House Panel Approves FCC Consolidated Reporting Act

The bipartisan bill “is a step in the right direction towards smarter government in the innovation era,” Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in his opening statement. “Eliminating outdated reports and streamlining existing ones will allow the commission to be more efficient and effective, reducing their administrative burden, and keeping pace with the rapid changes in this critical segment of the market,” he said. The bill is similar to FCC reform legislation (HR-3310) that failed to advance last session (CD March 27/12 p1).

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., described the bill in his opening remarks as a “simple measure that will grant Congress, industry, and consumers timely access to the Commission’s best analysis of the communications landscape at the beginning of each Congress.” Walden sponsored the bill along with Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.

The committee adopted a manager’s amendment by a voice vote to specify that if a new chairman of the FCC is assigned during the last quarter of an even numbered year, the FCC report can be published on the commission’s website and included as an addendum during the first quarter of the following odd numbered year. The manager’s amendment also includes what Walden called a “savings clause” to clarify the bill would not prevent the FCC from producing any additional reports that are within the commission’s authority. Eshoo said the changes included in the manager’s amendment “reflect the feedback of the expert agency and serve to strengthen the overall bill.”

Eshoo offered and then withdrew an amendment to require the commission to study “below-the-line” fees used by wireless and wireline providers and their impact on consumers (http://1.usa.gov/13mUJW1). Eshoo instead asked majority members to work with Democrats to “determine the best way to improve transparency and disclosure for consumers,” she said. “This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This is something that affects all of us -- our families -- it affects consumers across the country,” she said. Eshoo had previously sent letters Thursday to top wireless carriers about billing practices she said were “nickel-and-diming consumers to boost revenue.” Walden told Eshoo on Wednesday that if the companies are not responsive to her letters “we will encourage them to be responsive,” he said. “I'm sympathetic to this,” added Walden. “These are issues we're happy to have a discussion about.”

Walden said Republicans and Democrats continue to disagree about the language in a separate FCC process reform bill that was not considered Wednesday. Last week the Communications Subcommittee approved the FCC Process Reform Act (http://1.usa.gov/14aYTMc), which would require the agency to consider market forces before regulating, publish its decisions promptly, create “shot clocks” for resolving agency matters and allow more than two commissioners to discuss commission business without issuing an ex parte report, among other reforms. Eshoo said at last week’s subcommittee markup she’s opposed to “any provision that guts the FCC’s ability to protect the public interest in media and telecom mergers.”

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai commended the committee’s approval of HR-2844, in a statement following the vote. “The FCC’s reporting requirements are numerous, burdensome, and sometimes obsolete,” he said. “Replacing these disparate obligations with a single biennial communications marketplace report will make better use of limited commission resources. It will also provide Congress and the public with a comprehensive and far more useful set of data that better reflects the realities of today’s converged marketplace,” he said.