Net Neutrality Supporters Seek Champion on Communications Subcommittee

Public Knowledge wants to see a strong net neutrality supporter leading Democrats on the subcommittee, said President Gigi Sohn. “Given that the ranking member seat is an open race, it would be our preference that the Democratic leader on telecommunications policy in the House is a firm supporter of the Obama Administration’s promise of an open Internet,” Sohn said. “The President ran for election on the promise that his FCC would make network neutrality the law of the land, and the public expects him and his party to make good on that promise."

Rush opposed a Title II approach by the FCC to setting rules on net neutrality. In a letter this year, Rush and 73 other House Democrats said the plan would create regulatory uncertainty and would distract from important goals in the National Broadband Plan. Pelosi dismissed her colleagues’ opposition in comments over the summer (CD June 3 p2). Pennsylvania’s Rep. Mike Doyle, another Democrat vying for the job, supports FCC reclassification. But Doyle is outranked in seniority by Rush, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has more seniority than Rush, is pursuing the ranking member post on the Natural Resources Committee.

Positions on telecom issues historically haven’t made a difference in committee leadership decisions, said two telecom industry lobbyists, but legislative records can come into play. When Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., beat John Dingell, D-Mich., to chair the Commerce Committee in 2008, a turning point may have been a speech by Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, in which Braley listed several pro-consumer bills that Waxman got through and that Dingell tried to block, a lobbyist said.

Who gets the subcommittee seat is up to Commerce Committee Democrats, not Pelosi, said a Democratic leadership aide. House leaders usually stay out of decisions about subcommittee chairs and ranking members, the aide said. Waxman’s office didn’t return a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the House GOP Steering Committee plans Tuesday to interview candidates to chair the Commerce Committee, said a spokesman for Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio. But there won’t be a decision until next week, the spokesman said. The vote probably will be taken Dec. 7, said a spokesman for House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., one of the members seeking the title.

"Rep. Stearns looks forward to meeting with the Republican Steering Committee tomorrow afternoon and making the case for his selection as the only person seeking the chair who has actually created commerce outside of Washington and produced jobs in the private sector,” his spokesman said. Stearns won support Friday from Eben Carle, associate director of the White House’s Homeland Security Council from 2008 to 2009. In a Friday op-ed on the political website Daily Caller, Carle said Stearns would be best because of his small-business credentials and because he leads the GOP delegation in Florida, a critical electoral swing state.

The frontrunner for the job, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., meanwhile laid out an aggressive oversight agenda for next year. “Committees with significant oversight duties must work together to block agencies from freely passing regulations that have no regard or concern for the potential damage to job growth and the economy,” Upton and Oversight Committee Ranking Member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a Washington Times op-ed piece. “As senior members on our committees, we commit ourselves to ensuring that the Oversight Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee work cooperatively with each other and other House committees to conduct oversight and rein in the explosive expansion of government that we have endured over the past two years.”