WASHINGTON-The House telecommunications subcommittee voted last week to downsize the Federal Communications Commission and remove travel restrictions on FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.
The bill now goes to the Commerce Committee, which is expected to approve it and send it to the House floor before adjourning for the year in two or three weeks.
“I believe that increasing the competitive nature of the marketplace allows this Congress to further decrease the role of the federal regulator,” said subcommittee Chairman Jack Fields (R-Texas), presiding over perhaps his last markup before leaving Congress.
The measure does not abolish the FCC as some advocate, but would eliminate outdated regulations left over from the monopoly environment and automate or privatize routine agency functions. A newer program-pioneer’s preference-did not escape the ax.
Within six months after enactment, the FCC would be required to file an interim report with Congress on how it plans to streamline operations. A final report would be submitted six months later.
While the bill was not supposed to be a vehicle for technical changes to the telecommunications reform bill, enacted on Feb. 8, or for extraneous riders, it happened anyway.
After opposition, Rep. Scott Klug (R-Wis.), key author of the antenna siting provision, withdrew an amendment to restore rural cellular licenses to three lottery winners who were disqualified for having limited foreign participation on their boards. Klug and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) argued that the new telecom law allows such board representation.
But Fields and John Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking minority member of the Commerce Committee, said to retroactively apply the new telecom law would invite charges of political favoritism.
“Keep us out of it,” said Dingell.
Dingell, for his part, wiped out his own amendment to keep the FCC’s Hundt from travelling more than 50 miles outside Washington, D.C. The move, aimed at punishing Hundt for his handling of a children’s television issue, was apparently not well received by Republicans or Democrats.
Indeed, Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), said in a statement he regretted “efforts to use the legislative process as a petty attempt to make political statements or to express dissatisfaction with matters not before us.”
Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio), ranking majority member of the panel, won approval of an amendment to slightly ease foreign ownership restrictions that largely remain in place due to Sen. Ernest Hollings’ (D-S.C.) objection to a free trade provision that Oxley added to the telecom bill before House-Senate conferees dropped it to save the legislation.
The panel approved Rep. Rick White’s (R-Wash.) amendment banning the FCC from regulating the Internet.
Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) urged the contract requiring the FCC to move its headquarters to The Portals be reviewed in light of the high costs involved and the agency’s reluctance to relocate there.
At $38 a square foot, Coburn said the move could cost $80 million and would be contrary to the belt-tightening objectives of the bill. He said a competitive bid was not used to select The Portals by the General Services Administration.
