Upton Plans Early Attack on FCC Net Neutrality Rules
Reversing the FCC on net neutrality will be one of the House Commerce Committee’s “first big tests,” and the subject of one of the committee’s “first big hearings,” said the committee’s new chairman, Fred Upton, R-Mich. In an interview Friday with conservative radio talk host Hugh Hewitt, Upton said he hopes to find bipartisan support for a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act. Meanwhile, new Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he plans hearings on whether the Obama administration plans to “abuse the regulatory process” and how to stop leaks of confidential information on the Internet.
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The new Congress starts Wednesday, but resolutions of disapproval may not be imminent. Swearing in new members is expected to be this week’s emphasis, and House Democrats may not make committee assignments until late this week or next, Hill staffers said. The Senate recesses again for two weeks starting Monday, and the House recesses for a week starting Jan. 17. Congress has 60 days after publication of an order in the Federal Register to overturn the order under the Congressional Review Act. The clock hasn’t started on that.
The Commerce Committee will ask “all five commissioners to come up in January” to talk about their controversial net neutrality order, Upton said. “But that'll be just the first of a number of hearings.” He said he thinks bipartisan support can be found for a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, since telecom issues tend not to split Democrats and Republicans. “This is more than just a Republican issue,” he said. “It’s a jobs issue. It doesn’t make any sense."
Issa plans a hearing this quarter on the “impact of regulation on job creation,” according to a tentative outline of committee hearings released Monday. The hearing will “examine how overregulation has hurt job creation and whether the Administration intends to try and abuse the regulatory process to implement regulations that Congress would reject.” The document didn’t say whether net neutrality will come up, and an Issa spokeswoman said it’s too early to go into specifics. But MF Global analyst Paul Gallant said that would be a good bet. “Sectors like health care and energy are much larger than telecom, but given the freshness of the FCC’s net neutrality ruling, you have to expect it will come up,” he said.
Issa’s committee is also considering a hearing on WikiLeaks that would take up “constitutionally appropriate and technologically possible ways the Federal government can stop the dissemination of sensitive information on the Internet by organizations like Wikileaks.” It also would ask whether the Obama administration has “a strategy for combating and preventing this kind of problem."
Upton said he doesn’t see radio performance royalties as a “front burner issue at this point.” He said he hasn’t supported royalties, because he believes they would hurt Michigan broadcasters. “The times are tough enough,” Upton said. “I don’t know whether there’s a possibility of some balance there or not.” Upton said he won’t “ever” allow the fairness doctrine to return. There are so many radio stations that “you don’t need anything like that,” he said.