House Passes COPE

TELECOM MEASURE PASSES IN HOUSE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz@wsj.com]
House lawmakers took a step toward the first major rewrite of the nation's telecommunications laws in a decade, approving a bill that makes it easier for phone companies to get into the cable-television business. The measure, which passed on a 321-101 vote, establishes a national video franchise that would allow phone companies including AT&T and Verizon Communications to bypass local governments when seeking to offer pay TV service. It extends similar rights to cable companies. It also authorizes the Federal Communications Commission to enforce "net neutrality" principles, which require Internet providers to allow consumers to use the Internet as they choose. The vote represents a positive step for the Bells, which have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to pass a bill, but there is still a significant climb ahead. The legislative calendar is shorter than normal this election year and the Senate committee in charge of the telecom rewrite hasn't settled on a draft bill yet. The measure's video-competition provisions have bipartisan support, but Republicans and Democrats remain deeply divided about regulations concerning the Internet. The White House expressed support for the bill last night. But even if the Senate passes a telecom bill this year, a conference with House members to resolve differences in the bills could hit a snag on the issue of the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service for rural or low-income consumers. Democrats argued the bill didn't go far enough to protect the Internet, a position advocated by high-tech companies including Microsoft and Google, which are concerned about the potential of Internet providers establishing a two-tier Internet and requiring corporations to pay more for service. "The bill fails the Internet. It fails the nondiscriminatory history of the Internet," said Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts. An amendment to strengthen Internet protections failed mostly along party lines, although a related measure, which preserved antitrust authority in net-neutrality disputes, was approved. Opponents of the bill complained it would allow cable and phone companies to "cherry-pick" upper-income neighborhoods and encourage red-lining. State lawmakers also raised concerns that the bill will prevent states that have passed statewide video franchises at the request of the Bells from opting out of the federal franchising program.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114981968918275815.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
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* House Backs Telecom Bill Favoring Phone Companies
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/09/washington/09telecom.html

* House Votes to Ease Cable TV Licensing for Phone Companies
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR200606...

* House Vote Is Mixed on Internet
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-neutral9jun09,1,41200...

* House backs bill to help telcos offer TV service
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...

* House Passes Video Franchise Reform
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6342361?display=Breaking+News

* House Clears National-Franchise Bill
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6342364.html?display=Breaking+News

HOUSE BEGINS DEBATE ON NET NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
As the House begins consideration of the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act (HR 5252), Democrats lambasted the telecommunications bill for not including stiff Net neutrality regulations and said they would oppose it unless amendments they favored were adopted. Much of the Democrats' criticism centered on the procedures that the House Republican leadership had chosen to set rules for votes on the telecommunications bill. The leadership has done the following: 1) Permitted Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) to offer his Net neutrality amendment that had been rejected by the House Commerce Committee. It would effectively ban broadband providers from offering a "fast lane" for favored content. 2) Rejected a proposal from the House Judiciary Committee to enforce Net neutrality by extending antitrust law. 3) Allowed an amendment from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) that would preserve the House Judiciary Committee's influence -- without adding extensive Net neutrality mandates. 4) Rejected an amendment proposed by Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) that would have extended Net neutrality principles to major commercial Web sites such as Google, Yahoo and eBay -- on the theory that those sites enjoy near-monopolies of their own. 5) Permitted an amendment proposed by Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) that would explicitly extend "universal service" taxes to companies providing voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.
http://news.com.com/House+begins+debate+on+Net+neutrality+rules/2100-102...

* Summary of Amendments
http://www.rules.house.gov/109_2nd/amendmentsum1092nd/109_2ndamnd_hr5252...

* House Rules Committee Agrees to Network Neutrality Amendments
http://www.drewclark.com/2006/06/house-rules-committee-agrees-to.shtml

* Bracing for the House COPE Vote
http://www.wetmachine.com/totsf/item/527

* 800,000 Americans Are Asking: Protect Internet Freedom
http://www.commoncause.org/

* As the House Votes on Net Neutrality, A Case Study of a Non-Neutral Net/Verizon-Disney’s Broadband Deal Illustrates Power of Telco Powerhouses
[Commentary] Are the concerns raised by Network Neutrality proponents just theoretical? No.
http://www.democraticmedia.org/jcblog/?p=50

* Debate Rages on Video Bill; Net Neutrality Defeated
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6342356?display=Breaking+News