The Senate Commerce Committee's Wednesday confirmation hearing on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner-nominees Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel featured plenty of grievances on policy issues and criticisms against Pai and Carr, as expected (see 1707180041). Despite some Senate Commerce Democrats' misgivings, nothing changed perceptions that all three nominees will advance easily out of the committee, although maybe not unanimously, industry lobbyists told us.
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
Net neutrality appears likely to be the marquee issue at the Senate Commerce Committee's Wednesday confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner-nominees Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel, but is unlikely to derail the hearing, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Committee Democrats are more likely to bring up net neutrality and the FCC's other recent controversial actions, lobbyists said. Committee Republicans are likely to want to downplay the net neutrality issue and instead emphasize other telecom issues, lobbyists said. Net neutrality NPRM comments were due Monday (see 1707180009).
The House Budget Committee called Tuesday for NTIA to “consolidate” into the FCC as part of its FY 2018 plan. The proposal, the subject of a Wednesday committee markup, calls for FCC/NTIA as part of a series of consolidations of Department of Commerce agencies whose functions are “better suited at other agencies.” Commerce and its agencies “are rife with waste, abuse and duplication,” the House Budget proposal blueprint said. Communications industry lobbyists questioned the viability of absorbing NTIA into the FCC. “The desire to find efficiencies is sound but there are constitutional imperatives that require the spectrum management function to remain exclusively under the executive branch,” said American Continental Group senior adviser John Kneuer, former NTIA administrator. There have been repeated calls for telecom policy to be consolidated at the FCC, but “the reality is that NTIA's spectrum functions cannot go into an independent agency,” a telecom lobbyist said. “The FCC can't dictate or regulate the Department of Defense or other executive branch departments on their spectrum uses. So if you merged NTIA into the FCC, you'd be leaving spectrum behind and essentially shutting down its policy functions.” Joining FCC and NTIA would be a “pretty dramatic” move, likely encountering opposition from NTIA administrator nominee David Redl when the Senate votes to confirm him as expected, another communications sector lobbyist said. A vote on Redl's nomination was delayed at the request of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but is expected to be on the docket at the Senate Commerce Committee's next markup session (see 1706280027 and 1706280061).
The House Appropriations Committee voted to advance FY 2018 Financial Services and Commerce budget bills, which include funding proposals for the FCC, FTC and NTIA. It cleared the budget Thursday with proposals for $322 million for the FCC and $306 million for the FTC intact, and the Commerce budget continued to include $30 million in proposed funding for NTIA (see 1706290073). The committee unanimously agreed to include an amendment in the Financial Services budget from Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., that would add the substance of his Email Privacy Act (HR-387) to the bill (see 1707140014). Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., failed to get a proposed amendment attached aimed at protecting FCC 2015 net neutrality rules. Congressional Democrats strongly opposed the NPRM on the 2015 rules and the related reclassification of broadband providers as common carriers. Serrano's amendment got vocal support from House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee ranking member Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and other committee Democrats. Quigley and Reps. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., supported the push for net neutrality legislation. Those statements contrast with opposition that House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and other telecom-focused Democratic lawmakers have declared to working with Republicans on net neutrality legislation before an expected court challenge of likely rollback of the 2015 rules (see 1707130063).
Continued partisan rancor over the FCC's possible rollback of 2015 net neutrality rules and reclassification of broadband providers as common carriers under Communications Act Title II largely poisoned short-term chances for net neutrality legislation, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Some suggested a bill might not face a more favorable political environment until the next Congress in 2019, depending on the outcome of the 2018 midterm elections. Telecom-focused congressional Democrats said they continue to have no appetite for pursuing net neutrality legislation until an anticipated FCC reversal of the 2015 rules winds its way through court.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters Wednesday he's asking DOJ Antitrust Division head nominee Makan Delrahim to meet with him to discuss any contact Delrahim may have had with members of President Donald Trump's administration on AT&T's proposed buy of Time Warner. Blumenthal's request follows media reports that White House officials viewed DOJ's ongoing review of AT&T/TW as a potential way to address Trump's well-known frustrations with TW's CNN's coverage of his administration. Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also warned DOJ on its interactions with the Trump administration over AT&T/TW (see 1707070054). Blumenthal and Klobuchar both raised concerns about AT&T/TW on antitrust grounds. The White House “is ethically and morally barred from intervening” in the merger review, Blumenthal said. “The mere threat of it is a very serious potential violation of ethics.” Delrahim has not yet responded to the request for a meeting, Blumenthal said. DOJ didn't comment.
A two-week delay for the start of the Senate's August recess could give the Senate Commerce Committee a chance to advance FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's renomination and nominations of Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel to FCC seats earlier than previously anticipated, with the timeline in flux, lobbyists said Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters he's cutting the Senate's traditional August recess by two weeks to “provide more time to complete action on important legislative items and process nominees that have stalled.” The Senate will now work through the week of Aug. 7 and still reconvene after Labor Day.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., tweeted extensively Monday as they toured Capon Springs and Wardensville, West Virginia, to promote Capito’s Gigabit Opportunity Act. S-1013 and House companion HR-2870 would provide tax deferral and immediate expensing for telecom companies putting money toward gigabit-capable broadband, and compel the FCC to create a framework encouraging states, counties and cities to choose to accept streamlined laws for broadband and receive a designation as a gigabit opportunity zone (see 1705030029 and 1706120065). Capito characterized a roundtable discussion on the bills as a “great discussion” on how the legislation and other efforts “can help bridge” the digital divide. Pai called the tour a way of “talking about the importance of rural Internet access,” and his adviser, Nathan Leamer, said “a lack of connectivity hinders opportunity” in the areas Pai visited. Capito said improved broadband connectivity at the Capon Springs & Farms resort, where she and Pai held the roundtable talk, “will help tourism thrive even more.” Pai is expected to also tour areas in Maryland and Virginia through Wednesday, where he plans to meet “with rural broadband providers, entrepreneurs and small businesses to discuss how to work together to help close our nation’s digital divide,” the FCC said Friday. Pai’s Maryland visits will include representatives of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, the agency said.
A News Media Alliance-backed lobbying push for legislation that would grant news publishers an antitrust safe harbor allowing them to collectively negotiate advertising deals with top U.S. digital advertising platforms is likely to face significant resistance on Capitol Hill, lawyers and lobbyists said in interviews. NMA, whose members include The New York Times and The Washington Post, called for the safe harbor to improve publishers’ ability to have “concrete discussions” with advertising platforms Facebook and Google amid perceptions those firms effectively form a “digital duopoly.”
Senate Democrats are continuing the vetting process in their search for a so-far elusive consensus candidate to potentially replace FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn at the commission if she retires. Questions about Clyburn's plans have continued amid pending Senate consideration of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's renomination and fellow commission nominees Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel. Clyburn recently said in a C-SPAN interview she didn't intend to leave in the immediate future (see 1706290063 and 1706290070). The search for a potential replacement for Clyburn also raised questions about the extent to which President Donald Trump's administration will be willing give leeway to Senate Democratic leaders' preferred candidate, lobbyists and observers told us.