House Commerce Meetings Yield Movement on Net Neutrality Hearing, Legislation Feedback
House Commerce Committee’s meetings last week with communications and tech sector officials about the path forward on net neutrality legislation yielded some progress, underscoring that longstanding roadblocks remain to agreement on a consensus bill (see 1708070068), lobbyists told us. House Commerce staffers met with stakeholders in multiple sessions on how to modify a 2015 discussion draft from then-committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., current Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., that House Commerce is using as a starting point (see 1506040046 and 1707310066).
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Representatives from several industry groups were involved in the meetings, including officials from CTIA, the Internet Association, NCTA and USTelecom, lobbyists said. All eight of the companies whose CEOs were invited to testify at a Sept. 7 House Commerce hearing on net neutrality are members of at least one of those industry groups; CEOs are from Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, Facebook, Netflix and Verizon (see 1707250059).
Some of the invited CEOs are apparently willing to testify if more than one of them is present, but one ISP ruled out sending its CEO because of a scheduling conflict, two lobbyists said. Another ISP is willing to send only another executive to testify, the lobbyists said. The four invited tech sector firms are continuing to balk at sending individual representatives to testify but are seeking to have IA President Michael Beckerman or someone else added as a collective tech sector witness, a tech lobbyist said. An AT&T spokesman cited an earlier statement that the company is “checking” CEO Randall Stephenson’s schedule before determining if he will testify. IA and the other invited companies didn’t comment.
Tech firms also are pushing House Commerce to invite representatives of small businesses to testify, which some House Democratic leaders have sought, a tech lobbyist said. House Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., urged the committee to invite eight more industry and public interest witnesses who favor FCC existing rules (see 1708030064). House Commerce didn’t comment.
ISPs’ relative willingness to testify reflects their shared interest in having Congress tackle net neutrality legislation now, a telecom lobbyist said. The tech firms’ resistance to appearing before House Commerce isn’t surprising given concerns that some lawmakers could use the hearing to redirect attention on thorny sector issues like the simmering debate over workforce gender disparities, a tech lobbyist said. Google is facing scrutiny over circulation of a memo by a now-fired engineer claiming biological differences accounted for the lower number of women in tech sector jobs (see 1708080024 and 1708100042).
Stakeholders provided sought-after suggestions on how to update the Thune-Upton-Walden net neutrality draft bill, which one described as preliminary “tweaks.” A telecom lobbyist cautioned that the meetings were intended to be “feedback” sessions rather than formal “negotiations,” and the goal wasn't to reach a final compromise now. Lobbyists pointed to the continued presence of some significant areas of policy disagreement, particularly on enforcement mechanisms for proposed bans on blocking, throttling and some forms of paid prioritization. The 2015 draft’s language banning only some “anti-competitive” forms of paid prioritization remains a major hurdle, several lobbyists said.