Something Strange Is Going on With This FCC Reauthorization Bill, and It Isn’t Good

Recently, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 4986 -- a bill that, among other things, reauthorizes the Federal Communications Commission and approves the agency’s funding for fiscal years 2019 and 2020. House passage followed an announcement that the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Commerce Committee had reached an agreement to support the legislation -- framing the bill as reauthorizing the FCC and spurring deployment of 5G wireless networks across the nation.

However, problems with the bill -- specifically in Sections 401 and 402 of Title IV -- are apparent upon closer inspection and warrant serious consideration and revision by the Senate Commerce Committee. As currently written, H.R. 4986 should not be granted unanimous consent in the Senate and should not be included in the fiscal 2018 omnibus spending bill that Congress must pass by March 23 in order to fund the government. Congress should fix the bill’s shortcomings, or strip them out, and permit the other meritorious and uncontroversial provisions to become law. Section 401 will likely diminish the FCC’s ability to address competition and consumer protection issues in the future. It also weakens congressional oversight of the FCC and agency conflicts of interest. These provisions were not even included in the high-level bullet points highlighted by the Senate Commerce and House Commerce leadership press release, and they should be stripped out of H.R. 4986 prior to consideration by the full Senate.