Recap: Senate National Broadband Plan Oversight Hearing

On April 14, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to review the National Broadband Plan released by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller said, "In this new century, universal broadband service is the promise of a fair shot at economic opportunity. It is the promise of educational equality and affordable health care. And it opens the door to participate in our democratic dialogue with dignity, no matter who you are or where you live. I am going to challenge the FCC to make the hard choices that will help bring broadband to every corner of this country. Putting ideas on paper is not enough. Just seeking comment on a slew of issues is not enough. It's action that counts."

Ranking Member Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) called on the FCC to reject calls to impose new regulations on the Internet. "In my judgment, if the FCC were to take the action Chairman Genachowski and his colleagues appear to be considering, reclassifying broadband without a directive from Congress and a thorough analysis of the facts and the potential consequences to investment, the legitimacy of the agency would be seriously compromised. I hope that we can take a step back to consider the consequences of such a decision and whether there are alternatives we can work together on to clarify the authority of the FCC while preserving an environment that encourages investment. I am confident we can find common ground, but that will not happen if the FCC takes this action."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was the only witness at the hearing. He testified, "Altogether, 93 million Americans are not connected to broadband at home, including 13 million children. And 14 million Americans do not have access to broadband where they live, even if they want it. The important point is to act on the challenges and opportunities of broadband. I believe this essential mission is completely consistent with the Communications Act, and I can assure the Committee that our actions will be rooted in a sound legal foundation, designed to promote investment, innovation, competition, and consumer interests."

Chairman Genachowski did not say whether he supports classifying broadband service as a Title II telecommunications service to clarify the FCC's authority over insuring an open and accessible Internet, but he said he does not agree that the commission lacks authority under the Title I information services regulatory regime broadband is currently regulated under.

Senate Republicans blasted the proposals in the National Broadband Plan for being too heavy-handed. "The plan begins by saying the government should play a limited role in the ... ecosystem but then comes up with dozens and dozens of recommendations to do the exact opposite," said Sen John Ensign (R-NV). He said the plan clearly states that technology and consumer preferences are changing too quickly to make accurate predictions. "But then the plan spends the next 300 pages making predictions in order to justify it's 200 or more recommendations." Sen Hutchison added that the FCC's plan to reclaim some spectrum from television broadcasters is "unfair." She's also "disappointed" there are not more incentives for investment in the plan.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), co-sponsor of network neutrality legislation, used his time questioning FCC Chair Julius Genachowski to trash Republican calls for "light touch" Internet regulation. "I'm not a big fan of the light touch; I don't want overregulation, for sure, but... 6, 8, 10 years of willful blindness by referees is no way to deal with the free marketplace," he thundered.

Non-discrimination has existed in telecommunications statutes for 70 years, said Sen Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), to ensure against unjust and unreasonable discrimination. "Innovation has been compatible with non-discrimination" until the FCC in 2005 put a stop to it by reclassifying broadband services used to connect to the Internet as "information services," thus freeing them largely from regulatory oversight. She noted that technology evolved, in voice and video, and that innovation wasn't tied to "statutory authority." No one wants to regulate the Internet, she added. We want to leave the Internet as it is.