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.
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
FCC Technological Advisory Committee Chairman Dennis Roberson rejected claims by three House Armed Services Committee members that his associations with TAC and Roberson and Associates is a potential conflict of interest that could call into question commission approval of Ligado’s L-band plan. Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and two House Armed Services Republicans sought an FCC inspector general probe, citing RAA’s 2016 work on behalf of Ligado counsel Covington & Burling (see 2006120033). TAC reported on interference limits policy and harm claim thresholds in March 2014 and RAA began working on Ligado’s behalf 13 months later, Roberson told us Friday. He didn’t lead TAC’s work on interference limits, which he noted weren’t specifically related to what’s at issue in the Ligado debate. “I was very surprised” when made aware of the claims, especially because of “how far what is suggested is from both the way I personally operate and the way the FCC conducts its business,” Roberson said. “It’s an indictment towards me” and “an indictment of the process the FCC uses. Both are very wrong. Personally I am very careful” not to intertwine RAA work with TAC. He said he hasn’t been contacted by House Armed Services. He said it’s appropriate for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to handle the commission’s response and for the IG to decide on an investigation if it chooses. Armed Services didn't comment Monday.
The Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee said Tuesday it believes further action from Congress is needed to define the role of the “Team Telecom” federal agencies to strengthen their ability to assist the FCC in reviewing foreign takeovers of U.S. communications assets. The committee believes more action is warranted because Team Telecom’s limited authority allowed the departments to do only “minimal oversight” of the potential national security risks a trio of Chinese telecom companies posed to U.S. networks. The team is DOD, the Department of Homeland Security and DOJ.
The Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee are close to setting two FCC-related June hearings, the panels’ chairmen told us Thursday. Senate Commerce is “looking at” holding a hearing mid-month on FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s nomination to another term, though it’s “not scheduled yet,” said Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. “It’s definitely on our agenda.” Lobbyists told us the most likely hearing date appears to be June 16, though it’s not a certainty. President Donald Trump renominated O’Rielly in March to a term ending June 30, 2024 (see 2003180070). O’Rielly’s current term ended in June 2019, but he can remain on the commission until this Congress ends at the beginning of 2021. Communications sector officials and lobbyists believe O’Rielly has a good chance of confirmation (see 2004030072). Wicker told us he’s still eyeing a Senate Commerce hearing on the FCC's Ligado L-band plan approval, which drew the ire of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and some other lawmakers (see 2005210043). Lobbyists said Senate Commerce hasn’t indicated a timeline for the hearing. Senate Appropriations Financial Services Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., indicated a planned follow-up hearing on his concerns about the FCC’s plans for auctioning the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band is likely “in the next couple weeks,” as expected (see 2005270034). “I’ve asked” Senate Appropriations Financial Services Majority Staff Director Andrew Newton “to get it scheduled,” Kennedy told us. The panel is “at a minimum” going to include testimony from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, though “there will be others.”
China may be “attempting to drive a high-tech wedge” between the U.S. and U.K. via concerns about the national security implications of allowing equipment from Huawei on telecom infrastructure, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told the U.K. House of Commons’ Defense Select Committee Tuesday. Cotton and other U.S. lawmakers criticized the U.K. allowing Huawei on “non-core” parts of communications infrastructure but bar it from “sensitive locations” like military bases (see 2001280074). Recent media reports claim the U.K. government may be planning to change that.
Aides to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said Friday they believe additional emergency broadband funding has a good chance of making it into the next COVID-19 package, even if the Senate doesn’t take up the House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act. HR-6800 includes an $8.8 billion Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund and $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059). They spoke during a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., filed the Rural Broadband Acceleration Act (HR-7022) Thursday in a bid to speed disbursing funds from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction before its start date. The FCC plans to begin the first phase of the 10-year, $20.4 billion RDOF Oct. 29. Some stakeholders want RDOF Phase I to be delayed, but no change is likely (see 2004280055).
Prospects for advancing legislation on allocating proceeds from the FCC’s coming auction involving of spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band have become increasingly doubtful after more than two months in which negotiations were largely in stasis due to Capitol Hill's shift in priority to the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers and communications sector officials said in interviews. Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., and Democratic backers of C band remain interested in pressing forward. Republicans on the House and Senate Commerce committees believe the time for pursuing legislation has largely passed given FCC moves to advance the auction. Wireless and satellite interests cited concerns with the FCC's order in petitions for reconsideration filed Wednesday (see 2005270031).
President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Thursday “pertaining to social media,” a White House spokesperson told reporters Wednesday evening. Another spokesperson previously indicated Trump would sign the order Wednesday night. The White House didn’t provide details on what the EO would do.
House leaders reached a deal over the long weekend to allow a vote on an amendment to the Senate-passed version of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring (USA Freedom) Reauthorization Act. HR-6172 from Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, would bar law enforcement agencies from reading Americans’ internet browsing history without a warrant. The House Rules Committee is expected to meet Wednesday to set plans for debating and voting on HR-6172 and the amendment. A floor vote is expected Thursday. The Senate amended HR-6172 earlier this month with language to provide some additional oversight of Foreign intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance programs but not the text from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., preferred by some privacy advocates (see 2005140061). Lofgren hailed House leaders for agreeing to hold a vote on her HR-6172 amendment, which is similar to the Wyden-Daines proposal. “Without this prohibition, intelligence officials can potentially have access to information such as our personal health, religious practices, and political views without a warrant,” Lofgren said Tuesday. She touted the support of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif. His office didn’t comment. Free Press Action Government Relations Director Sandra Fulton said that "passing the bill with this amendment in it would be a tremendous milestone in curbing abuses under the Patriot Act and other surveillance authorities." The House “should overwhelmingly support the Lofgren-Davidson amendment and bring home this meaningful privacy protection for their constituents,” said Demand Progress Senior Policy Counsel Sean Vitka.