Scrutiny of FCC DDoS Attack Claims, Sinclair/Tribune Expected at Senate Commerce Hearing
Pointed questions on contested claims a May 2017 a distributed denial-of-service attack cause a breakdown of the electronic comment filing system and the recently aborted Sinclair buy of Tribune appear likely to be a major feature of the Senate Commerce Committee's Thursday FCC oversight hearing, communications lawyers and lobbyists said in interviews. The panel is expected to echo themes of the House Communications Subcommittee's July FCC hearing (see 1807250043), including a focus on 5G deployments and upcoming spectrum auctions. Chairman Ajit Pai and the other three commissioners are expected to testify (see 1808030014).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Senate Commerce Republicans and Democrats as always “are going to want to talk about different things,” with Democrats likely to take the lead on Sinclair/Tribune and the debunked DDoS claims, said former Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Hudson Institute senior fellow. Both issues have developed in the weeks since the House Communications hearing. The Office of Inspector General said earlier this month the ECFS breakdown was caused by the sheer volume of comments on the net neutrality proceeding (see 1808060051). Sinclair faces a $1 billion breach of contract lawsuit that Tribune filed last week when withdrawing from the deal after the FCC hearing designation order (see 1808090042).
“I'm betting the Republicans will try to ignore” the OIG report if at all possible but additional scrutiny into the DDoS claims is “a matter of great import in political and oversight terms,” said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood: Pai “should be made to answer for exactly when he knew that the claims were false and why he didn't tell [Congress] about it sooner.” Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is expected to take the lead in asking “some fairly hard-hitting questions” about the sequence of events on the DDoS claims, since he and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed Pai in June for more evidence (see 1806120057), said a communications lobbyist who monitors Democratic lawmakers. Four House Commerce Committee Democrats this week demanded answers from Pai about when and what he knew about the inaccuracy of the DDoS claims (see 1808140031).
Democrats may want to shine a spotlight again on Sinclair/Tribune review, but those comments “may be more statements than anything since it's sort of a dead issue” given the breakup, McDowell said. Sinclair/Tribune “might come up but there's only so much” the commissioners “can say about that with the [administrative law judge] hearing still in the mix,” Wood said. Lobbyists predicted far more intense scrutiny of the implications of Sinclair/Tribune. The dead deal may in turn prompt further questions about other media ownership issues, McDowell said. Lobbyists said questions could be about other pending deals, including T-Mobile/Sprint.
Senate Commerce Republicans are likely to focus far more on 5G deployment, McDowell said. The Computer and Communications Industry Association hopes the hearing includes “more signals from the FCC about what they plan to do to streamline regulations and promote 5G technologies,” said Policy Counsel John Howes. Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., will likely want to follow up on 5G, after debate at a July Senate Communications hearing and his sponsorship (see 1806290063) of the Streamlining the Rapid Evolution and Modernization of Leading-Edge Infrastructure Necessary to Enhance (Streamline) Small Cell Deployment Act (S-3157), a telecom lobbyist said.
“There will probably be some discussion” again about prospects for a nationalized 5G network given the July filing of the Eliminate From Regulators Opportunities to Nationalize The Internet in Every Respect (E-Frontier) Act, McDowell said. Sponsored by Senate Commerce member Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, S-3255 would formally bar the White House and executive branch agencies from seeking to build a government-owned national 5G network without authorization from Congress (see 1807230059).
Members of both parties likely will have questions about the FCC's 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, McDowell said. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., likely will talk about spectrum and her Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum Act, a telecom lobbyist said. S-1682 and House companion HR-4953 aim to identify spectrum for unlicensed use and free up mid-band spectrum for wireless industry purchase via a future FCC auction (see 1708010069).