Blackburn Sees Upcoming Senate Passage of Ray Baum's Act, Ongoing Infrastructure Bill Work
The Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) “will go through the Senate” one way or another, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on an appearance on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set to be telecast Saturday. The House passed HR-4986 earlier this week (see 1803060046), but it remains unclear whether the measure will make it onto the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill.
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“You could see [Hill appropriators] incorporate this” into the omnibus, particularly because House and Senate Commerce leaders have already done the “cleaning up work” on HR-4986, including “pulling in” bipartisan provisions “under one package,” Blackburn said. She touted a range of provisions with bipartisan support, including a revised version of language from the Senate-passed Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (Mobile Now) Act (S-19) spectrum bill. HR-4986 also includes language from the Viewer Protection Act (HR-3347) to authorize additional repack funding (see 1803080049) and from the Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109) that would let the FCC place bidders' deposits for future spectrum auctions in a Treasury Department fund. House and Senate Commerce leaders reached a deal on the legislation last week (see 1803020027).
House Commerce lawmakers and staff are still “going through” a set of 25 broadband infrastructure-related bills they considered during a January House Communications hearing (see 1801300051) before they decide how to move forward on a package in response to President Donald Trump's infrastructure legislative proposal, Blackburn said. The aim is for House Commerce to identify and combine the current bills so a final package is “bipartisan in nature,” Blackburn said. Final legislation will include language aimed at “simplification” of siting rules, including a bid to “codify” Trump's January executive actions on rural broadband deployments (see 1801080060 and 1801080063). Trump's infrastructure package, released last month, also proposes $50 billion in federal funding for rural infrastructure projects allocated via state block grants (see 1802120001).
Blackburn also previewed the tenor of a yet-to-be-scheduled House Commerce hearing on paid prioritization issues, saying she foresees that session in part looking at how online platforms “prioritize their information. It's a worthy hearing, and it's something that people are interested in.” She noted recent conversations with movie producers who said “they were surprised that YouTube had blocked” some trailers for their Christian-themed movies “and yet they would have other trailers that were available for individuals to see.” They “would contact me” about their concerns about the “subjective nature of how YouTube was choosing what they chose to let go forward and what they chose to block,” Blackburn said.