Southern Pennsylvania community leaders and stakeholders said House Small Business Rural Development Subcommittee members should consider changes to federal broadband programs, during a Monday hearing in Gettysburg. Witnesses cited overlapping FCC and Department of Agriculture mandates on broadband funding and pointed to state-level initiatives as both a positive and negative development. House Communications Subcommittee leaders are working on a combined broadband mapping legislative package that's expected to be filed using Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (HR-4229) as its vehicle (see 1909250063).
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
Lead supporters and opponents of Senate Appropriations Committee-backed pro-public 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band auction language (see 1909190079) in the chamber's version of the FY 2020 FCC-FTC budget bill (S-2524) say they're not budging and expect a long fight. The dispute, which began last month, continued Thursday as Senate Appropriations Financial Services Committee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., and others grilled FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on whether he favors a private auction similar to what the C-Band Alliance proposes. Kennedy and some other lawmakers favor public auction (see 1908230049). Pai is expected to propose a private auction plan for a vote at commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting (see 1910100052).
Top Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls compared and contrasted their positions with a proposal from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to break up big tech companies (see 1904170046), during Tuesday night's debate. The plan also factored into the Democrats' first debate, in June (see 1906270010). Warren defended her “break up big tech plan,” saying she's not “willing to give up and let a handful of monopolists dominate our economy and our democracy.” Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, ex-Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas and others agreed government action is needed to address growing influence of major tech firms but criticized Warren for going too far. “We will be unafraid to break up big businesses if we have to do that, but I don’t think it is the role of a president or a candidate for the presidency to specifically call out which companies will be broken up,” O'Rourke said. Sen. Kamala Harris of California blasted Facebook and Twitter, saying Twitter “should be held accountable and shut down” President Donald Trump's account. “It is a matter of safety and corporate accountability,” she said.
Co-chairs of the Department of Homeland Security Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force urged House Homeland Security Committee members to consider enacting new liability protections and incentives to encourage companies and foreign governments to share information on threats to the supply chain. Committee leaders appeared interested during a Wednesday hearing in further protections. They invoked perceived supply-chain threats posed by Kaspersky Lab and Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is to testify during a planned Thursday Senate Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the commission's spectrum auctions program, a committee aide said in a notice we obtained. Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz and Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams are also to be witnesses. The session will begin at 10 a.m. in 138 Dirksen. Senate Appropriations and the FCC didn't comment. The testimony comes amid a bid by subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., to retain Senate Appropriations-backed language on the chamber's version of the FY 2020 FCC-FTC budget bill (S-2524) on pro-public C-band auction and 6 GHz band spectrum policy (see 1909190079). Kennedy's facing off against Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., who want to nix the spectrum text on jurisdictional grounds (see 1909230065 and 1909270024). Pai is believed to be on the cusp of proposing a private auction of the C band, along the lines of what was proposed by the C-Band Alliance, for a vote at the Dec. 12 commissioners’ meeting (see 1910100052).
Ericsson officials are optimistic about the eventual success of their lobbying Congress on the vendor's proposal for legislation that would require the FCC clear and auction the upper part of the 6 GHz band for exclusive-use licenses, while allocating the lower portion for unlicensed. Other participants in the debate believe such a bill has little chance of passing (see 1910090051). Such legislation would diverge from the direction of the FCC's current 6 GHz NPRM, which looks at opening 1,200 MHz of spectrum in the band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use (see 1810230038). Ericsson’s proposed legislation appears to mirror proposals to the FCC by other wireless industry stakeholders (see 1902190005), though the company is pursuing legislation alone.
Some wireless industry stakeholders in the debate over allocating the 6 GHz band have been lobbying to convince lawmakers to file and advance legislation requiring the FCC move forward with a plan that allows for licensed and unlicensed use of those frequencies, lobbyists told us. Such legislation would diverge from the direction of the FCC's current 6 GHz NPRM, which looks at opening 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use (see 1810230038).
The Senate Commerce Committee is likely to hold an Oct. 23 hearing on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization and may circulate a draft bill before the panel, communications sector lobbyists told us. The committee is “all but certain” to hold the hearing, its second on STELA renewal this year (see 1906050083), but hasn't officially slated it, one lobbyist said. The panel is expected to include witnesses representing DirecTV owner AT&T, which backs recertification, and NAB, which wants Congress to let the law expire, lobbyists said. Senate Commerce didn't comment. The House Communications Subcommittee also examined the STELA debate in June but Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., later acknowledged the issue isn't the subcommittee's top priority (see 1909100064). Senate Commerce leaders are also eyeing circulating a draft reauthorization measure before the hearing, lobbyists said. Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., backs full renewal of the law (see 1902270018) but limits on the committee's jurisdiction mean the draft will likely only address recertifying STELA's language requiring broadcasters and others to engage in “good faith for carriage” of TV stations, lobbyists said. The Senate Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over renewing the law's distant-signal license provision. The draft Senate Commerce measure could also address other ancillary media policy issues lawmakers wish to address via STELA. But lobbyists increasingly believe a straight renewal bill is the most likely outcome given the limited legislative window before the current statute expires Dec. 31.
Industry and consumer group officials continued hoping Monday that lawmakers will reach a bipartisan compromise on net neutrality legislation, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC last week upheld parts of the FCC 2018 order rolling back 2015 reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II (see 1910010018). They didn't stray during a Congressional Internet Caucus Academy event from their longstanding belief that a final statute either should or shouldn't have a basis in Title II and mirror the rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1910010044).
Telecom sector supply chain security and spectrum legislation drew enthusiastic support from House Communications Subcommittee members and witnesses during a Friday hearing, as expected (see 1909260056). They gave no clear guidance during on how they want to proceed on the seven measures the panel examined. Lawmakers focused much of their attention on the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4459) and the Studying How to Harness Airwave Resources Efficiently Act (HR-4462), though they also showed interest in other measures.