Net Neutrality Repeal, FCC Overhaul Among ‘Key Issues’ for House Commerce
Nullification of FCC net neutrality rules through the Congressional Review Act topped a list of communications and technology priorities for Republicans on the House Commerce Committee. Also listed in a staff memo Tuesday as “key issues” this year: Spectrum auction legislation, revamping the commission’s processes, broadband stimulus oversight and a Universal Service Fund overhaul. Colin Crowell, former aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said on a panel Wednesday at the State of the Net Conference he doubts that the GOP’s planned resolution of disapproval concerning net neutrality will succeed.
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The House Commerce Republicans’ net neutrality agenda includes the resolution and a “series of hearings on the harm regulation of the Internet will cause to investment, innovation, and jobs, as well as the FCC’s abuse of authority and process.” On FCC processes, the committee memo said the commission “has long been criticized as slow, inefficient, and less than transparent.” It said net neutrality and the Comcast-NBC Universal decision are the “latest examples of abuse of power and process."
Spectrum auction legislation “might include” voluntary incentive auctions, commercial auction of the 700 MHz D-block and “return of government spectrum through relocation and more efficient use, taking into account national security,” the committee memo said. The $8.8 billion USF adds a 15.5 percent surcharge to consumer long-distance bills and “skews competition,” the memo said. “In exchange for substantial fiscal reform,” the committee “might support migration of fund to broadband.” Privacy, cybersecurity and content protection are listed as other possible topics.
The committee doesn’t comment “on background material prepared for members and staff, which is what the document reflects,” said a spokeswoman for Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich. “The committee will focus on creating jobs, eliminating wasteful spending, and limiting the size and scope of the federal government as a means to promote individual freedom. Central to that effort will be targeting regulations that destroy jobs and stifle innovation; conducting rigorous oversight of federal agencies to root out waste, fraud, and abuse; and promoting positive solutions to foster job creation and economic certainty.”
It’s “highly unlikely” that the resolution of disapproval will survive the House, Senate and President Barack Obama, said Crowell, principal at the Crowell Strategies lobbying firm. The former FCC official said he wishes Congress would instead work on spectrum issues, like dealing with public safety issues and giving the commission authority to hold voluntary incentive auctions, and working with the FCC to revamp USF. Congress has only once dumped regulations using the Congressional Review Act, noted Markham Erickson, executive director of the Open Internet Coalition. That was to reverse Clinton-era ergonomics rules. But hearings related to the net neutrality rule disapproval effort will be helpful in showing the “fault lines” on the FCC order, Erickson said.
It’s “good politics” to move forward with the resolution of disapproval, even if it’s not ultimately successful, said Christopher Yoo, director of the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Center for Technology. They “are making a record for the constituents that they are opposed to these kinds of regulations, and it’s ultimately not about whether … the efforts are going to succeed or not,” he said. “It’s about communicating a political stance."
The panelists agreed that Congress has a role on net neutrality. The FCC order tries to apply old rules to new technology, so Congress will have to get involved eventually, said Yoo. Many would welcome Congress’s swooping in to “refine, clarify or recalibrate” net neutrality rules “so that they are crystal clear to the public,” said Crowell.