The House Republican who last year threatened the FCC with defunding if the agency tried to regulate the Internet said Friday he “strongly” opposes Chairman Julius Genachowski’s net neutrality order. House Appropriations Committee member John Culberson, R-Texas, said in an e-mail he opposes “the FCC using our tax dollars for this legal misadventure.” The FCC action “will create regulatory uncertainty, deter investment, stifle innovation, and kill jobs,” Culberson said. “I believe Investment analysts have said the move would put a damper on the economy, and there is no guarantee the FCC won’t impose more burdensome requirements in the future.”
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Deputy Managing Editor for Privacy Daily. Bender leads a team of journalists and reports on state privacy legislation, rulemaking and litigation. In previous roles at Communications Daily, he covered telecom and internet policy in the states, Congress and at the FCC. He has won awards for his reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW). Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of multiple dystopian sci-fi novels. Keep up to date with Bender by reading his blog and following him on social media including Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., plans to reintroduce his public safety bill during the Senate’s first week back starting Jan. 24, a Democratic Senate aide said. A hearing date isn’t set, but it probably won’t be that week, the aide said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Rockefeller’s bill would reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety and fund the network using proceeds from voluntary incentive auctions.
Broadcasters condemned a bill that would require free airtime for political advertising. HR-137, introduced last week by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, requires radio and TV broadcasting licensees to allot “an equal amount, but not less than 2 hours, of free broadcast time each even-numbered year to each qualified political candidate in a statewide or national election.” The bill also directs the FCC to make similar rules for cable operators. “NAB will strongly oppose efforts to impose government-mandated free airtime for politicians,” said an NAB spokesman. “We take seriously our role in covering elections. The unfortunate reality is that high-priced political consultants often advise political candidates to reject voluntary free airtime offers from broadcasters for debates and town hall forums.” All viable candidates should have reasonable access to the airwaves, said Meredith McGehee, policy director for Campaign Legal Center. Providing equal airtime to candidates serves the public interest and therefore should be part of broadcasters’ obligations, she said. The bill is especially important in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowing corporate funding of political broadcasts, she said. Public Citizen supports the bill as a “good beginning for discussion” to lower campaign costs and improve political candidates’ access to the airwaves, said the group’s government affairs lobbyist Craig Holman. But it will be an “uphill battle” given the influence broadcasters hold over Congress, he said. NCTA didn’t comment.
Two House Republicans think that two bills to scale back FCC authority over the Internet are better than one. Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., each introduced a bill last week opposing the FCC’s recent net neutrality order. A Blackburn spokesman said Wednesday that multiple bills may be necessary to get their point across to the FCC. Meanwhile, former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he doesn’t believe the GOP’s related Congressional Review Act effort is likely to succeed.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he hopes to strike a balance between defending against cyberattacks and protecting privacy online. Speaking Tuesday at the Newseum, Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy said he will direct his committee to modernize the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). He said he also wants to take up intellectual property theft and finish cybersecurity legislation.
House Democrats may decide Jan. 19 who will be ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, said a House Democratic staffer and a telecom industry lobbyist. But a spokeswoman for the Commerce Committee minority said the committee hasn’t set the timing for announcing subcommittee assignments. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., wants to be the ranking member and has seniority. But Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., is also believed to be making a bid.
The split Congress could agree on spectrum and privacy matters, former Hill aides said Saturday on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. But it’s likely Senate Democrats and House Republicans will continue to butt heads on net neutrality, and it will take time to get new members comfortable with communications issues before Congress can move forward on a rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act, they said.
The hiring of Ray Baum to the House Commerce Committee could signal heightened Capitol Hill interest in pursuing Universal Service Fund reform this year, state and industry officials said. Baum was chairman of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission and the state chairman of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. Some wireline industry lobbyists said they believe Baum may try to revamp the bill worked out last year by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.
Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., took himself out of the running for ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, clearing the way for Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., to take the job. Towns will join the Commerce Committee, according to a list we obtained of Democratic committee assignments. Also, House Judiciary Committee Republicans announced chairmen and vice chairmen for its subcommittees. Late Friday, Commerce Committee Republicans announced their subcommittee assignments.
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, added two seats to the Commerce Committee, one for each party, a Democratic aide said Wednesday. Otherwise, the return of Rep. Ed Towns, D-N.Y., to the committee would have pushed out the less senior Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., the aide said. Matsui will keep her seat with the new committee roster of 31 Republicans and 23 Democrats, but the lineup isn’t entirely settled, the aide said. A Boehner spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Matsui’s office declined to comment.