House FCC Oversight Hearing Likely to Include Focus on Sinclair/Tribune, Broadband
The House Communications Subcommittee's Wednesday FCC oversight hearing is expected to delve into multiple issues, including a likely partial focus by Democrats on the commission's recent adoption of the hearing designation order seen endangering Sinclair's proposed purchase of Tribune (see 1807190060), lawmakers and industry officials told us. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and the other three commissioners will testify, as expected (see 1807180043). It's looking less certain that Senate leaders will include confirmation votes on FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr's second term in a package of nominees before the abbreviated August recess.
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“It's still very possible” there will be an agreement to bundle confirmations for Carr and Starks into a larger pre-recess package, but “what we don't have now with no [full-length] August recess is a hard break where we can put a package like that together,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us Tuesday. “But we'll keep working it and hopefully get them and some other” committee-cleared nominees into a package. Thune said earlier this month that they were likely to be included in the pre-recess package after Senate leaders at the last minute scotched a bid to clear them before July 4 (see 1807100001).
Telecom lobbyists noted diminishing expectations for a pre-recess confirmation of the FCC nominees. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “is really in the driver's seat on this,” so his strong backing for Starks (see 1806040067) could give some hope for the FCC nominees' confirmation, one said.
House Communications ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., told us he and other Democrats want to “get a better understanding of exactly where” Sinclair/Tribune stands since issuance of the HDO because FCC evaluation of the deal “raised a lot of eyebrows.” Doyle said he will also scrutinize “that [Pai and others] have not been very responsive to our inquiries.” It's “been a long time since we've had the FCC in for a hearing and a lot of things have transpired,” he said. House Communications last held an FCC oversight hearing in late October (see 1710250050). Doyle and House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., faulted the FCC last month for stonewalling efforts to plan a new hearing, saying it was part of a pattern of diminishing commission transparency (see 1805230074 and 1806050042).
It should be no surprise that subcommittee Democrats want to bring up Sinclair/Tribune despite the HDO and its likely detrimental effect on the deal's prospects, said American Action Forum Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Will Rinehart and a communications sector lobbyist unconnected to the deal. The HDO takes Sinclair/Tribune “a little off the table” as an issue but “perhaps what's going to be needed is some clarification from Pai” as to what the order means for Sinclair/Tribune's path, Rinehart said.
5G Update
House Commerce Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told reporters he's aiming to “get an update” from the commissioners “on some of the broadband buildout initiatives that they've been working on,” along with 5G and spectrum issues. Walden anticipates a focus on rural broadband deployment issues, including further discussion about improving FCC collection of connectivity data.
House Communications Vice Chairman Leonard Lance, R-N.J., and Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., told us they expect at least some discussion of net neutrality and privacy issues, albeit from different viewpoints. Lance is a co-sponsor of the Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibility Act (HR-2520) and the Open Internet Preservation Act (HR-4682). McNerney co-sponsored Doyle's Congressional Review Act resolution to restore the FCC's 2015 rules (House Joint Resolution-129).
Net neutrality is likely to come up at the hearing, but “I just don't think it's going to be the priority” it was at the last FCC oversight hearing, one telecom lobbyist said. Lawmakers may not choose to make it a marquee hearing issue amid other priorities, especially now that the rescission order is in effect, the lobbyist said.
Commissioners' Testimony
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is expected to note the long period between oversight hearings, saying in her written testimony the nine-month gap is “the equivalent of a school year.” The FCC's actions over the last nine months have too often been “at the behest of the corporate forces that surround it,” Rosenworcel says: “Too often our procedures fall short of what good governance requires,” including handling of claims its Electronic Commenting Filing System suffered past distributed denial-of-service attacks (see 1705100062).
Pai will in part focus on FCC plans for helping the U.S. lead on 5G, including the planned 2018 auctions of spectrum in the 28 GHz and 24 GHz bands and the planned 2019 auction of spectrum in the 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands. Those auctions will make 4.95 GHz “of spectrum available to the private sector and advance America’s global leadership in the deployment of” 5G, Pai says. He will aim to put a positive spin on the first months of the order rescinding 2015 net neutrality rules being in effect. “We were told that it would be the destruction of the Internet,'” Pai says. "The sky has not fallen. Indeed, the only thing that has fallen is the credibility of the Chicken Littles.”
Commissioner Mike O'Rielly is expected to raise concerns in his testimony about Congress' potential appropriation of additional RUS broadband funding via the 2018 farm bill. A conference committee is trying to reconcile House- and Senate-passed versions of the farm bill (see 1806140067, 1806220056 and 1807160064). “There is a significant possibility that the RUS program could be used to subsidize areas that already have broadband or fund providers in competition with those that either currently receive FCC subsidies or may have buildout plans that require them to provide service in the future," O'Rielly says. "The RUS program could be used to allow providers to serve favored institutions without serving more costly, nearby areas."
Carr is expected to highlight his focus on telehealth in the context of FCC broadband work. “Given the significant cost savings and improved patient outcomes associated with connected care, we should align public policy in support of this movement,” Carr says. “At the FCC, we can play a constructive role by helping to support the connectivity and deployments needed to ensure that all communities get a fair shot at benefiting from new telehealth technologies.” The telehealth pilot notice of inquiry, set for a vote at commissioners' Aug. 2 meeting (see 1807110053), “has the potential to make a real difference for low-income individuals that currently lack access to quality health-care,” Carr said.