Significant Net Neutrality Focus Expected at FCC Nominees' Confirmation Hearing
Net neutrality appears likely to be the marquee issue at the Senate Commerce Committee's Wednesday confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner-nominees Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel, but is unlikely to derail the hearing, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Committee Democrats are more likely to bring up net neutrality and the FCC's other recent controversial actions, lobbyists said. Committee Republicans are likely to want to downplay the net neutrality issue and instead emphasize other telecom issues, lobbyists said. Net neutrality NPRM comments were due Monday (see 1707180009).
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Some Senate Commerce Democrats may treat Pai's presence in the hearing as an opportunity to review the first nearly six months of his chairmanship, particularly since Pai last came before the committee in March (see 1703080070), a Democratic lobbyist said. That may foreshadow the tenor of a planned July 25 House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight hearing that will reportedly include Pai and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly, the lobbyist said. House Communications hadn't confirmed the hearing date at our deadline.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us he hopes the hearing will remain relatively low key. These are “all well-qualified nominees” who have “proven noncontroversial” based on all available evidence, he said. “We'll talk about broadband and things like that.” The three nominees “have a lot of experience and I look forward to hearing from them,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told us: “There are a couple of areas that [former FCC Chairman Tom] Wheeler and I disagreed on and I'm going to ask about” those issues. Blunt in the past criticized Wheeler's approach to net neutrality, broadcaster joint sales agreements and other issues.
Commerce ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., echoed other committee Democrats in saying net neutrality is certain to come up as a major topic. But Nelson told us he doesn't believe questions about the issue will overwhelm the hearing. “The nominees are the dominant issue,” but concerns about the majority-GOP FCC's May net neutrality NPRM and other recent actions will naturally emerge, Nelson said. Senate Communications ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also told us they plan to talk about net neutrality during the hearing. Markey said he believes the nominees' views on net neutrality will be important but he also wants them to talk about other issues, including E-rate and robocalls.
A focus on net neutrality from Senate Commerce Democrats is highly likely given the FCC confirmation hearing's proximity to both the Monday comment deadline on the May NPRM that examines the 2015 rules and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service and last week's net neutrality Day of Action protests, several lobbyists told us. Comments on docket 17-108 totaled at least 8.4 million Monday (see 1707170045).
Sens. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., separately filed comments (here and here) urging the FCC to maintain the 2015 order, as did Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Markey led a filing with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Franken, Wyden and nine other Senate Democrats in favor of the 2015 rules. Other congressional filings included one from Reps. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Mark Pocan, D-Wis.
“It's certainly ripe to be a major line of questioning” and could be the framework for Senate Commerce Democrats to have a comedian Jerry Seinfeld-style “airing of grievances” about the FCC's actions during Pai's chairmanship, one communications sector lobbyist told us. Markey and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would be the likeliest to dredge up net neutrality grievances, but Schatz and others also could join in, the lobbyist said. Pai and Carr could both face questions about the net neutrality NPRM, given their roles in creating it, a telecom lobbyist said. Carr also could face the “typical questions” from Democrats about his potential “level of independence” from both Pai and President Donald Trump's administration, the lobbyist said.
Senate Commerce Republicans may pose questions about net neutrality but don't want the issue to derail the hearing, a GOP-leaning lobbyist said. They will want to explore the nominees' views on a range of policy areas confronting the FCC, particularly how they would handle ongoing problems with the USF and Lifeline, the lobbyist said. Questions are likely about spectrum-related issues, particularly given the interest Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and other Senate Republicans have in advancing the Mobile Now Act (S-19), the lobbyist said.
There will also likely be interest in rural broadband deployment issues and privacy issues in the wake of the Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval effort that in March abolished FCC ISP privacy rules, a communications sector lobbyist said. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., have been particularly interested in rural broadband issues, but it's an area where there's bipartisan consensus, the lobbyist said.