WASHINGTON-Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) last week won the battle to chair the House Commerce Committee as part of a congressional realignment that has pro-wireless industry lawmakers heading key committees in the 107th Congress, a scenario partially offset by the prospect of legislative gridlock borne from the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the House and a power-sharing struggle in the Senate.
Tauzin fought Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio) for control of the House Commerce Committee, which oversees the telecom industry and other business sectors. Oxley has been in Congress fewer years than Tauzin, but has more seniority than Tauzin as a Republican member of House Commerce Committee.
Tauzin, a strong supporter of wireless 911, tax, billing, privacy and radio spectrum reforms as chairman of the telecommunications subcommittee, switched to the Republican Party in 1995.
To settle the feud, House GOP leaders gave Tauzin the Commerce Committee but diluted its jurisdiction in order to create a new Financial Services Committee that Oxley will head. The new panel incorporates the House Banking Committee and expands its reach by giving it oversight of the insurance and securities industries that until now were under the Commerce Committee.
“The GOP’s wholly partisan decision to move jurisdiction in the Commerce Committee relating to securities, financial markets and insurance industries to the Banking Committee is misguided and asinine,” howled Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.). Dingell chaired the House Commerce Committee for years before the Democrats lost the House to the GOP after the 1994 mid-term election.
“FCC reauthorization and reform will be one of our top priorities,” said Ken Johnson, a Tauzin spokesman. Last year, Tauzin and Republican colleagues on the House Commerce Committee-particularly Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio)-laid the foundation for restructuring the FCC.
Johnson said the committee will also pursue broadband Internet competition.
“He understands the issues and he’s worked hard to ensure America maintains its edge in the high-tech sector,” said Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
Commerce Committee and subcommittee assignments are still in flux, but will be settled in the next week or so.
“Billy will be a very aggressive chairman, introducing a lot of bills and moving a lot of legislation for the leadership,” said Johnson.
Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association, said the wireless industry will benefit from having Tauzin and Oxley chairmen of key committees.
“I think high on the list for Congress and the FCC is resolution of the spectrum issue. Along with that, there’s some real concerns about the economy,” said Kitchen. The buildout of third-generation mobile communications systems, noted Kitchen, will require access to capital. He said Oxley’s familiarity with the wireless industry and oversight of the financial services panel makes the Ohio lawmaker well suited for making policy.
Elsewhere, Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), a freshman lawmaker from Silicon Valley, could make an impact on the wireless industry. Honda said he believes lawmakers must give a high priority to 3G wireless technology, which needs more spectrum for voice, high-speed data and multimedia applications. Honda told RCR Wireless News last week he wants to establish a 3G task force in Congress.
“My immediate objective is not to create a bill but to create dialogue and discussion to develop a consensus on what 3G is,” said Honda. Honda said he has been hearing and reading about 3G, and is worried policy makers “may jump forward with the best of intentions and create more problems.”
In the Senate, John McCain (R-Ariz.), an ardent telecom deregulator, returns as chairman of the chamber’s Commerce Committee. McCain was one of the few lawmakers to vote against the 1996 telecom act, believing it was too larded with regulations. Asked last week whether he intended to reopen the telecom act, McCain hesitated, and then said such issues will be addressed in FCC reauthorization and reform legislation.
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), who survived a tough re-election fight, will do the bidding for rural America again as chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee.
Though telecom and high-tech issues are viewed as nonpartisan, moving legislation generally in Congress this year could be tough. The GOP has a narrow majority in the House, while a 50: 50 split exists in the Senate. Republicans will chair Senate committees, but the makeup of panels will be equally divided between Republicans and Democrats under a power-sharing scheme whose details were still being negotiated on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Bush-Cheney transition continued last week. Industry insiders were pleased Commerce Secretary-nominee Donald Evans flagged 3G and spectrum management as priorities. FCC Commissioner Michael Powell remains virtually the only name mentioned for chairman in the Bush administration.
Alan Shark, president of the American Mobile Telecommunications Association, said he is worried less about a Powell FCC than about the Bush administration pursuing a broad deregulatory agenda that could hurt small business communications providers.
“You need to tinker. Traditionally, Republicans have not been good tinkerers. … Market forces alone do not always work,” said Shark. In recent years, the FCC has exempted small- and medium-sized dispatch radio carriers from federal mandates imposed on mobile-phone carriers and others.
Separately, President-elect Bush met in Austin last Thursday with high-tech executives-many of whom contributed to his campaign-to garner support for his proposed $1.3 trillion tax cut and to solicit views from the digerati.
With high-tech stocks tanking on Wall Street, Bush is well positioned to argue that a massive tax cut will help stimulate the struggling economy. Several high-tech leaders said improved education is needed to create a strong, skilled work force.
