Closed-door telecom overhaul

On June 18, Members of Congress were to debate broadband regulation. Apparently, top lobbyists from the major Internet service providers, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast were invited to participate. Less clear was whether Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski was invited to the table.

Subsequent meetings will be scheduled to examine broadband deployment and spectrum policy and will include a different set of stakeholders. The chairmen of the authorizing committees announced last month that they want to begin rewriting the Communications Act of 1934, which was last overhauled as the Telecommunications Act of 1996 after a lobbying battle that dragged on for years. But the chairmen enter the negotiations already clashing with Republicans over whether legislation is needed. House Commerce ranking member Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) wrote the Democrats last week saying "we do not see any urgency to legislate." The move to update communications law follows an April appeals court decision that thrust into uncertainty the bounds of the FCC's legal authority to regulate broadband issues, including whether it has the muscle to enforce network neutrality rules.