House Commerce Committee Approves FCC Report Consolidation Bill

The House Commerce Committee's first order of business in the first markup of the new Congress was to approve, by voice vote and without amendment or opposition, a bipartisan bill to consolidate eight separate Federal Communications Commission reports to Congress, including the FCC's Section 706 report, into a single report on the state of the communications marketplace. The bill reinforces that Sec 706 is an explicit grant of broadband authority as signaled by a DC federal appeals court in the Verizon case, but Rep Steve Scalise (R-LA), who co-authored a manager's amendment to that effect, said that was not because he agreed with that decision, but because he wanted to separate the bill from the net neutrality-related debate over that authority.