Municipal advocates lashed out Tuesday against perceived national...
Municipal advocates lashed out Tuesday against perceived national legislative threats. The National League of Cities, National Association of Counties and NATOA wrote House members (http://bit.ly/1reyNZV) urging them to oppose “any amendment to HR 5016 that would hamstring the [FCC] from…
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taking any action on -- indeed, even discussing -- the issue of state laws that prohibit or restrict public and public/private broadband projects,” referring to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act the House was considering Monday and Tuesday. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance included the letter in a blog post Tuesday. “The amendment most damaging to local telecommunications authority is expected to come from Rep. Marsha Blackburn,” R-Tenn., wrote Lisa Gonzalez, a research associate with the institute (http://bit.ly/1wrNF52). “The amendment’s purpose is to remove authority from the FCC to preempt state laws preventing local broadband infrastructure investment. By restricting the FCC’s use of its funding, the legislation will choke the agency’s ability to explore its plan to influence anti-muni state barriers so local communities can decide their own fates.” A Blackburn spokesman did not comment. Tuesday morning, Gonzalez told us the advocates expected the amendment language to be introduced Tuesday afternoon or possibly Wednesday. No such amendments appeared to have been introduced by our deadline, and House Republican aides were largely unfamiliar with this suggested action. Gonzalez had said Monday in a different blog post that House Republicans would advance on Title II reclassification legislation that Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, had introduced, which his office denied (CD July 15 p11). Latta Chief of Staff Ryan Walker told us Tuesday that the groups’ allusions to the Latta bill were a “scare tactic” and reiterated that no Title II amendments to the appropriations bill had yet been offered. Electric Power Board in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is considering filing a petition with the FCC to pre-empt a state law that prohibits existing municipal networks to serve adjacent areas upon their request, but hasn’t made any final decisions, an EPB spokeswoman told us Tuesday.