Love and money are likely to be the keys to 112th Congress

[Commentary] Welcome to the 112th Congress. Notice anything missing? Like a third of the House Commerce Committee Democrats? Or a Congressional mandate on network neutrality? Or Chairman Boucher? Let's see what all this means.

This year's midterms have put Members on notice that voters are not afraid to fire them. And each party is looking to 2012 to capture complete control of both houses of Congress and the White House. So in the upcoming Congress look for Members to be feverishly competing for two things: love and money. Love in the form of votes (from an unusually angry electorate, eager to hold officials accountable). And money in the form of, well, money, i.e., the ability to spend government funds on their preferred projects (without, of course, looking fiscally irresponsible). As we shall see, both love and money can be found in telecom policy. So it's likely that telecom issues will get considerable attention from Congressional leadership, including precious "floor time" for debate. Issues such as online privacy are likely to be some of the first to be considered.

As to the less romantic but far more practical question of money, telecom policy is one of the few places it can be found. How? Think spectrum auctions. By providing for the sale of spectrum controlled by the government, Congress can generate revenue that can be used either to (a) "offset" any spending priorities Members might push for or (b) pay down debt.