House Lawmakers Seek Broadband, Privacy Amendments to FY 2020 FCC-FTC Budget Bill
House lawmakers are seeking to add at least seven broadband, anti-robocall and privacy-related amendments to the FY 2020 budget bill containing funding for the FCC and FTC (HR-3351) before the chamber begins considering the measure later this week. The House Rules Committee was expected to decide Monday night which of the at least 115 filed proposals it will allow to move to the floor. Lawmakers still need to take a final vote on the “minibus” FY 2020 budget bill (HR-3055) that includes funding for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the Agriculture Department (see 1906190061). The House already approved seven tech and telecom-related amendments to HR-3055 (see 1906210001).
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Several Republican lawmakers filed amendments proposing to reduce all appropriations in HR-3351. The measure as advanced by the House Appropriations Committee would give the FTC $349.7 million and the FCC $339 million (see 1906030040). The FY 2020 FTC appropriation is up more than $37 million from what President Donald Trump proposed in his March budget request and $40 million above what Congress allocated in the FY 2019 spending bill passed in February. The FCC appropriation is on par with Congress' allocation in the FY 2019 spending bill but up from the $335.6 million the Trump administration proposed for FY 2020.
There were four broadband-related proposals Monday afternoon. Absent was any seeking to attach language from the House-passed Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill. HR-1644/S-682 would add a new title to the Communications Act that reverses the FCC order rescinding its 2015 net neutrality rules and restores reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077). There was talk immediately after the House approved the measure in April of hitching it to FY 2020 appropriations bills amid perceptions that it faced long odds in the Senate and a likely Trump veto (see 1904100062).
The broadband-related amendments included one led by Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., that would bar the FCC from using new funding to collect further broadband coverage data via its Form 477 process. The FCC's broadband mapping practices were criticized on Capitol Hill (see 1906120076). The House last week approved a similar anti-Form 477 amendment in HR-3055. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., wants to increase funding to the FCC by $5 million “to dedicate more research, infrastructure, and resources for deployment of rural broadband.”
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., led an amendment that would prohibit the FCC from finalizing an order to institute an overall USF budget cap. Commissioners voted 3-2 in May to issue a USF budget cap NPRM despite criticism from program advocates (see 1905310069). Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., proposed language barring the FCC from using FY 2020 funds to implement “any report, order, or ruling that prevents, prohibits, or preempts a State or locality from mandating the sharing of a building owner’s wiring for communications services in multiple tenant environments.”
Three lawmakers sought riders on other FCC and FTC policy issues. House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., wants to reallocate $1 million of the FCC funding to prioritize the agency's work to combat robocalls aimed at scamming senior citizens. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., proposes reallocating $1 in FCC funding to “highlight the importance of completing its investigation” into wireless carriers' location tracking practices, including the sale of customer location tracking data allegedly accessed by bounty hunters (see 1805240073). Lawmakers have increased pressure on the FCC to report its progress on the probe in recent months. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., wants to reallocate $3 million of the FTC funding to encourage the agency to take enforcement action against companies that “fail to protect children's privacy.”