Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., separately said Thursday they plan to talk with President Donald Trump's administration in the coming weeks about infrastructure funding in a bid to revive interest in enacting a comprehensive bill to allocate up to $2 trillion for broadband and other projects. Trump sought in his February State of the Union for Congress to “unite for a great rebuilding of America's crumbling infrastructure” (see 1902060002). In 2018, he called for a bill “that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment” that relied heavily on public-private partnerships, though that effort stalled (see 1803290046). The communications sector has been hopeful there will be more appetite for infrastructure legislation this year because Democrats regained the majority in the House in the 2018 election (see 1811130011). Schumer told reporters he and Pelosi will meet with Trump in the coming weeks. They will warn Trump that “if [the administration is] not going to put real money and have real labor and environmental protections” in a final bill, “we're not going to get anywhere,” Schumer said. Legislation needs to provide “at least $1 trillion” in funding, but “I'd like it to be closer to $2 trillion,” Pelosi said at a House Democratic retreat in Leesburg, Virginia. Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Patty Murray of Washington led filing of the Digital Equity Act, which would allocate federal funding for digital inclusion projects. Many tech stakeholders immediately praised it.
Jimm Phillips
Jimm Phillips, Associate Editor, covers telecommunications policymaking in Congress for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2012 after stints at the Washington Post and the American Independent News Network. Phillips is a Maryland native who graduated from American University. You can follow him on Twitter: @JLPhillipsDC
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said he's aiming for the chamber to pass the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (S-151) by unanimous consent (UC) once Congress returns at the end of April from its two-week recess. Thune and other subcommittee members boosted the bill during Thursday's hearing on illegal robocalls. S-151 would increase FCC authority to act against robocalls violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It would increase coordination between federal agencies and state attorneys general in a bid to increase criminal prosecution of illegal robocallers (see 1901170039). Other anti-robocall legislation is also coming, lawmakers said.
The FCC intends to begin its auction of spectrum in the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands Dec. 10 and plans to begin work on a fund targeting broadband deployment in unserved rural areas, Chairman Ajit Pai told reporters Friday morning. The announcements came ahead of Pai's planned participation in an afternoon event with President Donald Trump aimed at clarifying that the U.S. isn't headed toward a nationalized 5G network, as we reported Thursday. That event is set to begin just before 2:30 p.m., the White House said.
Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, plans to refile the Open Internet Preservation Act in a bid to provide additional alternative net neutrality legislation that doesn't involve reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. The bill, previously filed in 2017, would bar blocking and throttling but not paid prioritization. It would prevent the FCC from ever again claiming Title II or Section 706 as a legal basis for expanding net neutrality rules (see 1712190062). The House passed the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill Wednesday. HR-1644 would reverse the FCC order rescinding 2015 net neutrality rules and restore reclassification of broadband as a Title II service (see 1904100062). "As the new House Majority pushes another attempt at protecting the Obama Administration’s FCC legacy of 'Net Neutrality' from 2015, House Republicans have again committed to a free and open internet," Stivers said in a letter to colleagues seeking co-sponsors for his bill. "Republicans have provided multiple legislative solutions seeking to codify the principles of Net Neutrality in law -- without resorting to" Title II. House Commerce Committee Republicans filed three alternative net neutrality bills in February as pathways to compromise legislation that wouldn’t rely on Title II as a legal basis -- the Open Internet Act (HR-1006), Promoting Internet Freedom and Innovation Act (HR-1096) and HR-1101 (see 1902250051). Stivers defended the lack of paid prioritization language in the bill, saying "taken to its logical extent, an absolute ban on paid prioritization could impact" existing "arrangements that are pro-consumer." Different "types of data are prioritized on both a paid and unpaid basis, and we need this to happen," he wrote. "Republicans can all oppose anti-competitive fast lanes, and we’ve proven that we are open to legislation codifying those protections, but pro-consumer agreements should not be thrown out to support the flawed promise of Title II regulation."
There was bipartisan agreement among Senate Commerce Committee members Wednesday that the federal government's practices for collecting broadband coverage data remain deficient and that Capitol Hill needs to begin taking action. Senate Commerce and others on the Hill repeatedly have raised those issues in recent years. NTIA's increased role in coordinating federal work on broadband mapping got scrutiny earlier this month at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department's fiscal year 2020 budget request (see 1904020070). Deficiencies in the FCC's data collection practices was a central issue at a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing last month on rural broadband (see 1903120069).
Supporters of the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644/S-682) were looking beyond House passage Wednesday, despite dim prospects (see 1904100014). The House passed HR-1644 on an almost uniformly party-line 232-190 vote, as expected (see 1904090045). One House Republican voted for the bill -- Bill Posey of Florida. No Democrats defected to vote against it. Ten lawmakers didn't vote. 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).
Expected House passage of the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) is unlikely to spur the Senate to take up the bill's companion version (S-682) or to rejuvenate a fledgling working group in the chamber aimed at writing alternative legislation, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. HR-1644/S-682 would reverse the FCC order rescinding its 2015 net neutrality rules and restore reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077).
The House passed the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) on a largely party-line 232-190 vote, as expected. The chamber ultimately approved either unanimously or by lopsided bipartisan margins all 12 amendments that were allowed floor consideration. HR-1644 and Senate companion 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.
The House Rules Committee appears likely to clear at least some of 17 amendments to the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill for floor consideration this week, said communications sector lobbyists and officials in interviews. A final vote on HR-1644 is expected Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.
Republicans will actively oppose the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) when it comes up for a House floor vote next week, but there's unlikely to be a repeat of the protracted amendments fight seen during the House Commerce Committee's Wednesday markup, said ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., in a Thursday interview. House Commerce cleared HR-1644 Wednesday night on a 30-22 party-line vote, as expected (see 1904030077). That followed a more than nine-hour, sometimes-heated debate and series of votes on 15 amendments, including 13 sought by Republicans.