Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said there has been progress in spectrum negotiations with the Senate. “There have been some very productive discussions between the House and the Senate at the staff level,” the House Communications Subcommittee chairman told reporters after a cybersecurity hearing Wednesday. “We put forward a proposal this weekend that was a fairly substantial offer, and they've come back with a response that was I think in very good faith.” The two sides are now trying to “work out common ground,” he said. Walden declined to comment specifically on the concession by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to put NTIA in charge of the public safety network (CD Feb 8 p11).
The House Communications Subcommittee is developing a cybersecurity bill, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Wednesday. After a hearing Wednesday about threats to communications networks, Walden said he’s considering legislation that would provide incentives for the private sector to improve their cyber defenses. “We cannot legislatively through mandates ever get ahead of those who seek to do us harm,” Walden said. But Congress can set up an “incentives-based system that helps [the] private sector … to innovate and not only keep up but get ahead,” he said.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., “compromised” on governance in negotiations with the House on spectrum legislation, the Senate Commerce Committee chairman said Tuesday. Rockefeller agreed to put NTIA in charge of deploying the public safety network, Rockefeller told reporters after Democratic senators’ weekly policy lunch. Rockefeller’s original spectrum bill, S-911, proposed setting up a federal entity called the Public Safety Broadband Network Corp. to govern the network. The corporation would have included federal, state, local, tribal, public safety and private sector members. Meanwhile, the House GOP bill had proposed a state-by-state approach involving a third-party administrator. The House-Senate conference on the payroll tax cut extension is expected to include spectrum auctions as a pay-for provision in the bill due by month’s end. Staffers from the House and Senate Commerce committees are separately negotiating the spectrum piece (CD Feb 7 p9). While not a conferee, Rockefeller has signaled he’s willing to compromise on the spectrum bill as long as the end result is a national network for public safety, a Commerce Committee spokesperson said. The House Commerce Committee didn’t respond to a request for comment. Committee Democrat Doris Matsui of California said she hopes “that any final deal will have a strong governance structure in place.” Matsui didn’t comment specifically on the NTIA approach cited by Rockefeller, but warned that “the lack of a strong governance structure could threaten the achievability of a nationwide public safety network.”
Capitol Hill spectrum talks resumed outside of the House-Senate conference on the payroll tax cut extension, Hill and telecom industry lobbyists told us Monday. But there has been little progress toward agreement, multiple lobbyists said. House and Senate Commerce committee staff met over the weekend since Senate Commerce lacks representatives (CD Feb 1 p3) on the conference committee, a House GOP aide said. The staffs also met early last week, a telecom industry lobbyist said. The talks included the staffs of House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore.; full committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said three telecom industry lobbyists. Congressional leadership also participated, they said. Staff for Senate Commerce Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, have not been directly involved, they said. The telecom industry lobbyists said they haven’t detected consensus on the three main areas of disagreement: governance of the public safety network, unlicensed spectrum, and auction eligibility requirements. “Not much progress” has been made, one lobbyist said. Meanwhile, the larger conference committee plans to continue negotiations on the broader bill Tuesday at 10 a.m. The conference is considering spectrum as a “pay-for” provision in the payroll tax bill that’s due by month’s end. It doesn’t look nearly as complicated to resolve the lingering disagreements on spectrum compared to the political conflicts that would likely arise if Congress sought to tap a different pay-for, a telecom industry lobbyist said.
AT&T and Reed Hundt continued their war of words over spectrum legislation (CD Feb 2 p10). AT&T supports the House bill for restricting the FCC’s ability to condition eligibility in spectrum auctions, while Hundt has urged Congress to back off or risk allowing companies to monopolize spectrum. “As Reed admits, Congress gave the FCC discretion in the PCS C Block auction, and it used that discretion in a way that resulted in an auction that was a disaster for the industry and for the Treasury,” AT&T Executive Senior Vice President Jim Cicconi said Thursday. “And the flaw, in our view, was not simply a function of installment payments. It was the decision to have a closed versus an open auction. Our point is that an auction should be open to all competitors, not just to those hand picked by the FCC.” Hundt replied that the House bill strips the FCC of discretion to promote market competition “for no reason.” Even AT&T will benefit if all carriers are able to buy spectrum, Hundt said. “The House bill would delay the auctions for years and limit the amount of spectrum for all carriers. This isn’t as bad an outcome for [AT&T] as it is for their competitors but it is somewhat bad for [AT&T].” About his handling of the C-block auction, Hundt said, “The fact that 17 years ago I made 2 mistakes which had nothing to do with bidding eligibility … should not be held against an agency that is now in very competent hands, and is advised by the best theorists in the world.”
