Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said spectrum auctions could be on the table as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction looks this fall for at least $1.5 trillion in savings over 10 years. Kerry is a member of the super committee and also chairs the Senate Communications Subcommittee. Spectrum is “one of the possible options,” Kerry told us after the committee’s organizational meeting Thursday: “I think we look at everything.” House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., another super committee member, declined to say whether the body should consider spectrum because he didn’t “want to get into any details yet.” During the meeting, super committee members stressed the need to overcome divisive politics and find at minimum $1.5 trillion. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, co-chair of the committee, said there would be several public hearings, but some of the work would happen behind closed doors. The super committee will provide “ample public notice” before submitting its final package, he said. While the package isn’t due until Nov. 24, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the super committee probably would need to be finished by the end of October to give the Congressional Budget Office time to review the package and to satisfy public notice requirements. He predicted “tedious, time-consuming work” in the days ahead. In other super committee news, House Commerce Committee aide Michael Bloomquist will be the body’s general counsel, Hill and industry officials said. Bloomquist was deputy general counsel for Upton, and was a partner at Wiley Rein.
More LightSquared network testing “should be required” before the FCC allows the company to begin service, House Science Committee Chairman Ralph Hall, R-Texas, said at a hearing Thursday. Protecting GPS is “a vital national interest” and of “utmost concern” to the committee, Hall said. Ranking Member Eddie Johnson, D-Texas, highlighted the public benefits of a new national wireless network, but agreed that more tests may be needed to determine whether LightSquared and GPS systems can coexist. Witnesses from several government agencies also urged more tests.
"The status quo in cybersecurity is not acceptable,” a senior Homeland Security Department official said at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., agreed cybersecurity is an urgent national defense issue. Meanwhile, committee Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, pushed for modernization of the country’s emergency alert system.
NAB President Gordon Smith has a connection to the new staff director for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The committee’s co-chairs -- Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas -- announced Tuesday that Mark Prater, Republican deputy staff director and chief tax counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, will lead staff on the so-called “supercommittee.” Prater’s wife Lori worked for Smith from 2003 to 2008 in the Senate. Mark Prater himself has not focused specifically on telecommunications but has dealt with broader tax issues that affect telecom companies, a telecom lobbyist said. Last year, for example, he helped pass a bill with language removing wireless devices from IRS “listed property” rules, the lobbyist said. Prater also spoke about telecom tax issues at a 2004 summit hosted by USTelecom and Deloitte. The select committee is expected to consider spectrum auctions as it looks this fall for $1.5 trillion (CD Aug 11 p1) in budget cuts and revenue increases. The six Republicans on the select committee met Tuesday on Capitol Hill. The full group is expected to formally meet soon after Congress returns from recess Sept. 6. NAB didn’t respond to a request for comment.
An influx of freshmen in the 112th Congress forced the telecom industry to increase education efforts in 2011, industry lobbyists said in interviews. This year there are 13 freshman senators and 93 new House members. As a result, telecom lobbyists have had to spend more of their time teaching the nuts and bolts of major telecom issues like spectrum and Universal Service Fund reform, lobbyists said.
The FCC is making “great progress” complying with an executive order asking independent agencies to submit regulatory lookback plans to review old regulations, an OMB spokeswoman said Tuesday. The White House on Tuesday posted final regulatory lookback plans by 26 federal departments and agencies, and preliminary plans from four independent agencies other than the FCC. House Commerce Committee Republicans applauded the commission Tuesday for recently removing the Fairness Doctrine and 82 other rules from its books (CD Aug 23 p1) but said process reform legislation is still necessary.
No new laws or regulations are needed to prevent voicemail hacking in the U.S., said telecom and cable industry associations in letters released Tuesday. Reacting last month to the News Corp. phone hacking scandal in the U.K., House Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing Chair Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., sent letters to the heads of USTelecom, CEA, CTIA, NCTA and the Information Technology Industry Council (CD July 19 p6) asking if it’s necessary to adopt new practices, laws or regulations to prevent phone hacks and other privacy breaches. Bono Mack “is reviewing all of the information provided in the letters and is satisfied, at this point in time, that the phone hacking scandal appears to be limited to Great Britain,” her spokesman said Tuesday.
Building a national wireless broadband network for public safety is the top telecom priority this fall for the Senate Commerce Committee, committee aides said. House Democratic and Republican staff, meanwhile, have continued discussions on spectrum legislation through the August recess, House officials said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., also is closely watching the FCC as it attempts to overhaul the Universal Service Fund and the committee may have a hearing on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, his spokeswoman said. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are poised to move their Congressional Review Act rebuke of the FCC’s net neutrality order.
Data security legislation seems likely to move sooner through the House Commerce Committee than other privacy legislation, House lawmakers and aides said. But state preemption and other dicey issues could trip up a federal measure to protect consumers in data breaches, other lobbyists said. The Safe Data Act (HR-2577) by Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., is slated to receive a markup this September in the House Commerce Committee, House officials said. Other privacy bills have stalled and it’s unclear when they will receive committee votes.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., lambasted FCC transparency after the agency refused to show him the allotment optimization model (AOM) used by the commission to predict various possible outcomes of voluntary incentive auctions (CD June 21 p13). In an Aug. 3 letter, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told Dingell that disclosing the model would harm the agency’s process and the marketplace. The refusal is “deeply troubling from a number of perspectives,” Dingell replied in a letter Tuesday. “One wonders if perhaps Members of Congress would have an easier time getting information from the Commission by filing Freedom of Information Act requests."