Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., still plans to pursue FCC reauthorization legislation in 2016, he plans to say in his opening statement during Wednesday’s FCC oversight hearing. “Reauthorizing the FCC is our responsibility as legislators and representatives of diverse constituencies who are increasingly affected by a regulatory agency with a nearly half billion dollar budget,” Thune will say. “It’s time for this Committee to get back to regularly authorizing the Commission as part of its normal course of business. To that end, in the next few days, I will introduce the FCC Reauthorization Act of 2016, and it is my intent to mark up the bill in the coming weeks.” Thune was ready last summer with such FCC reauthorization legislation, which contained FCC process overhaul provisions. He never formally introduced the bill due to struggles in getting backing from ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla. (see 1510130039). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the four other commissioners will testify. The GOP staff memo for the hearing listed many topics for the hearing, set for 10 a.m. in 253 Russell: “Policy topics likely to be discussed during the hearing include Internet regulations, universal service program reform, spectrum auctions, and pay-TV set-top box regulations.” The memo detailed such topics as broadband privacy rules, stand-alone broadband support and set-top box regulation. “It is likely that Chairman Wheeler will advocate for more funding for NG9-1-1 efforts during this hearing,” the memo said. “To date, the Commission has offered few specific legislative proposals to implement the broad suggestions outlined by the Chairman.”
The 1996 Telecom Act and its implementation drew plaudits and criticisms Monday, the 20th anniversary of its being signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. AT&T, NTIA and others issued statements that lauded the landmark law, which amended the 1934 Communications Act and set the terms for phone competition, phased out much cable-TV rate regulation, eased some broadcast ownership restrictions, expanded universal service subsidies and encouraged advanced telecom services (now commonly called broadband). But AT&T criticized FCC regulation, and others offered mixed or more critical assessments of the law, with CTIA saying the act was “highly regulatory” and not as effective as a 1993 budget act's spectrum provisions that “took a decidedly different approach to the wireless sector.”
Spectrum auction offsets “are expected to have much smaller effects, on average, in future years,” the Congressional Budget Office said this week, explaining the effect of the offsetting receipts from FCC spectrum auctions. CBO’s 226-page report covered broader budget issues for 2016 to 2026. “CBO estimates that offsetting receipts will fall from $256 billion in 2015 to $237 billion in 2016,” the report said. “That drop is primarily due to receipts from the [FCC’s] 2015 auction for licenses to use a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Some of the proceeds from that auction were collected in 2015 and reduced outlays by $30 billion that year.” Additional proceeds are expected to cut the outlays in 2016, too, to the tune of $11 billion, CBO said. “Over the coming decade, offsetting receipts are projected to increase by 4 percent each year, on average, rising to $350 billion by 2026.” The FCC did the AWS-3 auction in late 2014 and expects to do the broadcast TV incentive auction starting this March, which CBO also mentioned: “Although the [FCC] plans to conduct another large auction in 2016, the receipts for those licenses will not be recorded in the budget until 2017.”
Dish Network’s Q4 lobbying expenses dropped in 2015 compared with what it spent in Q4 of 2014, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed this week. The Q4 reports are due Wednesday, and several organizations had begun filing by our deadline Tuesday. Dish spent $310,000 the most recent quarter, vs. $350,000 a year earlier. Dish lobbying priorities included satellite broadband, wireless competition and spectrum management, including spectrum auctions, it said, plus retransmission consent reform, video market competition and merger and acquisition activity in the pay-TV industry for the three company lobbyists named. Dish spent $380,000 in 2015's Q3, $440,000 in Q2 and $400,000 in Q1, making the latest quarter spending the lowest in more than a year of reports. The Competitive Carriers Association, meanwhile, spent more on lobbying -- $150,000 this Q4 vs. $135,000 reported a year ago. CCA named more than a dozen issues and many pieces of legislation in its recent lobbying report. Focuses included the FCC broadcast TV incentive auction and other issues such as special access, FirstNet and federal lands siting. U.S. Cellular reported spending $110,000 in its lobbying report. ITTA spent more on lobbying: $43,748 up from $20,000. So did TDS Telecom, which spent $40,214.64 compared with $29,936 in Q4 the year before.