Industry support for FCC process change is ramping up in advance of a markup planned Tuesday in the House Commerce Committee. USTelecom, NAB, NCTA and AT&T supported the bills this week, while CTIA offered cautious support for one proposal. HR-3309 requires rulemaking shot clocks, cost-benefit analyses and a variety of other process changes, while HR-3310 would consolidate many FCC reports and eliminate others. Committee Democrats are expected to oppose HR-3309 but may support HR-3310 after an expected amendment, Democratic House aides said. Meanwhile, companion legislation is stuck in the Senate.
AT&T defended the House spectrum bill after former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt flayed it (CD Feb 1 p3) for constraining the commission’s ability to shape auctions. “No one is suggesting the FCC’s conduct of auctions be micro-managed,” AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said. “But Congress -- not the FCC -- sets policy, especially when it directly impacts revenue needed for deficit reduction. … Congress has every right to tell the FCC it should not be picking winners and losers in the wireless market, or using its ‘discretion’ to tilt the playing field.” Cicconi criticized Hundt for his handling of the PCS C-block auction. “In that situation, the FCC used its discretion in a way that set aside valuable spectrum for ‘designated entities,’ and excluded otherwise qualified companies from bidding,” he said. “Over half of the 493 licenses from that auction were later returned to the government for non-payment, and the licenses of the largest winner, NextWave, were tied up in bankruptcy litigation for years. In that case, the FCC’s use of its ‘discretion’ ended up costing the U.S. Treasury billions, and left vitally needed spectrum unused for years.” Hundt responded Wednesday that he made some mistakes in his chairmanship. “The biggest was indeed part of the C block auction, but it was this: I failed to cause the FCC to file for liens in every jurisdiction where Nextwave was located,” Hundt said. “Contrary to Jim’s view, I think it was not a mistake to allow start-up firms (like NextWave) to succeed or fail in the marketplace by buying licenses. The FCC should not guarantee opportunities only to large firms. Competition means everyone gets a chance and not everyone wins.” Installment payments, not designated entities, “were the design flaw in the C block auction,” Hundt said. “That payment technique was authorized by Congress but it led to the C block price going too high, so I should have not done what Congress suggested. This shows why Congress should not mandate particular auction techniques, and why maximizing bidding levels is a bad policy goal -- two of the errors in the House bill.” AT&T and House Commerce Republicans “have become a virtual echo chamber of each other,” Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said on his blog Tuesday. Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and AT&T “have been practically falling all over each other to echo each other’s criticism of that wascally dethpicable [FCC Chairman Julius] Genachowski and how they need to rein him in before the FCC nationalizes our infrastructure in a pagan orgy of socialism,” Feld said.
Sen. John Kerry worries about a one-sided negotiation over spectrum in the House-Senate conference working on the payroll tax cut extension, the Senate Communications Subcommittee chairman said Tuesday. The extension bill, due by month-end, is expected to include spectrum auction authorization to pay for the bill. While the House and Senate Commerce committees have developed individual spectrum bills, the conference has three members from the House Commerce Committee and zero from Senate Commerce. In a speech Tuesday at a New America Foundation event, Massachusetts Democrat Kerry said he’s particularly concerned with a provision in the House bill prohibiting the FCC from setting spectrum aside for unlicensed use.
Wireless companies would have to disclose monitoring software installed on mobile devices under draft legislation released Monday by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. The Mobile Device Privacy Act reacts to software from Carrier IQ used by carriers to collect certain user data from cellphones, including dialed phone numbers and visited URLs. While carriers say the data collection is for customer support, the controversy has resulted in more than 50 class-action lawsuits in courts across the country. Privacy advocates celebrated the Markey bill while the wireless industry was silent.
The House Communications Subcommittee plans to be active this year on FCC process reform, cybersecurity, the LightSquared controversy and the future of video, audio and data, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told reporters Wednesday morning. Walden said he was optimistic about passing spectrum legislation as part of the payroll tax cut bill. And he criticized FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s remarks at the CES show seeking more flexibility from Congress on auction conditions.