Scores of Groups Attack House FCC Funding Bill Ahead of Committee Markup
More than 60 groups slammed the House Financial Services FY 2016 appropriations bill and asked the leadership of the Appropriations Committee to eliminate the bill’s net neutrality riders. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee cleared the measure last week despite…
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partisan objections, and a senior Senate appropriator told us he’s inclined to include some similar language (see 1506110046). The House Appropriations Committee is slated to mark up the measure Wednesday. The signers of the letter include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and Writers Guild of America, West. “We ask that you remove in their entirety Sections 628-630 of the Financial Services appropriations bill currently under consideration by your committee,” the groups said in the letter, dated Tuesday. “These sections would gut the Open Internet Order, leaving the American people and economy vulnerable to blocking, discrimination, and other unreasonable practices of gatekeeper broadband providers. These measures, buried in a spending bill that is 150 pages long, constitute a direct rebuke to the millions of people that asked for strong Net Neutrality rules.” The legislation would prevent the FCC from regulating broadband rates, stop any funding of net neutrality until resolution of court challenges and mandate posting of items 21 days before a commission vote. “The Committee has purposefully kept funding for the FCC flat since fiscal year 2012 in hopes that limited resources would encourage the agency to prioritize mission-critical work,” GOP appropriators said in a report on the bill released this week, justifying the steep cut of FCC funding to $315 million for FY 2016 -- about $25 million below what the FCC has received this year and more than $70 million below what the agency requested. “Instead, the FCC has prioritized politically polarizing rulemakings at the expense of the important work the Commission has to do. This is a misguided use of congressionally appropriated funding.” That report also included sections on positive train control, the broadcast TV incentive auction, the revised plan of the FCC to close some Enforcement Bureau field offices, video relay service, the quadrennial review of media ownership rules and the Do Not Call program. “The Committee is disappointed to see that the Commission appears to have few plans to develop additional data or research,” the report said of the FCC’s efforts on its media ownership quadrennial review progress. “The Committee believes that this information is vital to the Review, and expects the Commission develop, announce, and fund a research agenda within 90 days of enactment of this Act. This will ensure that the 2014 Quadrennial Review can be completed on time and consistent with legal obligations.”