It’s not for lack of trying that Congress hasn’t overhauled the Communications Act since 1996. In December, House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., outlined plans to update the landmark telecom law -- initial stakeholder comments posted online Wednesday (CD Feb 6 p8) (http://1.usa.gov/1dsVahV), hearings and white papers in 2014, a bill in 2015. They are hardly the first lawmakers to say they want to transform the act, which marked its 18th anniversary Saturday. Former staffers and congressional leaders involved in past attempts told us why recent high-profile efforts, such as in 2006 led by Republicans and in 2010 by Democrats, failed to succeed and what those experiences might portend for House Republicans now.
The FCC got lots of advice on process reform (CD Dec 6 p3), as part of an initiative being overseen by Diane Cornell, special counsel to Chairman Tom Wheeler. How much progress Wheeler will be able to make and what might come out of reform efforts is a big question mark, said industry sources including numerous former FCC officials. The full FCC is slated to get an update from Cornell at Thursday’s meeting.
The partial federal government shutdown, in its fourth day Friday, is raising varying levels of anxiety among members of the communications bar. The shutdown’s effects rippled through the Washington area last week, giving most federal workers an unexpected, possibly unpaid, vacation, and raising some fundamental questions for those whose business is dealing with the government. Further adding to problems lawyers face, the FCC unexpectedly took almost all filings and other documents offline for the duration of the shutdown, a much more draconian response than many federal agencies (CD Oct 3 p2).
The partial federal government shutdown, in its fourth day Friday, is raising varying levels of anxiety among members of the communications bar. The shutdown’s effects rippled through the Washington area last week, giving most federal workers an unexpected, possibly unpaid, vacation, and raising some fundamental questions for those whose business is dealing with the government. Further adding to problems lawyers face, the FCC unexpectedly took almost all filings and other documents offline for the duration of the shutdown, a much more draconian response than many federal agencies (WID Oct 3 p7).
An FCC rulemaking on potential changes to the federal E-rate program has touched a political nerve in a Washington, where the debate takes place against the backdrop of a bigger fight between Republicans and Democrats over entitlement reform. The NPRM, teed up for a vote Friday, builds on a June speech by President Barack Obama urging the commission to make high-speed Internet available to enough schools and libraries to connect 99 percent of American students (CD June 7 p7).
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said work on the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum is moving forward as well as could be expected. Genachowski is pleased the agency has launched a critical debate headed into an auction that could start as early as next year, he said in an interview Friday as he prepared to leave the commission. Genachowski, a friend of President Barack Obama, chaired the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Policy Working Group during the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, and has been on the job since June 2009.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell leaves office expressing some concerns about work left undone, especially on rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum and media ownership reform. McDowell, a commissioner since 2006, was a surprise choice when nominated, but was viewed as a top candidate for chairman if Mitt Romney was elected president last year. Like Chairman Julius Genachowski he plans to leave Friday, leaving behind a 2-1 commission. McDowell said Tuesday his first stop will be the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economics of the Internet, where he will be a visiting fellow.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said there is “plenty of blame to go around” but the current data on the program “doesn’t paint a picture of success,” in his opening remarks. He said the Lifeline fund grew 226 percent since 2008 and, in 2012, the FCC spent $2.2 billion on the program. “Specifically, it spent $2.2 billion of your money, my money -- virtually every American’s money -- since the Lifeline program and the entire Universal Service Fund is paid for through a charge on phone bills,” he said. “We are spending large sums of money and probably squandering much of it.”
Commenters generally supported a process proposed by the FCC Wireline Bureau to let parties challenge census blocks misidentified by the National Broadband Map (NBM). The process would let parties challenge census blocks identified as eligible to receive Connect America Fund Phase II support, when the parties argue they're actually unserved by an unsubsidized competitor. Cable and wireless ISPs offered some tweaks to the process. USTelecom and several rural associations offered alternative proposals that would involve recommendations by state authorities.
The FCC mass-media agenda may be light in 2013, compared with work on USF and spectrum issues that will take up much of the eighth floor’s and many bureaus’ and offices’ attention, commission and industry officials predicted in interviews last week. They said Media Bureau staff may find the new year sharpens their focus on spectrum, with Chairman Julius Genachowski hoping to finish an order for the voluntary incentive auction by the end of next year. He would need rules for how to change the channels of stations that don’t agree to sell all or some of their frequencies.