WASHINGTON-House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) intends to unveil legislation shortly that is expected to go far beyond last week’s proposal by the Federal Communications Commission to streamline its merger-review process.
“Clearly, it’s (the FCC proposal) a pre-emptive strike,” said Ken Johnson, Tauzin’s press secretary.
Johnson said the agency has failed to make good on promises to revamp merger-review procedures, which have been sharply criticized within and outside the FCC. “Actions speak louder than words,” said Johnson.
Upcoming legislation to restrict FCC merger review authority is the product of a compromise between two bills introduced last year by Reps. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Chip Pickering (R-Miss.). The new bill will be the subject of a March 14 hearing.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced a bill to rein in FCC merger review authority last April.
Among the complaints are that FCC merger reviews are inconsistent and lengthy and duplicate the Justice Department’s and Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust analyses of telecom deals.
Tauzin, for his part, has said the FCC’s merger review process facilitates corruption in the form of shakedowns and greenmail. FCC Chairman William Kennard has denied any wrongdoing at the commission and has challenged Tauzin to provide evidence to support his claim.
FCC member Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican, has questioned the FCC’s legal authority to review mergers. Furchtgott-Roth said the agency’s oversight is limited to transferring licenses.
“I have been struck about how many people have come up to me in the last 24 hours frankly dismayed about the license-transfer process … As you know, there are tens of thousands of license transfers each year,” said Furchtgott-Roth at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association conference in New Orleans last week.
“We have set up a task force-the so-called merger-review task force-that has nothing to do with merger reviews and everything to do with license transfers,” he stated.
The FCC merger-review plan, publicly outlined by General Counsel Christopher Wright last Wednesday, would have the agency complete most mergers within 180 days.
Wright said while the plan to expedite merger reviews is a draft (which will be subject to public comment), the agency nonetheless is “far along in advancing the commission’s directive.”
Kennard last October called for changes in the way the commission considers mergers.
Wright said the plan to streamline the agency’s merger-review process is part of a broader effort by Kennard to reform the FCC as a whole. But there, too, Tauzin considers Kennard’s blueprint for downsizing the FCC too modest for the post-telecom act era.
Tauzin this year is expected to introduce a far-reaching FCC reform bill, but the measure is unlikely to make it through Congress this election year.
FCC Commissioners Susan Ness, Michael Powell and Gloria Tristani could not be reached for comment.
RCR reporter Heather Forsgren Weaver contributed to this report.
