McCAIN POSTPONES FCC REAUTHORIZATION MARKUP FOR WEEK
The markup of the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-1264) has been postponed one week as the Senate Commerce Committee prepares for a meeting Thurs. that will include efforts to roll back the Commission’s June 2 media ownership vote. A committee spokeswoman said the panel would mark up S-1264 June 26. She said Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) wanted to delay the markup since the bill had been introduced only recently (CD June 16 p1) and senators needed more time to digest it. It would make sweeping changes in FCC procedures, including giving the agency more power to regulate media ownership and raising fines for rule violations.
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Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said Tues. he was unsure whether the committee would accept his proposed amendment to the 35% broadcast ownership cap bill (S-1046). The amendment would restore the broadcast-newspaper and radio-TV cross-ownership rules tossed out by the FCC. Dorgan said he hadn’t spoken with the bill’s sponsor, Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) but had discussed it with Stevens’s his staff. He didn’t characterize staff reaction, but in an earlier Senate Commerce Committee hearing on ownership, Stevens said he supported the 35% cap, but not the cross-ownership bans. “I think I have a shot,” Dorgan said. He is a co-sponsor of S- 1046, as is Committee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.). The bill has 30 co-sponsors.
Dorgan also said he was confident he could get 30 signatures for his “legislative veto” of the FCC’s ruling. While the 35% cap legislation focuses only on parts of the agency’s ruling, the veto proposal would undo all of the Commission’s actions. After the media ownership rules are reported to either Congress or the Federal Register, Dorgan would have 60 days to collect the 30 signatures, which he said he was confident he could get. Those signatures would move the measure out of the Commerce Committee and to the Senate floor, which would be the first “hurdle” for the measure, he said. Congress was given the legislative veto under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which was used only once, to defeat OSHA ergonomic standards in March 2001.
Dorgan said he would consider offering his cross- ownership amendment to the FCC Reauthorization Bill if it failed to win acceptance Thurs. One Senate staffer speculated that McCain postponed the FCC reauthorization bill so no media amendments would be added. Dorgan said the Thurs. markup, which includes spectrum relocation trust fund legislation, several other reauthorization bills and several nominations, was “pretty full” without the FCC reauthorization. He said the appropriations process was the last resort, but wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Whatever happens in the Senate, Dorgan acknowledged that the House would be a much more difficult hurdle, and he said he had no idea whether President Bush would sign any media ownership legislation.
Dorgan said he was surprised by the number of e-mails and letters he received from N.D. residents disapproving the FCC’s media ownership action. “Most American people think this is pretty important,” he said: “We're heading in the direction where localism is viewed as old fashioned.” The Senate Commerce Committee markup is scheduled for Thurs., 9:30 a.m., Rm. 253, Russell Bldg.