House Commerce Clears Media Diversity, Phone Number Reassignment Bills
The House Commerce Committee advanced three telecom bills Wednesday, including bipartisan voice votes in favor of the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act (HR-3957) and the Preserving Home and Office Numbers in Emergencies Act (HR-1289). The committee also advanced the Enhancing Broadcaster Diversity and Inclusion by Verifying and Ensuring the Reporting Required by Statute Is Transpiring and Yielding Data Act (HR-5564) despite opposition from ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon and other Republicans. Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said “we’re going to try” to seek floor votes on at least some of the measures this month.
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.
Walden hoped “we can find common ground” on concerns he and other Republicans voiced about HR-5564 before it reaches the floor. The bill would require the FCC complete its equal employment opportunity enforcement NPRM (see 1904290176). HR-5564 “has been improved” via a substitute amendment from House Commerce Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., “to prohibit the FCC from making license renewal determinations based on” employment data and bar it from being used “to assess compliance with any of the FCC’s rules,” Walden said. He and other Republicans raised concerns during House Communications’ March markup of HR-5564 that the measure could allow the FCC to require broadcasters observe quotas for hiring (see 2003100067).
House Communications Chairman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and other Democrats cited the amplified national conversation about racism after recent police-involved deaths of Black people as evidence that more action is needed now to improve broadcaster diversity. "We need to keep our eye on the big picture, and that is how are we going to bring diversity to the broadcast sector in our country," said Rep. Anna Eshoo of California. "It's been lagging for decades." Questions raised by Walden and other Republicans "are legitimate," but "you're either going to vote for making progress in this sector, or not," she said. "We need to get moving."
House Commerce voted 28-22 against a Walden amendment proposing to attach the text of his Broadcast Diversity in Leadership Act (HR-8154) to HR-5564. HR-8154 would require the FCC set up an incubator program “to support the entry of new and diverse voices in the broadcasting industry by providing for an established broadcaster and an emerging broadcaster to enter into a qualifying incubation relationship with respect to one or more incubated stations of the emerging” broadcaster (see 2009010068). A similar provision was jettisoned from the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act (HR-3957) before House Communications’ markup of that measure. Public Knowledge urged House Commerce to reject Walden's incubator proposal.
Doyle and lead HR-3957 sponsor Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., pledged to work with Walden toward a compromise on the incubator language before floor consideration of HR-5564. "I agree that this program has merit," but "what concerns me is the proposed incentive structure," Doyle said. "Allowing large station ownership groups" like Sinclair "to get around media ownership limits as a carrot for helping to mentor minority owners seems ripe for abuse." House Commerce Democrats have "offered a number of alternative options" to committee Republicans, but have been rejected, Doyle said. "I'm happy to keep working with you" toward a solution, though there appear major differences on incentives language.
Walden said he chose not to attach HR-8154’s language to HR-3957 because he didn’t want it to torpedo that bill. HR-3957 would restore the minority tax certificate and direct the FCC to make recommendations on ways to improve ownership diversity. House Commerce advanced amended versions of HR-1289 and HR-3957. HR-1289 would limit reassignment of phone numbers during a declared natural disaster.
Walden agreed to withdraw a second amendment that would have required all House offices publish employment data equivalent to what’s on FCC Form 395. House Commerce voted 29-22 against a proposal from Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., to exempt broadcasters and MVPDs that employ 10 or fewer people from Forms 395-A and 395-B. The committee voted 29-23 against an amendment from Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, that would have required all Form 395 data “be collected in an anonymous manner.”
House Commerce hadn’t voted by Wednesday afternoon on three other tech bills on the docket: the Combating Pandemic Scams Act (HR-6435), AI for Consumer Product Safety Act (HR-8128) and American Competitiveness of a More Productive Emerging Tech Economy Act (HR-8132).