Unified Government Allows for Real Telecom Overhaul, Creates Questions, Industry Lobbyists Say

Verizon Senior Vice President-Federal Government Relations Peter Davidson sees a “lot of planning and thinking going on with the new set of variables” at work combined with “the unknown” at the FCC, he said, noting that many had expected greater continuity at the commission than what likely will happen under a forthcoming GOP majority: “Now that’s completely up in the air.” The reaction is “one of shock, honestly,” said CTIA Senior Vice President Kelly Cole, citing impressions from a recent congressional trip in London.

“The Trump administration is going to want to lead and not be responsive to Congress,” TIA Senior Vice President James Reid said. “The uncertainty is the part that people are struggling with most of all right now.” Many expected “the usual suspects” and a Trump administration now “changes the dynamic,” Reid said. Observers will have to track “how this partnership evolves,” he said.

“For better or worse, we’ve lived through a period where we had kind of a built-in antagonism between the administration and Congress, and I don’t mean that on a personal level,” noted NCTA Executive Vice President James Assey. The change in administration control and its relationship with Congress is the “game-changer that we’re all planning to watch,” he said.

“It’s where you have division that more vigorous oversight occurs,” said Internet Innovation Alliance Chairman Rick Boucher, a former Democratic chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee who spoke during a different panel discussion. He predicted this would have ramifications for the FCC, which he imagines will first undo the agency's Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband and then potentially its action on business data services if the agency moves forward with that vote Thursday.

Congressional Potential

Congress has the potential to act, the lobbyists agreed. “Dust off the plans and get the bipartisan work going,” said Davidson, pointing to the House GOP's derailed efforts to overhaul the 1996 Telecom Act early this Congress through a series of white papers. He also mentioned the net neutrality legislative discussions between Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., which yielded no legislation this Congress, and their Mobile Now spectrum measure, now blocked on the Senate floor. The “due diligence is there” and now lawmakers can “roll up their sleeves” and “start moving some legislation" in the new session, Davidson recommended. “It’s really critical to have a sustainable set of rules here. You don’t want to have them flipping back and forth every four years or eight years.” What’s on deck next year depends partly on “what dies on the cutting room floor” at the end of 2016, Assey said.

“I’m very hopeful that it can be a bipartisan exercise,” Cole said, noting it will take time before any players really digest the election's effects. CTIA priorities will stay on spectrum and digital goods, she said.

“We’ve been consumed by net neutrality so long, I have a hard time believing they wouldn’t want to try … and settle this thing,” Assey remarked. He referred to the FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler as “very aggressive” in its interpretation of its authority and he expects bipartisan revisiting of that authority next Congress: “There were discussions that broke down in this Congress but there’s certainly opportunity to pick that up.”

All agreed that Trump’s infrastructure proposal could greatly benefit telecom players. “The infrastructure that’s going to be involved in fulfilling that migration [to 5G] is pretty substantial,” Cole said. “That’s going to be a huge priority for CTIA and our member companies.” Assey suggested observers also “take stock” of private investment -- “underappreciated,” he said -- and cautioned against the risk of “stalling good work” in telecom.

Davidson tallied off 5G benefits: “That can happen with this kind of investment.” He pointed to “certain themes” of Trump's campaign, focused on “less interventionist policies generally” and less regulation, and predicted “the incoming administration would be relying on those principles.”

“We’re hoping for an expansive discussion of what infrastructure is,” Reid said. “But it’s a little unknown. … The core of the network needs an upgrade.” He expects 2017 will be “a little slower in the first six or nine months” as lawmakers get moving, citing in part the “lack of clarity as to what the administration’s policies will be.” Reid said this may prompt senators to seek more information through the confirmation process.

Commerce Continuity

Despite some reshuffling, the Commerce Committees will largely remain full of the same big names, the lobbyists said. Continuity there “gives people great certainty,” Reid said. Committee party ratios “are going to stay relatively the same,” Cole speculated. Senate Republicans’ majority is slightly smaller so they may lose one seat on the Commerce Committee, but that’s “a wash” given the loss of Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a Commerce member, Cole said.

Some House lawmakers not on Commerce want to join next year, Cole and Davidson said. Cole referred to Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, active this Congress on call completion issues. “There’s probably not going to be a whole lot of room this time around” but there are many ways to be involved in telecom, Cole said. “There’s really a very deep bench in Congress right now,” Davidson said, referring to but not naming “three or four” Republicans and the same number of Democrats who want to join House Commerce, members who “have worked on these issues that have been paying their dues.” Given the infrastructure bill, he said that House Transportation Committee members have the potential to be involved in some smart transportation telecom issues.

Lobbyists also see continuity on the House Commerce Committee despite a leadership contest (see 1611140067). The two leading contenders are seen as Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., a senior subcommittee member. Shimkus has a desire to take “a holistic look at the Communications Act,” Cole noted. “Just putting your arms around that type of project is a really big job.” In that scenario, “I think everything’s really going to be on the table” under a Chairman Shimkus, she said.

There’s “a lot of overlap” between the leading House and Senate Commerce Committee Republicans, Davidson observed, saying there are a lot of bicameral ideas “sliced slightly differently.” Of a greater possible overhaul, “I’m not sure it really matters that much” whether a rewrite comes in a comprehensive overhaul bill or in smaller piecemeal fashion, he added. Both he and Cole said it’s incumbent on industry lobbyists to find out how to convey their priorities in ways that emphasize the consumer.

“I think the Congress starts out with that reservoir of goodwill,” Reid said. He said the question will really be how fast such goodwill “dries up.”