Senate Commerce ‘Will Soon Have Ready a Not-Clean’ STELA Bill, Rockefeller Promises
Senate Commerce Committee leaders are making progress on a Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization bill draft, the source of much industry anxiety (CD June 9 p1), but decline for now to set any release dates, they said in interviews at the Capitol Tuesday. STELA expires at the end of the year unless Congress reauthorizes it, and Commerce and Judiciary committees in both chambers have jurisdiction.
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Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., confirmed recent reports from industry lobbyists that he is trying to craft a bipartisan bill and working with committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D. “Well, John Thune and I have been working very hard and will soon have ready a not-clean bill,” Rockefeller told us. “See, K Street wants a clean, and when K Street wants a clean bill, you know a clean bill is not the answer."
"I don’t expect this will be a time we'll do a lot of significant changes, but there may be some things that in addition to just a straight authorization that we might be able to get done,” Thune told us.
Two of the four committees of jurisdiction have released STELA bills so far, both five-year reauthorizations. The House Commerce Committee cleared one bill (HR-4572) earlier this year, which included some video market add-ons yet managed to attract significant industry support. Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a bipartisan clean STELA bill (S-2454), a two-page straight reauthorization. That Judiciary bill is on the agenda for a Thursday executive business meeting of Judiciary members but could be delayed, Leahy told us Tuesday. According to committee rules, any Judiciary member can request new business to be held for a week, which could very well be the case with this STELA bill, a Leahy spokeswoman confirmed.
Other Senate Commerce Committee members declined to elaborate on the state of the draft. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., mentioned he’s focused more on agriculture appropriations this week. “We need to work on it,” Pryor said of STELA. Subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said there’s no update on progress. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a committee member, said Rockefeller will call the shots on STELA but acknowledged her big video market concern is on industry billing practices.
"It’s very preliminary,” Thune said of Senate Commerce STELA negotiation. “Those discussions are occurring now between the staffs, our staff and [Rockefeller’s] staff. But a lot of it’s probably going to probably depend on what [Rockefeller] ends up wanting to do. You know where the House is headed with that. We're up against a deadline.”
Rockefeller may attach his Consumer Choice in Online Video Act (S-1680) to STELA, as he has hinted and as industry lobbyists and Hill staffers have expected, but would not confirm that definitively. That bill was introduced last fall and aims to level the playing field for online video distributors. “I've constantly raised that possibility, and I enjoy doing it,” Rockefeller said. “And I enjoy doing it just because I know it keeps K Street unhappy.” When considering possible add-ons for the STELA draft, “a more competitive marketplace is always the main issue,” he added. “You just give consumers more choice.”
Rockefeller gave no timeline on when his bill might be released: “No, I'm never good at that stuff.” Lobbyists and Hill staffers have indicated Commerce will hold a hearing on video market issues later this month that will tackle the bill, among other priorities. But one Senate Democratic staffer told us there’s been no internal word lately of that hearing happening -- it was discussed and then seemed to peter out, the staffer said. If the hearing happens, it now may well be in July after the Independence Day recess, the staffer expected.
The clock is working against an ambitious bill that aggressively tweaks the video market, especially now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has signaled a preference for passing STELA by unanimous consent, the Senate Democratic staffer said. The two big issues of discussion in Commerce, he said, seem to be whether and how to address retransmission consent blackouts as well as whether to end the set-top box integration ban, as TiVo and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which counts TiVO as a member, have opposed in the House. The cable industry has lobbied to kill the integration ban, which calls for cable operators to use CableCARDs instead of built-in security in set-top boxes. The Senate Commerce draft could bulk up the provisions for negotiating retrans agreements in good faith, the staffer said. He also said there have been various discussions over pulling parts of Rockefeller’s online video distributor bill into the STELA draft. The staffer expects, given the calendar crunch and the appetite of Senate lawmakers, that Commerce will be left with a cleaner version of some version of the House Commerce Committee draft, with that draft’s CableCARD provision potentially the biggest obstacle among senators.