Senate Commerce Weighs Amendments Ahead of FCC Reauthorization, Process Reform Markup

“The reauthorization looks pretty good,” Schatz told us. “I think there’s an attempt to keep it free of riders that weigh it down and cause it to be vetoed. That process is I think going well. And I think Chair Thune is trying to keep the bill as clean as possible.”

“They’re still working it,” Thune said in an interview Tuesday. “As is usually the case, this stuff gets resolved about 10 minutes before the markup. There’s a package that we’re trying to clear, I think we can accept. And there are some amendments that I suspect probably will be difficult to get bipartisan support for, in which case we’re going to see if we can’t get some of those processed differently. Maybe deal with them as freestanding bills in a future markup -- because we’re trying to keep this bill in a form that will allow us to be able to hotline it when it gets to the floor.” The hope for narrowness “may end up being a pipe dream” but is the hope, he said. “If we don’t, the chances of actually getting floor time on this is going to be really hard.”

A telecom industry lobbyist told us Tuesday that staffers are still in negotiations over the various amendments filed. He still expects 10 to 15 will be accepted, particularly those with bipartisan backing.

The FCC Process Reform Act provoked concerns from Democrats, as its GOP Senate sponsor, Senate staffers and industry lobbyists all told us to expect over the past week. That bill’s provisions were originally included in FCC reauthorization but excised this year to allow for smoother passage of FCC reauthorization. Democrats worry about its cost-benefit analysis sections, sponsor Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., told us. The House unanimously passed a version of the bill but a compromise version that lacked such a section. “That’s accurate,” Schatz said when asked about greater potential problems for the FCC Process Reform Act.

Thune affirmed it will be difficult to get bipartisan backing for that bill. “There are things in there that I’m for and I think things that make sense and things I think everybody would be for, but there are going to be Democrats on the committee who aren’t agreeable to that,” Thune said in the interview Tuesday. “There’s just a sense that they’re trying to put too much onus on the FCC.” Moving the Process Reform Act would be “a heavier lift," Thune said.

Thune circulated a substitute FCC Reauthorization Act amendment last week that wraps in the Kari’s Law Act (S-2553) and the Spoofing Prevention Act (S-2558) (see 1604250052). Of the other 38 amendments filed for FCC reauthorization, many reflect the amendments filed in March for an abandoned markup of the bill. Committee members previously had filed more than 40 amendments (see 1603150049).

Amendments filed include one from Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to exempt ISPs with 250,000 or fewer subscribers from the net neutrality order’s enhanced transparency requirements, as expected (see 1603160050), and one from Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., to strengthen the Reauthorization Act’s section on FCC regulatory fee fairness (see 1604010035).

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed two amendments on Cuba, one overturning the FCC order removing Cuba from the exclusion list of international Section 214 authorizations and another forbidding the agency from beginning a rulemaking on removing nondiscrimination requirements for Cuba. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., filed an amendment directing the FCC to kick off a proceeding on the resiliency of critical telecom networks during emergencies. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., as he did last month, filed several amendments that would require the FCC to review telecom contract abuses and complaints and compel a rulemaking on cramming. Heller filed an amendment on the establishment of the inspector general position within the FCC.

Several amendments would compel GAO reports. Booker and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have a measure calling for a GAO study on the IP transition. Daines has an amendment that would require a GAO report on any possible waste and overbuilding within the E-rate program. Manchin has an amendment that would compel a GAO report on the National Broadband Map. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., filed language requiring a GAO study on federal spectrum economic opportunity cost and federal spectrum technology.

Democrats united to file amendments for both FCC measures on last year’s budget law that allows robocalls to cellphones for purposes of debt collection. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., led an amendment to S-2644 with Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Udall and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to repeat that part of the law. McCaskill also filed an amendment to improve the enforcement of prohibitions on robocalls.

The two amendments were also among the eight filed for the FCC Process Reform Act. Of those eight, Cruz and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., also joined to file one that would prevent the FCC from pre-empting states’ municipal broadband restrictions. Johnson and Heller have one that would require the commission to include a disclaimer with any notice of apparent liability, also filed for FCC reauthorization. Blumenthal filed one to overhaul the FCC forbearance process. Booker and several Democrats filed a version of their Community Broadband Act. A Daines amendment would require the FCC to publish any changes made to any item after the commission adopts it. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., filed one that would remove reimbursement limitations that nonrural hospitals may receive under the FCC Healthcare Connect Fund.