WASHINGTON-With lawmakers back at work, the wireless industry will shift gears to push for passage of pending bills and try to position other legislation for congressional approval in 2000.
Before the House and Senate recessed in August, the industry was forced to play defense against efforts to legislate Pentagon spectrum priority and pro-state numbering policy.
The industry prevailed on both fronts, killing a numbering amendment by Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) and toning down a provision in the Department of Defense authorization act that threatened to shift the balance of power in spectrum management toward the military.
Despite the victories, the two battles signal that the Pentagon and states will be forces to be reckoned with in the future. The House and Senate are poised to vote on the DOD authorization conference report this fall.
Bass’ interest in giving states more area-code clout parallels with his pro-local antenna-siting bill.
Despite picking up added bipartisan support from Reps. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Bass has had no luck getting his bill on the House Commerce Committee’s radar screen. That is unlikely to change.
Likewise, a more ambitious tower-curbing bill penned by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will no doubt get the silent treatment from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.). The Leahy bill would repeal the health-related pre-emption provision in the 1996 telecom act and earmark $10 million for mobile phone-cancer research in fiscal 2000.
Though prospects are dim for the Bass and Leahy bills, the industry will have to be alert for attempts to attach the two measures to other legislation that is moving.
A wild card that could give traction to the Bass and Leahy bills is Clinton’s revised executive order in July on federalism that is more to the liking of state and local authorities, who weren’t consulted about a previous federalism order in May 1998.
E911 issues
A top priority for industry is final passage of legislation making 911 the universal wireless emergency telephone number and giving carriers limited liability protection against 911-related lawsuits.
With the Senate and House having passed wireless 911 bills, the question is whether the two bills will be reconciled in conference committee or whether one of the two bills emerge as a favorite of both chambers.
The wireless industry prefers the Senate bill because the liability clause-unlike the one in the House bill-does not give states an opportunity to enact wireless 911 liability laws of their own.
“Obviously, we hope Congress will finally finish its work on 911 legislation,” said Steven Berry, senior vice president for congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Accounting requirements
Elsewhere, Berry said Senate Commerce Committee members Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) may introduce uniform sourcing legislation this fall to simplify accounting requirements of wireless carriers.
Berry said efforts have been made to engage local and state authorities before a bill is introduced. “We want everyone to understand that this is not another version of `Let’s tax the Internet,’ ” he said.
Berry also hinted that CTIA, which is not entirely satisfied with the Federal Communications Commission’s implementation of the 1994 digital wiretap bill, will seek further relief from Congress.
Election politics
But getting lawmakers’ attention on wireless issues could be problematic.
With election 2000 just a year away, the fall session of Congress promises to be heavily political. Indeed, it will be dominated by a big budget battle between Republicans and the White House-a fall ritual that has become so common that it elicits yawns from everyone except the news media.
In addition, the GOP-led Congress could hold hearings on Clinton administration accountability in the 1993 FBI assault on the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, and in the Russian mob money-laundering scheme. Vice President Gore, the Democratic presidential front-runner, could take a hit on the latter controversy.
FCC reform
Congress also is expected to attack the Clinton administration with bills to overhaul the FCC and the National Telecommunication and Information Administration, a unit of the Commerce Department.
House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman McCain plan to introduce FCC reform bills this fall. FCC changes envisioned by Republican lawmakers are expected to go far beyond those proposed by FCC Chairman William Kennard.
FCC reform gives the wireless industry a chance to accomplish on Capitol Hill what it has failed to secure from the FCC: federal deregulation.
“We have been really pushing for forbearance reform,” said Dave Murray, director of legislative affairs at the Personal Communications Industry Association.
Murray said PCIA also is lobbying aggressively for improved wireless access to government buildings as encompassed in legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), a senior member of the Commerce Committee.
While NTIA reform, currently the subject of partisan bickering, could happen this year, Congress will wait until next year to vote on FCC reform.
Elsewhere, GOP and Democratic lawmakers may have more to say on the secret pact crafted by the FCC, the Justice Department and Nextel Communications Inc. The agreement would allow Nextel to buy bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.’s wireless licenses for $2.1 billion.
Some lawmakers already have criticized the deal, which is picking up increased flack from the wireless industry.
Bankruptcy blues
The FCC, for its part, is pinning its hopes on a Senate Commerce appropriations bill that would enable the agency to swiftly recover wireless licenses entangled in bankruptcies-including those currently being litigated by the agency.
With the bankruptcy provision absent from the House Commerce appropriations bill, a fight will occur in conference committee.
The usual suspects
The fiscal 2000 budget is a bit dicey for the FCC, but not just because the House and Senate are eying different spending limits for the commission ($192 million in House; $232.8 million in Senate). It is unclear whether funds will be made available to cover the relocation of FCC headquarters to the Portals.
Meanwhile, Congress appears poised to pass DOD appropriations legislation requiring the auction this year of 36 megahertz from TV channels 60-69. Under a 1997 law, that spectrum cannot be sold sooner than Jan. 1, 2001. The wireless industry is split over the provision.
Despite a Clinton veto threat, Congress also may pass legislation giving Bell Atlantic Mobile the go-ahead to construct mobile phone towers in Rock Creek Park here after five years of trying.
The District of Columbia appropriations bill attempts to do what a Clinton executive order and the 1996 telecom act have not done: foster timely antenna siting on federal lands.
Prospects for Hill action on other wireless issues are murkier.
Hanging in the balance is legislation on privacy, merger reform, encryption, commercial space launch, rural cellular, tax certificates and research and development funding.
Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) are likely to introduce a private wireless bill before Congress adjourns to allow the FCC to assess spectrum lease fees in lieu of selling licenses to the highest bidder.
On another front, GOP lawmakers could lock horns with the administration over fast-track trade legislation and Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization.
