Congress Taking Up Several Telecom Matters in September as Elections Near
Cellphone tax law, public safety, cybersecurity and universal service are among issues expected to get Congressional attention when members return from recess next month, Hill and industry officials said. But with elections in early November, Congress is quickly running out of time to finish pending legislation on those and other matters. “On telecom, the final few weeks will mostly be about laying the groundwork for a busy 2010-11 in areas like spectrum, privacy and broadband regulation,” said Concept Capital analyst Paul Gallant.
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Congress will have only four weeks in session before leaving again in October. “There isn’t enough time on the calendar to move much of anything,” except for matters that can win “swift consensus,” said Potomac Research analyst Paul Glenchur. It probably will focus on issues likely to impact elections this November, like taxes and energy, said Gallant. The Senate is scheduled to return from recess Sept. 13; the House plans to return the next day. The Senate plans to adjourn again Oct. 11, and then come back for a lame-duck session Nov. 15-19, and Nov. 29 to the end of the year, said an Aug. 4 e-mail from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The House plans to adjourn Oct. 8, but telecom industry officials said a lame-duck session is likely there as well.
A major small business jobs bill teed up for votes this September would, among other things, modify the “listed property rule” that requires businesses to maintain logs about business use on an employer-supplied cellphone. The wireless industry has been vocal in advocating a rule change. The listed-property repeal provision was added in a substitute amendment introduced July 21, and would cost the government $410 million over 10 years, the Senate Finance Committee said in an Aug. 5 bill summary. The small business bill (HR-5297) is the first legislative item on the Senate’s agenda when it returns, said a spokeswoman for Reid. “We do hope to have the support to pass the legislation.” A spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he couldn’t predict the outcome, because Reid “is only allowing one amendment per side."
A Senate Commerce Committee hearing on public safety spectrum issues may happen, a committee aide told us. “Chairman [Jay] Rockefeller [D-W.Va.] cares a great deal about public safety and in our process of creating the fall schedule, a hearing on this important issue is under consideration,” the aide said. A wireless industry official said to expect multiple Hill events on public safety to coincide with the upcoming 9/11 anniversary.
Internet accessibility legislation is close to being wrapped up. The House and Senate have passed similar bills but must still reconcile differences before a bill moves to the president’s desk. “We understand that the House will act” on the Senate bill when it returns in September, said Jenifer Simpson, a senior director for the American Association of People with Disabilities. Because the Senate bill looks more like the House version “than ever before, we don’t think there is going to be a conference,” she said.
A markup on Universal Service Fund legislation in the House Communications Subcommittee also may occur, possibly the first week back, a wireline industry official said. Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said in July that his USF bill was on the “front burner,” and he hoped to “make the best” of September to move it forward.
Senate leaders are also targeting cybersecurity legislation for September. Staffers for Reid and the sponsors of major cybersecurity bills, Rockefeller and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have been in negotiations this month to craft a combined bill (CD Aug 16 p9). “The committees are working in a bipartisan manner and are making progress,” a Reid spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Spectrum relocation legislation awaits votes by the full House and Senate. Earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office said S-3490 by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., wouldn’t affect spending levels (CD Aug 24 p6). It gave a similar review in July to the House version, HR-3019, by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash. The Obama administration has informally voiced concerns about the House and Senate bills, a wireless industry lobbyist said. “Key Congressional advocates for this bill have signaled their willingness to consider adjustments to the legislation to address some of the Administration’s concerns,” the lobbyist said. “They are interested in doing so in a way that avoids creating budgetary or PAYGO scoring consequences for the legislation."
Meanwhile, spectrum inventory legislation is still stuck in the Senate. The House passed its own version earlier this year, but Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has a hold on the Senate bill by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. The FCC and NTIA have said they will move forward on an inventory even without legislation. Kerry is fine with the FCC and NTIA moving ahead, and is now focused on a separate spectrum measurement bill (S-3610) with Snowe, a Senate aide said.