Pallone Backs E-rate Money in COVID-19 Bill; Markup Thursday
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., hoped the COVID-19 aid package Democrats are aiming to pass via budget reconciliation includes additional E-rate funding. Pallone emphasized during an Incompas event the committee’s part of the pandemic bill, which it intends to mark up Thursday, is unlikely to address other telecom matters. More broadband money is almost certain to make it into additional economic aid measures and an infrastructure bill targeted for later this year, Pallone said.
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House Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is pressing Pallone to delay the aid markup by one week “and begin earnest, bipartisan negotiations” with GOP members. House Commerce hadn’t noticed the impending markup at the time Pallone spoke Tuesday. The committee didn’t comment on McMorris Rodgers’ concerns.
“Using reconciliation for COVID relief … abandons your promise to continue” House Commerce’s “rich tradition of bipartisan work and your commitment to regular order,” McMorris Rodgers said in a letter to Pallone released Tuesday. She objected that Pallone isn’t “holding any hearings or allowing our subcommittees to weigh in on this legislation” before markup.
Pallone didn’t guarantee E-rate money will make it into a final package and didn’t say what amount he and other Democratic leaders want to include. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Monday he will “work tirelessly” to attach E-rate money to the measure and is pushing the FCC to reinterpret statute to allow program funding to be used for remote learning (see 2102080054).
President Joe Biden backs expanding E-rate funding “and is happy to work with Congress on how to best address the digital divide for students,” a spokesperson said. Biden’s pandemic aid proposal wouldn’t funnel money to E-rate but instead has “flexible funding for schools to facilitate distance learning and address the digital divide.” No E-rate money was included in the FY 2021 appropriations and pandemic aid omnibus enacted in December (see 2012210055), despite a push for $3 billion for that purpose.
Democrats intend to follow up the coming bill in April or May with an “economic stimulus package” that may include more robust broadband funding, Pallone said. He touted leaders’ interest in pursuing a major infrastructure bill this year that includes broadband money. Pallone suggested Democrats are likely to pursue a measure nearly identical to the Moving Forward Act the House passed last year, which included $100 billion in broadband and next-generation 911 funding (see 2007010071).
Pallone said the House Commerce Democrats’ 2021 agenda includes interest in bringing back the FCC-rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules. He was noncommittal on whether Democrats will give the FCC an opportunity to bring back the 2015 rules on its own before pursuing legislation like the Save the Internet Act. Pallone noted the committee’s interest in revamping Communications Decency Act Section 230 and pursuing privacy legislation. He didn’t have a “specific answer” on what form a Section 230 revamp would take, but believes the statute “needs to be reformed” and House Commerce intends to “have hearings” on the issue.
Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, wants Pallone and other Democrats to improve their bipartisan outreach. “Recently, unfortunately, it's been pretty much a one-way street” because Commerce Democrats haven’t “really been bringing Republicans” into “a lot of discussions” on legislation, Latta said. “A lot of Republican areas” don’t have broadband access “and we want to make sure that we're all working together” to improve connectivity. “It isn't a partisan issue.” Latta said he intends to refile his Winning the International Race for Economic Leadership and Expanding Service to Support (Wireless) Leadership Act. The measure, first filed last year (see 2006250068), would streamline wireless permitting.
House Commerce should ensure it conducts thorough oversight of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund disbursals to ensure that money is “being wisely used,” Latta said. Republicans can't call for hearings on RDOF use, he noted. “It's important for us to make sure that we have those hearings and make sure … we're asking the absolute most important questions.”