The Senate Commerce Committee’s divide over FCC approval of Ligado’s L-band plan was again on display Wednesday during a commission oversight hearing, as expected (see 2006230059). The issue also came up during a committee confirmation hearing for Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (see 2006160062). There was an even clearer partisan divide among committee members about President Donald Trump’s May executive order directing NTIA to petition the FCC for regulations defining the scope of Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2005280060). Senate Commerce also drilled into broadband funding proposals amid the ongoing push to include money in future COVID-19 aid legislation.
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
President Donald Trump appears slightly likelier to choose Brendan Carr over GOP Commissioner Mike O’Rielly as FCC chairman if he wins re-election and current commission head Ajit Pai steps aside, communications sector officials and lobbyists said in interviews. Carr’s edge is narrow enough that few people we spoke with discounted the prospect of O’Rielly prevailing or the possibility Trump could choose a non-FCC Republican.
Undersecretary of Defense-Research and Engineering Mike Griffin and Deputy Undersecretary Lisa Porter submitted their resignations effective July 10, communications sector lobbyists told us. Griffin was among the DOD officials who testified during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last month on the department’s opposition to the FCC’s approval of the Ligado L-band plan (see 2005060065). He later urged Congress to intervene against the FCC on the issue (see 2005210043). Porter leads DOD’s 5G policy. In a letter to DOD staff, the officials said a “private-sector opportunity has presented itself to us, offering an opportunity we have decided to pursue together.” DOD didn’t comment.
The House Armed Services Committee is eyeing potential legislative language to insert into the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act to intervene against the FCC’s approval of Ligado’s L-band plan during a coming full committee markup after deciding against pursuing related amendments at the subcommittee level, committee aides told reporters. The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced its NDAA version earlier this month with language to bar DOD from using its funding to comply with the FCC’s Ligado order without further review by the secretary of defense and the National Academies of Science and Engineering (see 2006110026).
A House Communications Subcommittee briefing on Ligado’s L-band plan Thursday appears to have been a bid by Commerce Committee leaders to warn the chamber's Armed Services panel against attempting to advance language aimed at scuttling the FCC’s April approval, Capitol Hill aides and lobbyists told us. The company told members of the House and Senate Commerce panels Thursday it obtained emails showing the L-band plan previously had the backing of NTIA’s technical staff and the DOD Chief Information Office (see 2006180034).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and top lawmakers weighed in Thursday and Friday with additional broadband legislative proposals aimed at tying into COVID-19 aid legislation and broader infrastructure measures. House Democratic leaders announced plans Thursday to merge existing proposals into a $1.5 trillion Moving Forward Act infrastructure measure that would include $100 billion for broadband (see 2006180062). President Donald Trump’s administration is believed to be preparing a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal that will have funding for 5G infrastructure and rural broadband deployments (see 2006160049).
There’s “emerging consensus” the next Senate-side COVID-19 aid bill will include funding to bolster E-rate and other broadband initiatives, Incompas CEO Chip Pickering said Thursday. Some GOP lawmakers voiced growing interest in including broadband funding in coming pandemic legislation since House passage last month of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act. HR-6800’s broadband funding includes an $8.8 billion Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund and $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059). President Donald Trump’s administration recently narrowed the scope of their desires for a fourth major aid measure (see 2006050058).
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said during a Wednesday hearing he wants Congress to make permanent two recent temporary rollbacks of telehealth restrictions. The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act Congress passed in March included language from the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies for Health Act (HR-4982/S-2741) to expand telehealth services through Medicare. The Cares Act allowed the rules changes to remain in effect only during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2003250046). “We ought to stop and think for a moment about how significant a change this is and whether it would have even possibly happened without” the crisis, Alexander said during the Senate Health hearing. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, are among lawmakers pushing to make the rules changes permanent (see 2006150032). Alexander also noted the temporary lift of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act security rules that allow patients to use FaceTime and other platforms to communicate with doctors. “The question of whether to extend the HIPAA privacy waivers should be considered carefully,” he said. “There are privacy and security concerns about the use of personal medical information by technology platform companies, as well as concerns about criminals hacking into these platforms.” American Telemedicine Association President Joseph Kvedar told Senate Health “we must make sure that essential telehealth services do not abruptly end with the public health emergency, especially as we look to reorient our healthcare system to deliver 21st century care.” University of Virginia Center for Telehealth Director Karen Rheuban also backed Alexander’s call for permanent rules changes, saying UVA “saw a greater than 9,000% increase in the use of telehealth” during the epidemic. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee Chief Medical Officer Andrea Willis told the committee it’s unclear whether increased telehealth use is going to result in higher premiums.
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly got relatively little attention from Senate Commerce Committee members during a Tuesday hearing on his renomination. What attention he did receive was largely positive, with Democrats training their fire on other nominees. President Donald Trump renominated O’Rielly in March to a term ending June 30, 2024. O’Rielly’s current term ended last June, and he can remain until the beginning of 2021. O’Rielly has a good chance of confirmation (see 2004030072).
President Donald Trump’s administration and the all-Democratic House Rural Broadband Task Force are teeing up proposals that include connectivity money, Capitol Hill aides and lobbyists told us. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and some lawmakers, meanwhile, used a Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the commission’s spectrum auctions program (see 2006160030) to highlight the need for additional telecom funding as part of COVID-19 aid legislation, including for broadband.