Integration Ban Negotiations 'Obviously Happening,' Markey Aide Says
Many eyes will be on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) reauthorization during the lame-duck session of Congress in November and December, Capitol Hill staffers said Wednesday at an event hosted by the FCBA in Washington. They suggested many questions remain about how STELA reauthorization will be resolved. The staffers, representing Democrats and Republicans in both chambers, also predicted an active year of more overhaul and FCC oversight starting in 2015.
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Of a hotly contested set-top box integration ban provision, “there are conversations that are obviously happening,” said Joey Wender, senior policy adviser to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. He said Markey is “very opposed” to any repeal of the set-top box integration ban before a new standard is in place. Markey put a hold on Senate lawmakers’ attempts to hotline a STELA reauthorization proposal in September due to its section repealing the integration ban (see 1410240030). The state of any potential compromise or negotiation has been subject to great speculation in the weeks since. One Senate Democratic staffer told us earlier this month that Markey’s office is attempting to craft a compromise with the office of Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., one of the proposal’s authors (see 1410150090). “Who the heck knows,” Wender said of the eventual outcome.
Hauppauge Computer Works and TiVo planned to lobby against the integration ban repeal and in support of Markey in meetings on Capitol Hill this week, they told us last week (see 1410240030). NCTA strongly backs the repeal.
“We fought that issue,” said David Grossman, senior technology policy adviser to House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., of language repealing the integration ban that appeared in the House STELA reauthorization bill, approved by the full chamber in July. “We lost," said Grossman. "Ultimately, this is about consumers.” Eshoo succeeded in making some tweaks to the initial House language repealing the integration ban, Grossman said. “We can’t unravel the past until we address the future.”
“My bet is it gets rolled into the CR," said Brooke Ericson, legislative counsel to Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., referring to the continuing resolution fiscal bill. Johnson is a member of the Commerce Committee and approved of the STELA reauthorization proposal that Markey stalled. Senators could file cloture on the Senate STELA reauthorization to force a vote in the lame-duck session and bypass Markey’s hold, but that’s “unlikely” given the time required, Ericson said. Wender affirmed the conventional wisdom and “assumption” that anything moving in the lame-duck session must be attached to the CR.
Ericson said House and Senate lawmakers may be talking now to cobble together a STELA deal. There are “a lot of similarities” between the House and Senate proposals, Grossman said. Both are five-year reauthorizations that include language repealing the integration ban and limiting broadcaster sharing agreements. STELA expires Dec. 31, and the reauthorization is considered must-pass legislation. Some satellite customers would lose access to broadcast content if Congress does not reauthorize the law by the end of the year.
All Hill staffers expect next Congress to be active on telecom issues. “We really hope to start drafting early next year,” said Republican Counsel Kelsey Guyselman of the House Communications Subcommittee, which initiated a process in December that could lead to overhaul of the Communications Act. She said there has been careful work the past year, in which House Republicans under the guidance of Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., have issued white papers seeking comment and held private staff briefings with industry stakeholders. “Process is really important to Chairman Walden,” she said.
Eshoo wants video overhaul in the next Congress, Grossman affirmed. She's open to a Communications Act overhaul, but “we can address video reform in the short term,” he said, citing the frequency of TV blackouts in the past year and the Senate broadcast a la carte proposal known as Local Choice as key items prompting action.
Markey views the 1996 Telecom Act as “successful” and believes lawmakers should be “careful” in any update to the act, Wender cautioned. He stressed that lawmakers wrote the 1996 act to be technology neutral. Markey has been outspoken in defense of the act earlier this year.
Expect more Senate FCC oversight next Congress, especially if Senate Commerce Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., becomes chairman following next week's midterm elections, Ericson said. “There’s a huge appetite to do a little bit more,” she said, saying there was a distinct lack of agency oversight under Rockefeller. “We would like to see a little more oversight.”
Ericson would also “love to have a FirstNet oversight hearing,” she said, expressing surprise about the lack of FirstNet oversight given Rockefeller’s role in the legislation that created it. She met with a FirstNet official last week, she said, also speculating that the AWS-3 auction slated for November will “fully fund” FirstNet. Ericson and Guyselman said FirstNet has had a slow start, but seems to be making progress.
Guyselman lamented the lack of Senate action on two House bills that would revamp how the FCC operates. The House had easily passed the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act and the FCC Process Reform Act. Neither was taken up over the past year in the Senate. House lawmakers will want to dig back into this issue in the next Congress, Guyselman said.
Net neutrality split the Hill staffers along partisan lines, as Republican staffers bashed any proposed rules and Democrats emphasized needed protections. Wender said net neutrality also created a big split within the Democratic Party, given that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s initial proposal alienated the “liberal Democratic base,” including Markey. Markey has called for Title II reclassification of broadband to create what he believes are stronger rules. Wheeler faces “an incredible amount of pressure,” including from Markey, and much is “at stake,” Wender said. Eshoo has also backed use of Title II authority, Grossman said, also stressing the need for net neutrality protections to apply to mobile service.
Net neutrality “sucks the life out of every other issue,” Ericson said, predicting the FCC will face a “very strong reaction if it’s Title II” authority backing any new net neutrality rules. She predicted Hill and court fights in that scenario: “It will suck up his chairmanship if he does Title II.”