Walden Hopes Court Kills Net Neutrality

Walden said he’s concerned that U.S. policymakers have “sabotaged ourselves internationally when our government tells other countries to do as we say, not as we do. The FCC’s network neutrality rules are not only bad policy, they undermine our position abroad as FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has so eloquently been pointing out for almost a year,” he said. Walden said U.S. lawmakers plan to redouble their efforts to combat international efforts to regulate the Internet (see separate report).

The House Communications Subcommittee plans to advance a cybersecurity approach that first does no harm, said Walden. “Do not overregulate in this space. If you do you'll slow us down, you'll tie us up and you'll send all the signals in the world to the bad guys so they know exactly how to get around what you mandate us to do,” he said. Walden said the subcommittee will coordinate with other committees this year to develop another bipartisan information sharing bill this Congress. Ensuring that the public and private sectors understand “what the other is doing with certain confidentiality safeguards in place is the most effective thing we can do to help combat this threat,” he said.

Walden derided the White House’s forthcoming proposal to issue a cybersecurity executive order as ineffective, and compared it with international efforts to further regulate the Internet under the guise of cybersecurity. It’s “another case of do as I say, not as I do,” said Walden. “International advocates of Internet regulation have already couched their own intrusive government policies, from reading citizen emails to proposals for an Internet ID card, in the same terms under cybersecurity. A U.S. executive order on cybersecurity would provide these same nations with the ammunition they seek to justify their own actions to control the Internet.”

Walden said spectrum should not be a partisan issue, “especially when it comes to the federal government.” The subcommittee will continue to look at receiver performance standards to ensure that spectrum is most efficiently used, he said. “How much guard band are we being forced to give up because we have sloppy front ends on our receivers?” he asked. “I'm not necessarily interested in mandating those things in terms of receiver guidelines or requirements, but I do think this is an issue the industry should look at because we are going to be looking at it when it comes to spectrum allocation.”

Subcommittee majority members will be persistent in seeking FCC process reform aimed at making the commission operate more like public utility commissions, Walden said. “This needs to be something that is specific to the FCC and is predictable and something that I think brings about real reform in the FCC,” he said. Walden said he’s open to working with the Senate on FCC reform but resists the notion that he’s trying to micromanage the commission. “I don’t think it is micromanaging to ask an agency to set their own shot clocks and then tell us if they can’t achieve them,” he said.

Hill staffers, including Walden’s senior policy adviser, also updated NARUC commissioners on their 2013 priorities this week. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, hopes to focus on consumer protection, infrastructure deployment and STEM issues this year, said Majority Counsel John Branscome. Another big focus will be on the USF E-rate, which Rockefeller helped develop more than a decade ago. “It’s been a very successful program,” and the senator is considering “how to strengthen E-rate and position it best for the future,” Branscome said.

Primary focuses among Hill staffers included FCC reforms, the aftermath of last year’s multiple terrible storms, and federalism. Margaret McCarthy, aide to House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said there’s been “good progress at the agency” and more transparency under Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Obviously we're very supportive of what the FCC has done” by saving millions of dollars through its Lifeline reforms, she added. Ray Baum, Walden’s senior policy adviser, cautioned that Lifeline is still poised for big growth, remembered when the fund hovered in the hundreds of millions, and pointed out it’s now over $2 billion. “It’s going three [billion] or above,” Baum said, calling Lifeline “a laudable goal” that should be focused “where it’s truly needed.” The FCC has improved under Genachowski but “still has a long way to go,” he said. Branscome praised the FCC’s “steps in curbing” Lifeline and said Rockefeller “fully supports the goals” of the program, while being concerned about its growth. McCarthy also credited the FCC’s derecho report and spoke of asking for a hearing in her subcommittee. Rockefeller is “pleased” the FCC’s holding hearings on Superstorm Sandy. All three staffers also said call completion problems remain an issue for their bosses in Congress and hope to see action soon.

The staffers all supported state collaboration with the FCC but declined to weigh in on whether FCC referral on major decisions to the Federal-State Joint Boards on Separations and Universal Service is necessary. Baum, a former state regulator and NARUC participant, said members of Congress aren’t especially aware of that issue but slammed what he called the “waste” and “spending” of federal government. States need to “take care of our own first” before looking for federal solutions, Baum said. McCarthy pointed to the Lifeline reform as “collaborative” between the states and the FCC. NARUC needs to “stay engaged,” Branscome said, saying Rockefeller believes states have a “huge and ongoing role” in communications policy.