Tillis, Blackburn Team Up To Tackle Municipal Broadband; Legislation Likely Imminent
Bicameral municipal broadband legislation is on the way. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., are preparing to introduce legislation on municipal broadband, likely following Capitol Hill’s recess next week, industry officials told us.…
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The White House and FCC have outlined intentions to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal networks, and stakeholders in North Carolina and Tennessee have petitioned the FCC to pre-empt their state laws. The FCC will consider those petitions at its Feb. 26 meeting. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has led an effort on Capitol Hill with his own bill, proposing that Congress pre-empt those restrictive state laws (see 1501220042). Tillis and Blackburn are both former state lawmakers and have slammed the idea of federal pre-emption in the past. Blackburn introduced a provision that passed the House last Congress that would have stopped the FCC from pre-empting those state laws, but the measure never advanced in the Senate. A different telecommunications industry lobbyist not familiar with the Blackburn-Tillis bill told us he suspects any new legislation would be along the same lines as what Blackburn introduced in the last Congress. Spokespeople for Tillis and Blackburn didn’t comment in response to multiple inquiries over the past week about possible pending legislation.