House Communications Subcommittee Plans To Eye Broadband Investment This Fall, Aide Says

The House Communications Subcommittee will continue its review of broadband infrastructure investment this fall, said David Redl, GOP chief telecom counsel for the House Commerce Committee, during a Monday panel hosted by the Technology Policy Institute in Aspen, Colorado. “What we can do, in the short term, you saw us start to tee that up in July,” Redl said, citing a broadband investment hearing from last month (see 1507220058). He said this area is “a place where we think the subcommittee in particular can rise above the debate” on FCC reclassification of broadband. “We were really pleased with how the hearing turned out.” Subcommittee Republicans and Democrats have been working together on the policy areas, he said, “on the wired side and the wireless side.” Tower siting is one issue that will continue to receive attention, and spectrum is “perennially on everybody’s mind but gets lost in the shuffle,” he said. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., has mentioned the likelihood of another hearing focused on the General Services Administration pace on tower siting.