House Ray Baum's Act Hearing Expected to Include Repack, Broadband Map Talk
A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on implementation of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum statute is expected to emphasize the law's language to aid the broadcast incentive auction repacking process. The hearing also will likely be an opportunity for House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., to showcase the act as the committee's top telecom policy achievement this Congress, before the end of the GOP majority in the chamber, lawmakers and communications lobbyists said. The act's language was included in the FY 2018 federal spending law (see 1803230038).
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“It's all about oversight” of that law now that the statute is more than six months old, Walden said in an interview. The wide-ranging law included the first reauthorization of the FCC “in 28 years and we want to make sure that it's working and what industry is finding” as other aspects are implemented. Set to testify are: APCO International Chief Counsel Jeff Cohen, Competitive Carriers Association Senior Vice President-Legislative Affairs Tim Donovan, NAB Executive Vice President-Government Relations Curtis LeGeyt and Milwaukee PBS General Manager Bohdan Zachary.
“It's important that after you pass a major law” like this one “to go back and ask 'is it working?' and if not, what we need to do,” Walden said. “There may be things that we needn't do” via follow-up legislation, but “we won't know until we do the hearing.” Broadcasters “are concerned about meeting the 39-month [repacking] timeline,” while incentive auction winners “would like to get on with” using the spectrum they bought in the 600 MHz band, he said. “We need to hear” whether the $1 billion in additional repack funding allocated there remains “adequate, too much or not enough.”
Significant emphasis is likely on ongoing repack challenges, including broadcasters' continued trouble meeting the 39-month implementation deadline and funding for the process, broadcasting lobbyists said. Tower and antenna companies believe many broadcasters won't be able to meet the current deadline (see 1811160037). Congress is likely to continue to refrain from legislating on the timeline despite the continued difficulties, one lobbyist said: “The FCC has the leeway to grant waivers” and it “wouldn't hold anything against” a broadcaster that didn't meet the deadline.
Broadband-related language in the Ray Baum's Act could provide a fresh opening for lawmakers to raise concerns about the FCC's broadband coverage data mapping practices, said R Street Institute Technology Policy Manager Tom Struble. The underlying spending law also allocated funding to NTIA to coordinate the federal government's broadband mapping activities with an eye to FCC difficulties. “There's lots of talk” about fully transferring mapping authority to NTIA, but “the FCC I think recognizes that everyone is upset about this” and lawmakers are likely to give them a chance to fix its processes, Struble said.
“Everyone is concerned about inaccuracies in [the MF-II] data” and the issue got fresh attention in recent weeks, Struble said. “People get very heated” about the issue because of the effect inaccurate data has on broadband subsidies. The FCC announced an investigation Friday into whether major carriers violated the Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) reverse auction mapping rules (see 1812070048). Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., also has been preparing a proposed amendment to FY 2019 federal spending legislation that would force the FCC to revisit MF-II data (see 1812050049).
The hearing in some ways represents a final “victory lap” for Walden, outgoing House Communications Chairman and Sen.-elect Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and House Commerce's GOP telecom aides because the Ray Baum's Act is considered their marquee communications policy accomplishment for this Congress, a telecom lobbyist said. The law included text from the Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (Mobile Now) Act (S-19) and the Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109).
Interest is significant in what House Commerce Democrats will ask at the hearing because they will soon have majority control of the chamber. House Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Communications ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., had leading roles in shaping the Ray Baum's Act's final language (see 1803020027). Both will find their voices will be “much more important” in the hearing than they were during most of this Congress because of the coming shift in power, one Democratic-focused lobbyist noted.