Eshoo Backs ‘Clean’ STELA Reauthorization
House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said she would prefer a “clean” reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA), which is set to expire Dec. 31, 2014. “We don’t want the effort to become a Christmas tree with many things dangling off of it,” she said in an interview for C-SPAN’s The Communicators scheduled to be televised this weekend. “If there are some issues that are proven to be legitimate to be married to this bill, we should have hearings about that.” She echoed House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who previously said he too would prefer a clean reauthorization of the law, during another C-SPAN interview (CD May 24 p3).
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The FCC should make an effort to design the broadcast incentive auction in way that permits small- and medium-sized companies to buy spectrum, Eshoo said. “The idea that big fish swallow up little fish -- I don’t think [that] is healthy for our economy,” she said. “When you look at the market in this country, 80 percent of the beach front, the most valuable spectrum … is owned by the top companies. So if anyone were to suggest that that is acceptable, I don’t think so.” Eshoo dismissed calls from her Republican colleagues on the House Commerce Committee for the FCC to design the auction in a way that maximizes revenue. “We do need some of the resources that flow from the auction in order to fund a very important policy goal, which is” FirstNet, she said. “If the only way we approach this is that this is a cash cow, then the country will be losing out.”
Eshoo said she backs the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be FCC chairman. “I don’t think there are very many who could compete” with Wheeler’s background, she said. “You want someone that is experienced with a deep and broad understanding of the industries and issues that are attached to those industries.” Eshoo said the lack of a Republican nominee to replace former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell could potentially slow the rollout of the incentive auction.
If the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturns the FCC’s net neutrality rules, Eshoo would introduce legislation to clarify the authority of the agency to protect an open Internet, she said. “The Internet is not something that people want to see carved up among small interests.” Eshoo said there was a “prairie fire” of reaction from Americans to the debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would have implemented new rules regarding copyright infringement via the Internet.
A la carte video legislation could have some unintended consequences, Eshoo said. “What I'm genuinely concerned about are some of the smaller niche stations that could be lost in this. … While I understand from a very popular viewpoint that you deconstruct this and people can buy one at a time … there is a reason for that packaging.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recently introduced the Television Consumer Freedom Act (S-912), which aims to encourage video programmers and distributors to offer a la carte video to consumers (CD May 10 p2). McCain told us this week that he was unsure if the timing was right for the bill (CD June 6 p11).
Eshoo said she supports legislation that would permanently permit consumers to unlock their cellphones. (See separate report in this issue.) “I think what people buy and pay for they should be able to use in whatever way they choose,” she said. “This is the perfect time to address this.” Eshoo is a cosponsor of the Unlocking Technology Act (HR-1892), which would clarify that consumers are permitted to circumvent the technological protection measures that prevent their handsets from being used with other networks. She dismissed the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (HR-1123), an alternative measure offered by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. “Goodlatte’s bill only goes so far,” Eshoo said. “It is a temporary fix.”