House Appropriations Votes Down Cannabis Ad Rider Alteration, FTC Funding Reduction
The House Appropriations Committee voted 31-22 Friday night to advance the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2023 bill with increases in annual funding for the FCC and FTC. The committee voted down Republicans’ bids to roll back a proposed substantial increase in FTC funding and altered a rider in the measure that removes an FCC barrier to broadcasters airing ads for cannabis products. The measure would allocate $490 million to the FTC, a 30% increase over what it received in the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package (see 2203150076). The FY23 bill would give the FCC $390 million, up 2.3% from FY22.
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.
House Appropriations is set to vote Tuesday on proposed FY23 funding increases for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division. The funding bill includes $62 million for NTIA, $4.25 billion for the Patent Office, $1.47 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, $191.4 million for the Bureau of Industry and Security and $230 million for DOJ Antitrust (see 2206230001). A report on the funding bill, released Monday, includes broadband and spectrum-related riders for NTIA, along with requirements for other agencies.
Appropriations voted 33-24 against an amendment from Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., that would have altered a rider in the measure that would bar the FCC from using its funding to “deny, fail to renew for a full term” or otherwise condition a broadcaster’s license “because the station broadcast or otherwise transmitted” ads for “a business selling cannabis or cannabis-derived products” or “a business selling hemp” or other “hemp-derived cannabinoid products.” Harris’ amendment would have required the National Institute of Drug Abuse to certify any cannabis ad was scientifically accurate and the product poses “no risk to individual public health.” House Appropriations ranking member Kay Granger, R-Texas, has been critical of the language in recent weeks (see 2206160073).
It’s “appropriate that we consider guardrails” given there are restrictions on broadcast advertising for alcohol and tobacco products, Harris said. He pointed in particular to the risk posed by advertising cannabis products that contain high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, the main substance responsible for affecting a user’s mental state. The amendment was appropriate because lawmakers should “take a stand to prevent the use of our public airwaves” as a means to encourage “children to use mind-altering drugs,” said Financial Services ranking member Steve Womack, R-Ark.
Financial Services Chairman Mike Quigley, D-Ill., argued broadcasters needed to have a level playing field with cable and satellite companies, newspapers and other media that can already advertise cannabis products because they’re not subject to FCC licensing rules. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said Harris’ amendment was an “unnecessary attempt to spread fear about cannabis” and constituted a “back-door method to restrict” cannabis-focused businesses.
NAB is “pleased to see” the cannabis ad language remain in the funding bill, a spokesperson said in a statement. “As the vast majority of states have legalized cannabis in some form, today marks a long overdue step toward finally allowing broadcasters to receive equal treatment regarding cannabis advertising that other forms of media have had for years.” Local “broadcasters will continue to work with all policymakers towards a broader resolution of this competitive disparity,” the spokesperson said.
Cutback Proposal
House Appropriations also voted 31-23 against an amendment from Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., that would have cut the FTC’s FY23 funding by more than $113 million, putting its allocation back to what it was for FY22. “No government agency should receive a 30% increase” in its “operating budget over just one year, especially not an agency that has seen enforcement productivity decline significantly under the current leadership” of FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, Reschenthaler said: Workforce “morale and confidence in the agency has rapidly declined” and “the last thing this committee should be doing is providing” such a major funding increase. He cited the April results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which found FTC employees’ overall satisfaction level in 2021 dropped by 29 percentage points to 60%.
“Cutting funding for the FTC is the wrong way to protect the American people,” Quigley said: “From corporate mergers that enable firms to hike prices and slash wages, to data breaches that can expose Americans’ most sensitive and personal information,” the proposed allocation “will enable the FTC to fully and effectively deliver on its broad mission to protect consumers.” The FTC “has repeatedly exhibited a remarkable return on” the federal government’s “investment,” he said.
House Appropriations’ FCC/FTC bill report “directs the FTC to consult with the Department of Education,” Commerce, the FCC and other agencies and make “recommendations for programs or initiatives that could help educate consumers about the potential harm caused by disinformation, misinformation, and deep fakes, or help certify the authenticity and provenance of online content.” The committee “directs” the FTC to prioritize investigations into “robocalls that attempt to defraud patients, physicians, hospital, and other health care stakeholders” and urges similar prioritization for robocalls “that attempt to defraud senior citizens.”
The report seeks FTC prioritization of “investigations and enforcement efforts that protect consumers from unfair acts limiting competition.” It urges the FTC to “continue to require the destruction or deletion of models or algorithms that incorporate inappropriately collected information, and to examine other authorities that might allow the FTC to better protect the privacy of children.” House Appropriations “encourages the FTC to identify policies and provide recommendations that can help protect Americans from hate and abuse on online platforms.”
Commerce Report
House Appropriations’ report on the Commerce FY 23 bill in part presses the Commerce Department to ensure states and territories applying for money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment program “demonstrate that they will be able to provide service to unserved and underserved urban areas.” Broadband access “is a determinant for success for all individuals” and there “should not be digital discrimination in supporting unserved and underserved populations based on whether they are in urban or rural areas,” the report said. The committee’s report on the FCC/FTC funding bill directs the FCC to provide reports and briefings on a range of broadband-related issues, including on its “effort to support Tribal access to broadband” and “implementation of the Emergency Connectivity Fund.”
The FY23 Commerce bill report extends “prior year direction to NTIA to coordinate” with the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service, the FCC and other agencies “to identify and pursue ways to continue sustainable broadband deployment and adoption, and to ensure that policies tied to one Federal program do not undermine the objectives and functionality of another.” It “continues to encourage NTIA to place equal priority on the deployment” of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network “in rural communities as it does in urban areas.”
House Appropriations ordered an NTIA review “of its internal capacity for spectrum management in the face of ever-increasing demand for spectrum from Federal partners. The review shall identify required investments to fully meet the mission of the management of spectrum for the entire Federal Government.” The committee “encourages NTIA, in coordination with the FCC and other appropriate stakeholders, to preserve spectrum access for scientific purposes as commercial use of radio spectrum increases” and “looks forward to the report highlighting NTIA’s ongoing efforts on this front.” Appropriations repeated its call from the FCC/FTC bill report for the FCC and NTIA to “take further action to help eliminate the potential for future interagency spectrum disputes" beyond a coordination agreement between commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson (see 2202150001).
The Commerce bill report notes specific amounts out of the NIST budget for work on a range of cybersecurity and emerging technologies issues. They include “no less than” $103 million “for NIST’s Cybersecurity program,” and increases of $10 million for quantum information science, $9 million for AI “that has the potential to produce transformative technologies and scientific breakthrough that will improve Americans’ lives” and $6.5 million for the agency’s “important role in U.S. engagement on standards development across areas of critical and emerging technologies.” The committee urges BIS “to consider the impact of U.S. semiconductor related export control policies on the global semiconductor shortage, and the resulting impact on the U.S. industrial base, particularly in the automotive, home appliance, agricultural machinery, aerospace and defense industries.