NAB, the Internet Association and IBM reported Q2 decreases in lobbying spending Monday, while NCTA, Charter and Microsoft had increases. Other major telecom and tech companies hadn’t reported their quarterly spending by our deadline. IA said it spent $340,000, down more than 50% from the same period in 2019. IBM said it spent $1.04 million, down 35%. NAB spent $2.31 million, down almost 22%. NCTA expended $3.65 million, up almost 9%. Microsoft laid out $2.91 million, a 6% increase. Charter spent $2.59 million, up 6%. Cox shelled out $930,000, up 2%. Disney spent $890,000, an almost 6% increase. BSA|The Software Alliance spent $420,000, a 16% decrease. The Wireless Infrastructure Association devoted $180,000, down 10%. ACA Connects' $160,000 was little changed. The Computer & Communications Industry Association spent $40,000, down 20%. Viacom CBS spent $1.15 million. In the year-ago quarter, Viacom and CBS as separate entities spent a combined $1.52 million.
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
The House began considering its FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395) Monday, with anti-Ligado language intact. The House Rules Committee didn’t allow floor consideration of three proposed amendments trying to advance and stop efforts to hinder Ligado’s L-band plan, despite support from committee member Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas (see 2007170059). The panel ultimately agreed to allow votes on several other tech and telecom amendments, including ones aimed at Chinese companies ByteDance and ZTE (see 2007150062).
The House Rules Committee considered proposed amendments to the chamber’s FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395) Friday, including those trying to advance and stop efforts to hinder Ligado’s L-band plan. HR-6395 and Senate NDAA version S-4049 have anti-Ligado language (see 2007010070). Most telecom and tech-related amendments (see 2007150062) lawmakers proposed to attach to HR-6395 hadn’t come up by early evening.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., will watch the House Antitrust Subcommittee July 27 hearing with tech CEOs for answers on “what they’re doing to make sure that they don’t have anticompetitive platform privilege.” Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are to testify (see 2007070043). Khanna isn't a Judiciary Committee member. The chiefs should answer how their companies aren’t using their “platforms to suppress competition” within the tech sector, he said during an appearance on C-SPAN’s The Communicators that was to be televised over the weekend. There needs to be “a nuanced conversation” on Capitol Hill about tech competition that goes beyond saying “‘let’s break up a company’” like Apple or Google, instead asking “what can we do to make sure that other companies can compete, that” tech giants “aren’t charging too much for the use of their own platforms, that they aren’t hurting competition,” Khanna said. He believes there needs to be a more “nuanced antitrust framework” within the federal government, and an update should look at factors beyond “consumer welfare,” including a company’s impact on jobs and communities. Major transactions need “be looked at with great scrutiny,” including what companies are doing on giving competitors access to their platforms, Khanna said. He believes there should be “extra scrutiny” on major tech companies’ activities during the pandemic, and those firms “should limit themselves to more or less organic growth and should not be trying to expand their footprint.” Policymakers and tech companies should have a “very thoughtful view of speech,” including whether content is “suppressing the vote” in the upcoming presidential election, is “leading to violence” or is “making it harder for others to have equality” on a platform, Khanna said.
The House Commerce Committee approved 10 telecom bills Wednesday, including the Utilizing Strategic Allied (USA) Telecom Act (HR-6624), as expected (see 2007140062). Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., emphasized that the measures up for votes Wednesday were "all consensus bills, which are truly bipartisan, and the details of which have been worked out with myself and" ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. The committee is known to have excluded (see 2007130054) some high-profile bills the House Communications Subcommittee advanced in March that had drawn Republican criticism, including the Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-Band) Act (HR-4855) and Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926).
House Republicans are offering dueling amendments to that chamber’s FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395) that respectively try to advance and stop efforts to hinder Ligado’s L-band plan. HR-6395 and Senate NDAA version S-4049 have anti-Ligado language (see 2007010070). The three new amendments are among several proposals to tack on 5G security and other tech and telecom-related language to HR-6395 once it reaches the House floor next week. The House Rules Committee will consider proposed amendments Friday. The videoconference meeting begins at 11 a.m. EDT.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans a July 22 vote on advancing FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s renomination to a term ending in 2024, as expected.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 30-22 Tuesday to advance the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee's FY 2021 funding bill with report language encouraging NTIA to coordinate with the FCC and other agencies “to preserve spectrum access for scientific purposes as commercial use of radio spectrum increases.” The underlying measure allocates $45.5 million for NTIA, just under $3.7 billion for the Patent Office, $1.04 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and almost $180.3 million for DOJ’s Antitrust Division.
Lawmakers we spoke with are eyeing more communications policy issues they hope to address before the August recess beyond the push to include telecom funding in COVID-19 legislation. Senate Commerce Committee leaders hope to advance the reconfirmation of Mike O’Rielly to an additional five-year FCC term. The House Commerce Committee plans a markup Wednesday, a spokesperson told us Monday evening. It's expected to include telecom bills that have been on hold since the pandemic disrupted Capitol Hill operations in March (see 2003130073)
The House Commerce Committee is eyeing a virtual markup session the week of July 20 after a two-week recess, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said during an appearance on C-SPAN’s The Communicators to be televised this weekend. The House in May passed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act (HR-6800), with broadband funding (see 2005180056). Lawmakers have been offering a range of other broadband funding proposals, including a push by House Democrats to allocate $100 billion as part of the Moving Forward Act infrastructure legislative package (see 2006220054). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has yet to “open his mouth and say something” (see 2005140062) about wanting to “sit down and negotiate” on another aid bill, Doyle said now. He hopes talks will have progressed during the current recess to a point where lawmakers will “have something to vote on relative to another package,” because Congress needs to “get something done before” the longer August recess. Doyle hoped appropriators “put sufficient” money in FY 2021 funding bills to fully implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. HR-4998 set up a program to fund U.S. communications providers’ removal of Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security (see 2003040056). The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee advanced its FY21 bill this week with $1 billion to implement HR-4998 (see 2007080064). The FCC earlier sought $2 billion for work on the law (see 2003230066). Doyle hailed the FCC’s decision to bar Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE from participating in USF (see 2006300078).