The GOP overcame Democratic opposition to FCC process reform proposals, approving two bills Wednesday in the House Communications Subcommittee. On a party line vote, the subcommittee voted 14-9 on HR-3309, which requires rulemaking shot clocks, cost-benefit analyses and a variety of other process changes. However, Democrats supported HR-3310, a bill that would consolidate many FCC reports and eliminate others. The subcommittee approved that bill by voice vote but said more work needs to be done before the next markup in the full committee.
Democrats slammed FCC process reform legislation due for markup Wednesday in the House Communications Subcommittee. The subcommittee plans to vote on two bills, HR-3309 and HR-3310. Democrats had previously expressed concerns with Republicans’ original draft of HR-3309 (CD June 22 p1). The introduced bill “includes some changes recommended by Democratic staff and expert witnesses,” Democrats said in a staff memo Monday. “Nevertheless, the legislation, as introduced, does not address fundamental concerns identified by various administrative law and FCC experts.” Some proposed reforms “may make sense for internal FCC rules or best practices,” but “there are serious concerns regarding codifying provisions as statutory mandates that apply only to the FCC,” the Democrats said. The subcommittee’s oversight powers are sufficient to address problems, they added. HR-3309 “would dramatically alter standard administrative law practice and procedure, the Democrats said. “These provisions have the potential to undo over 40 years of federal court precedents under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and create uncertainty and confusion for the FCC and interested stakeholders going forward.” The Democrats also strongly objected to proposals to limit the FCC’s ability to make conditions on transactions. They said that would go against the public interest standard. “This rewrite of the existing public interest test for transactions is not merely about ‘process’ but directly shapes the substantive role of the agency in the future,” they said. Democrats said they needed more clarity on HR-3310, a bill that would consolidate many of the FCC’s reports and delete others. “Although Democrats support streamlining FCC’s reporting requirements, several provisions of H.R. 3310 raise questions about the FCC’s statutory authority as well as how the Commission is directed to evaluate the communications marketplace.” The hearing is 9 a.m. in Room 2123, Rayburn Building.
The U.S. government ought to examine the public outreach that was made for the Nov. 9 nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS), an FCC panel said. The Consumer Advisory Committee recommended to the commission that the agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which triggered the first-ever U.S.-wide EAS test, examine the “effectiveness” of outreach. Such a review also should examine communications with people who can’t hear well or can’t see well or who have “dual sensory loss disabilities,” the committee said. It also asked the FCC to start a review of what sort of information was available during the test to people with hearing disabilities. The audio of the test couldn’t be heard on some pay-TV stations and broadcast stations (CD Nov 14 p8). “There were a number of issues uncovered with regard to cable and satellite alerts,” wrote broadcast lawyers on the Pillsbury Winthrop law firm’s blog. Individual radio and TV stations in Oregon “and a number of other locations apparently” didn’t get the test, or had “excessive background audio noise in the test message,” attorneys Scott Flick and Paul Cicelski wrote Friday. Some TV stations received the test’s “video but no audio,” they added (http://xrl.us/bmimij). But “initial reports seem to indicate that the alert was heard in the vast majority of locations, and that the next area to focus on is ensuring that the content of the alert itself is clear and understandable to the public."
The first-ever national emergency alert system test saw glitches at cable operators, DBS providers and commercial and nonprofit radio and TV broadcasters, our survey of those EAS participants and our own research found. The exercise was shortened last week to 30 seconds from three minutes, after the NCTA unsuccessfully sought a delay because many cable encoder-decoder units that pass the alert on couldn’t show video saying it was a test (CD Nov 7 p6). That prompted worries among government and industry officials that viewers would think an actual emergency occurred, but broadcast executives said that didn’t appear to have happened, based on initial reports. All EAS participants have a month and a half to report to the FCC how things went.
No senator broke with party lines in floor debate Wednesday over the FCC’s net neutrality order scheduled to take effect Nov. 20. Republicans universally supported a joint resolution (SJ Res 6) to disapprove the December order under the Congressional Review Act. As expected (CD Nov 9 p4), Democrats lined up against disapproval. Republicans need the support of at least four Democrats when the Senate votes Thursday. The House passed an identical resolution in April, but the White House has threatened a veto if presented with the bill.
An unusual appeal of an FCC Media Bureau order gets a rare hearing Wednesday at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Cablevision and cable programmer Madison Square Garden Holdings appealed last month a pair of bureau orders against the companies and in favor of the two biggest telcos, rather than waiting for the full commission to act. Even rarer, said media lawyers not part of the case, is the New York court’s agreement to hear oral argument on the request for the 2nd Circuit to stay the bureau’s rulings (CD Sept 23 p5). The rulings gave AT&T and Verizon access to HD feeds of two regional sports channels owned by MSG, which used to be part of Cablevision.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, plans to object to the nominations of Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai as FCC commissioners because the commission hasn’t given Grassley documents he wants on LightSquared, Grassley said Thursday. The documents cover communications between the FCC, Harbinger and the White House. Grassley is ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I will object to proceeding to the nomination because the FCC continues to stonewall a document request I submitted to the FCC over six months ago on April 27, 2011, regarding their actions related to LightSquared and Harbinger Capital,” Grassley said in a statement submitted to the Senate record. “During the course of my correspondence with the FCC, the FCC has made it clear that it will not voluntarily turn over documents to the 99.6 percent of the Members of Congress and Senators who do not chair a committee with direct jurisdiction over the FCC.” Grassley said that “sets a dangerous precedent for a federal agency to unilaterally set the rules on how it engages with Congress” and “prevents any meaningful ability for the vast majority of Congress to inform themselves of how an agency works.” Grassley said he previously was successful getting Justice Department documents when he placed a hold on James Cole’s nomination to be deputy attorney general.
Catherine Sandoval, California Public Utilities Commission, named to FCC Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services, replacing Carlito Caliboso, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission … AMC Networks names Tracy Karagianis, ex-GfK Custom Research, senior vice president-chief information officer … Changes at Axcess Ontario: Sean Barry, Ontario County CIO, becomes CEO; Ed Hemminger, ex-CEO, and Geoff Astles, ex-Ontario County Administrator, join board … TiVo names Steve Wymer, ex-aide to Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., director-corporate communications, based in Alviso, Calif. …Lobbyist Registrations: Huawei USA, Monument Strategies, effective Nov. 1.
The FCC proposed to “accommodate requests” for digital FM stations to increase their power level on one of their two sidebands. That would potentially let in-band on-channel radio broadcasters cover more of their analog service area with digital transmissions, without interfering with other stations. “A significant number of FM stations currently are precluded from taking advantage” of the entire tenfold digital power increase to -10 dB allowed by the commission last year (CD Feb 1/10 p7), a Media Bureau public notice said Tuesday: That’s “due to the presence of a nearby station on one but not both of the two” channels that are each one notch away on the dial.
GENEVA -- More spectrum, small cell sizes and more dynamic approaches will be needed to meet consumer demand for mobile services, speakers said at ITU Telecom World. Video delivery has to be optimized for efficient spectrum use, while operators need to be able to dump traffic to fixed backhaul as soon as possible, speakers said.