WASHINGTON-Key GOP and Democratic lawmakers last week lambasted Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) plan to add broadcast auction language to debt ceiling legislation, a reaction that represents a widening schism in Congress between telecommunications and budget policymakers over jurisdiction of the lucrative public airwaves.
The House and Senate could consider legislation as early as this week to raise the debt ceiling by March 15, a move needed to avert a first-ever government default.
McCain’s proposal is under review by Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.), despite the struggling Republican presidential front-runner’s agreement earlier this month to let telecommunications reform legislation move forward in exchange for promises from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) and House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) to hold hearings on the broadcast auction issue this year.
The FCC also vowed not to grant digital TV permits until the issue is resolved.
The wireless telecommunications industry favors broadcast TV auctions, having paid nearly $9 billion already for new narrowband and broadband personal communications services licenses and fearing the prospect of spectrum fees if the government falls short of auction revenue projections.
With ongoing C-block PCS and 900 MHz specialized mobile radio auctions having netted an additional $7 billion, wireless industry leaders argue broadcasters also should pay to transfer from analog to digital.
Yet, industry brass had to tone down support for Dole after it appeared the telecommunications bill might unravel over the broadcast auction controversy and thereby threaten antenna siting and other important wireless provisions in the landmark rewrite of the Communications Act of 1934.
“I don’t think much of that [auction-debt ceiling linkage],” said Senate Majority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.). “I think to deal with spectrum as a budget number is a mistake,” added Lott. “We have jurisdiction in the Commerce Committee. We have a responsibility. We have people with expertise. Let’s really take a look at it.”
Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), another influential telecommunications policymaker who sits on the House Commerce panel, is equally distressed by McCain’s initiative. “I have some discomfort with the idea that every time the budgeters need more revenue they turn to our committee for money for the spectrum auction,” he remarked.
Oxley continued, “It is absolutely imperative that we set the policy based on good public policy in regard to spectrum and that the revenue should be a secondary reason why we would do that.”
McCain’s plan does not sit well with Democrats either.
“I think that’s ill-advised and probably something we should not do,” said Sen. John Breaux (D-La.). “There’s a commitment made by a lot of people [to hearings] and the full Congress should better understand what we’re doing with this issue as opposed to just sticking it onto a must-pass debt ceiling bill.”
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking minority member of the House telecommunications subcommittee, also opposes attaching a broadcast TV auction rider to debt ceiling legislation. He said authorizing committees rather than “budget Shiites” should address the issue after ascertaining digital TV spectrum requirements.
“If they’re [broadcasters] only going to use one sixth of that spectrum, which is all they would need to deliver the same quality picture as they do today, and then reserve the other five sixths for paging, cellular or other purposes, well that’s another story,” said Markey.
Despite the criticism, it is hard to gauge whether McCain’s efforts might have broader appeal to a frustrated GOP-led Congress that desperately wants a seven-year balanced budget deal to salvage the centerpiece of its agenda.
Moreover, Dole himself could find it hard to dismiss McCain’s entreaty in light of pressure from conservatives to put broadcast spectrum, wildly estimated to be worth $11 billion to $70 billion, on the auction block.
A separate budget measure to raise $15.3 billion by 2002 through expansion of the Federal Communications Commission’s auction authority is a casualty of the failed budget talks. If enacted, private wireless spectrum would be subject to competitive bidding as commercial wireless spectrum has been since 1993.
The broadcasting industry says auctioning its spectrum will doom free over-the-air TV, a message it propagated in Washington’s two major daily newspapers last week.