The forward part of the TV incentive auction will look to outsiders much like other FCC spectrum auctions, with the agency releasing a list of qualified bidders beforehand and making basic information available after every round, industry and agency officials said. But the reverse auction, in which broadcasters will offer their licenses for sale, is still taking shape and the FCC is likely to make little information available as that auction progresses, the officials said. Broadcasters will also get less information than is normally available to qualified bidders in standard FCC spectrum auctions. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will address CES Wednesday and the auction is expected to be one of his topics.
T-Mobile arguments that Dish Network and designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless shouldn't be able to participate in the TV incentive auction without being classified as “former defaulters” is a T-Mobile attempt to further bend the auction rules in its favor, Dish and the two DEs said in a joint opposition posted by the FCC Tuesday. Sanctions are needed to send a message that Dish and the DEs' behavior in the AWS-3 auction was “contrary to the Commission’s rules and policies and must not be allowed to occur in the future,” T-Mobile earlier told the FCC.
The regulatory fee battle raged as the American Cable Association and ITTA urged the FCC to shift some fees from wireline to wireless companies, while CTIA opposed that. CTIA also opposed NAB’s proposal to reapportion regulatory fees to the wireless sector because of the planned incentive auction, which will allow wireless providers to bid for broadcast TV spectrum. ACA and CTIA filed reply comments (here and here), while ITTA made an ex parte filing this week in docket 15-121 on a recent meeting with FCC officials. NAB met with officials last week to discuss its proposal (see 1512030061).
The Form 177 application window for TV licensees to apply to participate in the incentive auction opened Tuesday at noon EST, two hours into the Incentive Auction Task Force’s workshop on filling out and submitting Form 177. “Once you leave here today, you’re on the clock,” IATF Chair Gary Epstein told the crowd of attorneys and broadcasters. “Please file early; we can’t stress this enough,” he said. The window to file Form 177 ends at 6 p.m. EST, Jan. 12, and Epstein said he expects to pull an all-nighter that evening. Broadcasters can still decide not to participate in the auction if they change their mind after the window closes, but those that don’t file Form 177 before Jan. 12 won’t be able to sell their spectrum, said Wireless Bureau Attorney Advisor Erin Griffith.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will plead with Congress not to slash the agency’s budget for FY 2016. He will warn of “severe consequences to the agency’s ability to protect public safety, advance the spectrum agenda, and transact business vital to the U.S. economy and consumers in a timely fashion” if lawmakers proceed with cuts as planned earlier in the year, according to written testimony for his appearance alongside all four other commissioners before the Communications Subcommittee Tuesday.
Senate opposition is growing to the Bipartisan Budget Act’s robocall provision, and Consumers Union is now saying to expect legislation to be filed Tuesday. President Barack Obama signed the two-year budget deal, which includes an entire section on the FCC and spectrum auctions (see 1510270063), into law Monday, after Senate and House passage last week. But Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., intends to introduce, likely by mid-week, what he’s calling the Hang Up Act to repeal a provision of the deal that allows for robocalls to cellphones for the collection of debt owed to the government (see 1510300061). Consumers Union revealed several Democratic co-sponsors who already have signed on to the unreleased legislation in its latest petitioning for supporters -- Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon. McCaskill and Blumenthal slammed the provision during a Commerce Committee hearing last week, the same day the White House defended the merits of the provision (see 1510280039). “We’re encouraging you to put pressure on your Senators to co-sponsor the bill,” Consumers Union fellow Maureen Mahoney said in a blog post following Senate passage of the budget deal. “It’s crucial that the Senate quickly passes this measure. Otherwise, millions of consumers will be hassled by these soon-to-be-legal robocalls. Even those of you who don’t hold federally-backed debt could be affected.”