Boucher Lists Satellite, USF, Privacy as Top Legislative Goals

“We are already starting conversations … and will very quickly move” to conduct oversight of NTIA on its structure and standards for broadband grant making, Boucher said. “Our hope” is that there will be coordination between NTIA and the Department of Agriculture, which both received stimulus funding for broadband. The goal is ensuring that the programs complement one another, he said.

One important focus of the oversight will be how it addresses the open access requirements, Boucher said. For now, he sees “no urgency” for Congress to legislate on net neutrality because there hasn’t been evidence that carriers are planning two-tiered fast-lane and slow-lane service offerings that caused so much concern a few years ago. And the FCC has been able to manage problems that have arisen, such as the BitTorrent complaint against Comcast. But if misbehavior arises that would change, he said.

Broadband providers generally have been on good behavior, Boucher said, so with no emergency requiring legislation there’s “an opportunity for a conversation with broadband providers and content originators to “seek an understanding … as to what are the proper network management practices.” Boucher said he has “encouraged those conversations” and he urged the sides three years ago to seek common ground: “Those conversations are still going on.”

The Senate Communications Subcommittee is starting to gear up its agenda in the new Congress, according to an e- mail from Chairman John Kerry’s office. The Massachusetts Democrat said he hopes this Congress can “finally make good on the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation to construct an interoperable public safety network. We need to look at innovative approaches for using the public airwaves.” Overseeing the digital transition will require “resources and oversight,” he said. “And as we move through a time of economic distress for so many American families, we need to make sure that consumer interests are protected.”

The satellite bill is a must pass measure, Boucher said. “Processing that bill will be our first priority,” he said. The two House hearings last week provided a first glance at how opinion is lining up. Issues for the Commerce Committee include whether there should be changes to distant signal regulations to allow markets that do not receive all networks to import local affiliates, rather than bringing signals from larger cities. “This promotes localism,” Boucher said. A second issue is whether Congress should mandate that all 210 designated market areas have local-into-local service.

“At the moment there is no agreement,” Boucher said. “The broadcasters have taken the position that all 210 markets should be carried but they're not willing to endorse any adjacent market opportunities,” he said. At the same time, satellite is saying “give us adjacent market opportunities” but don’t mandate local-into-local for all 210 markets. Boucher said he’s interested is Dish Network CEO Charles Ergen’s proposal that satellite carriers be exempt from a requirement to uplink signals for a nationally syndicated program, such as Home Shopping Channel, to 30 different markets. Ergen’s suggestion that the signal be carried once and made available to everyone “seems to be sound,” but there is no agreement yet on which direction the legislation will go.

Meanwhile the House Judiciary Committee’s focus will be on compulsory licensing issues. Boucher said he doesn’t agree with the Copyright Office’s proposal to phase out of individual licensing, thus leaving it up to each carrier to negotiate directly with content owners for rights to programming. “I do not support” that change, which would be too difficult to manage, Boucher said, because multiple conversations would have to take place, making it an administrative impossibility for carriers to directly negotiate with all of the copyright owners.” His subcommittee is doing research to identify how many parties would be involved should the system change.

“Priority No. 2, for me, will be universal service reform,” Boucher said. Legislation that Boucher has worked on over the past four years with Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., will be a “starting point” for the start of new legislative efforts, he said. The bill won a number of endorsements in the last Congress, including AT&T, Qwest and Embarq. Boucher said he’s in negotiations with Verizon to gain their support. The original bill will need to be updated to take into account changes in technology and business plans, he added. A hearing is planned March 12.

A third top goal is a measure ensuring privacy protection for Internet users, Boucher said. “My principal goal is to encourage more people to use electronic commerce,” Boucher said. Many people are hesitant to use the Internet because they don’t know what information is being collected and how it will be used, he said. The legislation will work out terms that will ensure users get “full knowledge” on use of their personal data, and that they have some measure of control. Boucher has worked in tandem on previous bills with subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns of Florida.