Bass Aide: No Telecom Bill in 2006

Tad Furtado, a telecommunications adviser to Rep Charles Bass (R-NH) said sharp policy disputes and election-year time constraints mean that a major telecommunications bill will not pass Congress in 2006. Furtado, a panelist at the New England Cable & Telecommunications Association convention in Newport (RI), said a wide policy gulf existed between Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) on rural phone-company subsidies, and the two lawmakers were unlikely to reach a compromise. "Sen. Stevens' interest in passing as part of the telecom bill comprehensive universal-service-fund reform is at direct odds with Chairman Barton's views on USF," Furtado said. "Although there's a small effort in the House Commerce Committee, led by Rep Lee Terry (R-NE), to engage the topic, we have not done the homework or built the record required for such an important topic. So I can't imagine that we will be able to conference a bill where Sen. Stevens is insisting on USF being part of it." Furtado suggested that a bill dealing strictly with cable-franchising issues had some hope. "The franchise stuff -- I think there is middle ground there," he added. But broader legislation, Furtado said, had little chance of success. "I just the think the differences between the Senate and House versions are just too great," he added. Assuming that Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the November elections, Furtado said, "I do think we'll get a bill ultimately next Congress."
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