Chairman Walden: Telecom Update Not a Cash Play

House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman and House National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) put the kibosh on the idea that the new Republican push to rewrite the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a thinly veiled attempt to shake down companies for campaign contributions.

During a press call on the push, Chairman Walden said he and full Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) were serious about the effort. "You can file that one away in the trash can," he said. "We've talked about updating these laws every year since I've been around here. We're starting a process to do that, and we're very serious about having a process to do hearings, to do white papers, to allow everybody to have a chance to participate." While Chairman Walden said it was too early to say what is in and out of a telecom law redo, he did say that both retransmission consent and network neutrality are likely topics. "I'm not going to prejudice all of that," he said when asked if it was time to jettison retransmission consent. "We know it's one of the big issues and it's going to get attention." On net neutrality, Chairman Walden added: "How net neutrality quote-unquote is considered will be part of that update."