House Communications Subcommittee leaders are expected to broadly frame a Friday legislative hearing on supply chain security and spectrum bills as a bid to secure the U.S. role in leading 5G development. The bids come from two distinct angles -- ensuring the telecom infrastructure is protected from national security threats of Chinese equipment manufacturers and other potential bad actors, and ensuring continuity in federal management of spectrum. Lawmakers will examine seven measures during the hearing, which is set for 9:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
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
Leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees are optimistic about the potential for progress on several of their top telecom policy priorities when Congress returns in mid-October from its upcoming two-week recess, including work to marry House and Senate-passed anti-robocall bills and an upcoming House package of broadband mapping legislation. And Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., voiced his willingness to compromise on some aspects of Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization. Congress is to recess at the end of this week and both chambers will reconvene Oct. 15.
Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., isn't backing down from his push to enact the FY 2020 funding bill for the FCC and FTC with report language on spectrum policy matters, despite pushback from Senate Commerce Committee leaders (see 1909230065). The funding bill report, which the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced last week, would pressure the FCC to hold a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. It also addresses the debate over opening up the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use (see 1909190079). Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., asked Senate Appropriations to remove the report language because it impinges on Commerce's jurisdiction. Kennedy told reporters he talked with Wicker about the concerns but hasn't actually read the letter. “I stand by” including the C-band and 6 GHz language in the bill report “and I intend to fight to keep it in,” Kennedy said. “Last time I checked, the FCC was under the jurisdiction of” Senate Appropriations Financial Services. “This is taxpayer money we're spending” and “if the FCC decides not to do” a public auction of the C-band spectrum, “they have a moral and a legal obligation to explain precisely to the American people, in plain English, why they want to do a private deal.” He previously criticized the C-Band Alliance's proposal for a private auction (see 1907190051).
House Commerce Committee members are expected to file a trio of bills Tuesday in advance of a planned Friday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on supply chain and spectrum legislation (see 1909200058), communications sector lobbyists and officials told us. The Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act is expected legislation (see 1909120003) being spearheaded by House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. It would provide funding to rural carriers to remove equipment originating from companies that may be a security risk, including Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE, lobbyists said. The Studying How to Harness Airwave Resources Efficiently (Share) Act would direct the FCC and NTIA to come up with a plan for sharing the 7 GHz band between federal incumbents and commercial users, lobbyists and officials said. The bill envisions the two agencies creating a plan similar to that used for sharing the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, officials said. The third bill focuses on promoting data sharing related to cybersecurity breaches of networks' security, officials said.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., oppose “telecommunications policy provisions” the Senate Appropriations Committee included in its report on the chamber's version of the FY 2020 FCC-FTC budget bill, including language to shape FCC spectrum policy. Senate Appropriations voted unanimously last week to advance the FCC-FTC bill with report language to pressure the FCC to hold a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band (see 1909190079). Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., meanwhile, is sticking by his decision to maintain CPB's annual funding at $445 million in its draft FY 2020 bill (see 1909180058).
Several House committee leaders said Friday they're optimistic about Facebook's willingness to cooperate in the chamber's ongoing probes involving the top social media platform, after meetings with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Those talking with Zuckerberg Friday included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee leaders. Zuckerberg met with President Donald Trump and several senators Thursday (see 1909190072). Zuckerberg continued to decline to talk to reporters Friday. House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., told reporters Zuckerberg “made a commitment to cooperate with” the House Judiciary Committee's probe of tech sector antitrust (see 1906110072). Cicilline had criticized Facebook, Google and Amazon executives for being unprepared or evasive in answering questions during a July House Antitrust hearing (see 1907230055). “I look forward to [Zuckerberg's] cooperation," Cicilline said. “I take him at his word.” House Judiciary's investigation will include “document requests, requests for information, participation in a number of different ways,” Cicilline said. House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., was also optimistic about Zuckerberg's willingness to help, after an earlier meeting that also included McCarthy and House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. Zuckerberg was “appreciative” of some House Judiciary members' aim of gathering information instead of “coming at it from an angle of 'Here's what we have to solve,'” Collins said. “He wants to have his company be in business and do the things that they want to do, but he's also very sensitive to the notions of privacy and bias and other things that people have concerns about.” Schiff told reporters his meeting with Zuckerberg focused on election interference on Facebook. Zuckerberg “appreciates the gravity” of lawmakers' concerns about deep fakes, or false and misleading material like altered videos of politicians and others (see 1906130048), Schiff said. “I wanted to raise my profound concern about the issue of deepfake technology and how it might be used to disrupt” the 2020 presidential election. Facebook is “very aware of the threat that it poses,” Schiff said. “They are in the process of developing what I hope will be very strong policies on this.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 Thursday to advance to the floor its Financial Services FY 2020 budget bill with report language to pressure the FCC to hold a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. The measure, which the Financial Services Subcommittee cleared Tuesday, would allocate $339 million to the FCC and its Office of Inspector General and $312.3 million to the FTC (see 1909170060). The House-passed equivalent (HR-3351) allocated the FCC the same funding level but gave the FTC $349.7 million -- $37 million more than Senate Appropriations proposes (see 1906260081).
A planned Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on supply chain security and spectrum legislation is likely to focus on an expected bill aimed at helping smaller carriers address equipment on their networks that may be a security risk (see 1909120003), Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., told reporters. The hearing targets legislation “to root-out suspect network equipment nationwide and explore ways to improve coordination and management of spectrum resources to better serve the American people,” said Doyle and House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., in a statement. The panel is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn. Pallone has been leading work on coming legislation expected to provide funding to rural carriers to remove equipment from Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE (see 1907220053). House Communications aims to use “regular order” for advancing all of its legislation, “and the first step would be hearings and then markups, so it's reasonable to assume that if we have a hearing, then a markup can't be too far behind,” Doyle said. The hearing is unlikely to touch much on legislation on repurposing spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band for 5G, Doyle said. “We're not there yet” on legislation marrying elements of his own draft bill and the Wireless Investment Now in (Win) 5G Act (HR-4171) from House Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif. “I'm for a public auction and getting as much” of the C-band spectrum “sold as we can,” Doyle said.
Some Senate Indian Affairs Committee members voiced skepticism Wednesday about the extent of FCC efforts to improve outreach to tribal governments to improve those entities' access to spectrum. The hearing focused on GAO's 2018 findings in its committee-sought study on tribal spectrum access. That report found deficiencies in FCC outreach, and the commission said at the time of the study's November report it would follow through on the recommendations (see 1811140069). Senate Indian Affairs members last year criticized what's seen as deficiencies in FCC practices for determining broadband coverage on tribal lands (see 1810030055).
The report on the Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee-cleared FY 2020 budget bill, which includes funding for the FCC and FTC, has language aimed at pressuring the FCC to hold a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band, subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., confirmed to us Tuesday. Some communications lobbyists expected the funding bill to include C-band language (see 1909160062). The subcommittee advanced the measure to the full committee on a voice vote. The full bill text and report isn't publicly available and won't be released until after the full committee marks it up Thursday.