House Commerce Approves $2.8 Billion Wireless/Broadband Grant Program

“It’s abominable that a bill that’s 269 pages is going to be the object of a one-day markup,” said Commerce ranking member Joe Barton of Texas. The Congressional Budget Office hasn’t studied the effects on the budget and there has been no hearing, he said. Addressing committee Chairman Henry Waxman, Barton said, “I know the pressure that you're under. But it is truly an insult to this committee … that we couldn’t have several weeks to review this.”

“We have been given a short window to consider this package,” Waxman, of California, said at the start of the full-day markup. “Like many members on both sides of the aisle, I wish that we could have taken more time.” Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said those concerned about moving too quickly aren’t considering the urgency of the nation’s economic crisis. “Some can watch while Rome burns,” Eshoo said. “We do not have time to burn time” while the U.S. economy suffers.

The committee approved mainly on party lines a number of amendments. One would divide the funding, giving $1 billion for grants to provide wireless service, and $1.8 billion for fiber, cable or satellite. The bill would require 25 percent of grants to go to unserved areas, and 75 percent to underserved, with the FCC charged with defining which is which. That provision struck some members as problematic and needing further study.

The committee agreed by voice vote to approve an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., requiring the FCC to review the definitions of “unserved” and “underserved” within 45 days after the measure is enacted. But it rejected an amendment by Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., that would have required the FCC to study the percentage of grant allocations in each category. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., also failed to win support for an amendment attempting to set standards ensuring that unserved areas get priority.

The 25/75 percent breakdowns are “aspirational goals,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Waxman explained that the provision reflected the committee’s desire that not all money would go to unserved areas, particularly since the Agriculture Department is slated to get a similar influx of grant funding for loans in rural areas.

The bill would require each state to submit to NTIA a report defining which geographic regions in the state are priority areas for broadband deployment. Waxman’s amendment added language that would require NTIA to issue an annual report assessing the effects and effectiveness of the grants. Waxman’s provision seeks to make as many potential applicants as possible eligible for grants, including satellite companies.

The bill included open access provisions that Barton opposed, but which generated relatively little debate at the markup. Barton said network neutrality and open access provisions would discourage investment and innovation. “The speed requirements are unrealistic at best, and neither competitively nor technologically neutral at worse. Maybe the worst of it is that this sort of legislative lard discourages companies from participating in the stimulus plan.”

Net neutrality advocates were pleased. Public Knowledge welcomed Thursday’s vote as well as the approval that House Appropriations gave in a vote late Wednesday on open access. “The forward-looking actions by these committees are the first steps to enacting President Obama’s technology platform that will lead to putting Americans back to work,” said President Gigi Sohn. The Computer & Communications Industry Association also praised committee passage.

The Commerce Committee also passed an amendment offered by Markey requiring the FCC to devise a national broadband plan within a year of the bill’s passage. The plan, which the commission would need to submit to Congress, would describe benchmarks for ensuring that all people have access to broadband.

Tech CEOs Press for Tech Solutions

More than a hundred technology CEOs made the case that spending in their industries will “transform” the economy, even if the jobs themselves aren’t “shovel-ready.” Executives of companies including Intel, Motorola, Cisco, Apple, M2Z, Register.com, Salesforce.com and Netflix sent a letter to House and Senate leaders asking them to support “investments in our digital infrastructure,” namely health IT, broadband and smart-grid deployments. They cited a recent Information Technology and Innovation Foundation study -- incorrectly identified in the letter as the Information Technology Industry Foundation -- that said spending $40 billion, “a critical starting point,” on IT network infrastructure will yield nearly a million new jobs.

Spending is needed to “dig out of the hole we find ourselves in today, but [also for] our global competitiveness tomorrow,” said Bruce Mehlman, executive director of the Technology CEO Council, in a conference call Thursday with other association leaders who had corralled CEO support. Tech leaders aren’t just talking about creating jobs in their own industries, said Chris Hanson, CEO of the Technology Association of America, recently created in the merger of ITAA and AeA. “We're talking about the competitiveness of other industries” that rely on technology improvements, he said.

Executives downplayed the potential for privacy concerns to slow health IT spending. “That’s the easiest hurdle to get over,” because of the big “upside” in reduced health and administrative costs and improved accuracy, Hanson said. “There are ways to handle that that I think the legislators are comfortable with.” Government standards for interoperable health IT systems will spur doctors to finally spend on upgrades and have confidence in federal reimbursements, Mehlman said. “Patients don’t even know what’s in their own record,” since most files are still on paper and generally inaccessible to patients, Hanson said. “There’s a nascent market here” for e-health providers, Garfield said, referring to talks with his group’s members. “With this economic shot in the arm it’s really going to take off,” he said.

Broadband may be a tougher sell because most people with access to high-speed service don’t subscribe, Mehlman said. High telecom taxes, are partly to blame, he added: “We tax it like a sin.” Asked how much should be spent on broadband expansion, Garfield said, “Investment consistent with what’s being invested in health IT would be great.”

The expansion of information technology will ultimately create more jobs than it kills, executives said. Health IT jobs will come not only in software development but also in basic sales positions to hawk each company’s technology, Garfield said. More people earn a living through eBay than are now employed by the steel industry, and companies such as JetBlue have created jobs in low-employment rural areas by outsourcing functions like call centers, Mehlman said. “The story of technology and automation … has always expanded them [jobs] in quantity and quality and pay.”