerns.” In a written statement late Thursday, LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja disputed allegations against LightSquared. “Any suggestion that LightSquared has run roughshod over the regulatory process is contradicted by the reality of eight long years spent gaining approvals,” he said. “It’s also ludicrous to suggest LightSquared’s success depends on political connections. This is a private company that has never taken one dollar in taxpayer money.” The LightSquared political action committee has $10,600, Ahuja said. Founder Philip Falcone “has given to candidates in both political parties in the last eight years, with two thirds of his contributions going to Republicans because of the founder’s free market philosophy,” Ahuja said. Ahuja himself “gave $30,400 in contributions to both parties in late 2010,” he said: “It’s difficult to charge that LightSquared has undue political influence when it was denied the opportunity to testify” at Thursday’s Armed Services Committee hearing “or even be allowed a one-on-one meeting” with the committee chairman before the hearing, “as the GPS industry was given.” The FCC won’t “permit LightSquared to begin commercial service without first resolving” GPS interference concerns, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in letters this month sent to various members of Congress. The letters were dated Sept. 8 and released Friday. “The current interference concerns are significant, and we have taken them very seriously,” Genachowski wrote. “The FCC has proceeded in an open, thorough, and fair way, and we will continue to operate in this manner.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., would like to see spectrum auctions among recommendations made by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a Warner spokesman told us. Warner and 35 other Democratic and GOP senators on Thursday urged the super committee to “go big” and find more than the $1.5 trillion required by the August debt ceiling legislation. The 36 senators believe “a reasonable target is at least $4 trillion, including previously enacted deficit measures,” they said in a statement submitted to the super committee. Warner is a Commerce Committee member and was one of the “gang of six” senators who earlier this summer had a debt ceiling plan that was not adopted.
House lawmakers are pointing to large costs and national security concerns as reasons not to allow LightSquared to move forward with its plan to build a national network. At a hearing Thursday before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Democrats and Republicans said the cost of testing for and implementing methods to mitigate GPS interference might outweigh the benefits. The hearing also contributed to a political firestorm over an allegedly cozy relationship between LightSquared and the White House. And Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner, R-Ohio, berated FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski for not appearing at the hearing.
The American Jobs Act’s inclusion of spectrum won praise from senators seeking to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety. The Act’s public safety section hews closely to the Senate Commerce Committee’s Spectrum Act, S-911 (CD Sept 13 p1). But House Commerce Committee Republicans who have favored a commercial D-block auction are continuing on their own path to spectrum legislation, a committee spokesman said Tuesday.
FBI Director Robert Mueller asked for legislation to speed government requests for access to user communications on Google, Facebook and other websites. Tuesday at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing about the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Mueller said the FBI wants to ensure that social media websites “have the capability to respond to court orders” seeking communications of users. The FBI had raised the issue at a February hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, but hadn’t called for legislation.
The House Commerce Committee may have a series of staff-level meetings from Sept. 19 to Oct. 14 to formulate recommendations for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a Democratic House staffer and two telecom industry officials told us Monday. It may also have two to three public hearings on the subject, an industry lobbyist said. A spokeswoman for the House Commerce Committee majority denied any staff meetings or public hearings specific to the Joint Select Committee were planned. The staff meetings are expected to include majority and minority committee staff, a telecom industry official said. The exact schedule doesn’t appear to be set, the House staffer said. Congressional committees are required to submit recommendations to the so-called supercommittee by Oct. 14. “I expect every committee to go through a process where they consider what deficit reduction recommendations they might want to forward to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction for consideration,” said David Taylor, managing partner of Capitol Solutions. Spectrum auctions are expected to be considered by the supercommittee because auctions generate revenue without the same controversy as other methods like raising taxes. Supercommittee members Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., have said spectrum could be part of the discussion (CD Sept 9 p10). Spectrum is also part of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill (CD Sept 12 p1), released late Monday.
Public safety would get the 700 MHz D-block, under the proposed American Jobs Act released late Monday by President Barack Obama. The legislation also authorizes several spectrum auctions to fund the network. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., praised the bill for including proposals similar to his proposed Spectrum Act (S-911).