Lawmakers' Advancement of Broadband Mapping Bills Seen Aimed at Shaping FCC Order

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other telecom-focused lawmakers are expected to move on legislation to improve FCC broadband coverage data collection process despite commissioners' planned Aug. 1 vote on a yet-to-be-released order on producing more-granular maps (see 1906120076). Officials and lobbyists believe further advancement of legislation like the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (S-1822) could influence the direction in the pending order.

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday he “would love rural broadband” to become more widely deployed and his administration is still “working on it.” Trump would “love to have” congressional Democratic leaders “come back and talk about infrastructure” funding and other policy matters. More than a month earlier, Trump abruptly halted talks with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and others on ways to pay for additional broadband and other infrastructure projects because of ongoing investigations into his administration (see 1905220076).

“It's not too early to start thinking through” the path forward on S-1822 given many lawmakers' concerns about the accuracy of broadband data the FCC has collected via its much-maligned Form 477 process, Wicker told us just before Congress' weeklong Independence Day recess. The issue came up repeatedly during telecom policy-related hearings (see 1905150061). S-1822 would require rules to collect more “granular” broadband coverage data and create a “user-friendly challenge process” allowing participation by consumers, governments and others (see 1906130029).

Wicker said he'll follow the FCC's progress on its coming order but believes Congress should continue to move on legislation to clarify lawmakers' expectations for the commission and other federal agencies' future collection of broadband data. Senate Commerce is to mark up S-1822 during a Wednesday executive session (see 1907030054). The committee in May also advanced Wicker's Broadband Interagency Coordination Act. S-1294 would direct the FCC, NTIA and Agriculture Department to sign a memorandum of understanding to coordinate on broadband funding (see 1905150065).

“Our understanding is it's full speed ahead” in Congress to advance broadband mapping legislation, starting with Senate Commerce's markup of S-1822, said Competitive Carriers Association Senior Vice President-Legislative Affairs Tim Donovan. “We haven't seen any slowdown” in Hill activity on the issue in the weeks since Pai first announced plans for the August order. Donovan said that was shown partly by expectations for introduction of a “similar” House companion to S-1822 “in the very near future.”

A “bipartisan group of rural members” of the House Commerce Committee is expected to lead filing of the S-1822 companion and is “working hand in hand with the committee and leadership,” said a telecom industry lobbyist. The House Agriculture Committee's Commodity Exchanges Subcommittee is also expected to weigh in on mapping during a Thursday rural broadband hearing. That panel is to begin at 10 a.m. in 1300 Longworth.

House Commerce members have also been vocal critics of the FCC's broadband mapping (see 1904030067), but that hasn't received the same level of attention from the committee until recently, the lobbyist said. “Every senator has rural parts of their state,” while not every House member does, which makes inaccurate mapping an inherently higher priority for senators. “I don't think there's been any difference” in House members' interest in highlighting broadband mapping, but they have delayed bringing the issue to the forefront because House Democratic leaders chose to concentrate initially on securing the chamber's passage (see 1904100062) of the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644), the lobbyist said. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, in May led filing of the Broadband Mapping After Public Scrutiny (Maps) Act (HR-2643). Broadband mapping-centric amendments were included in the House-passed version of the FY 2020 budget bill that includes funding for NTIA and Agriculture Department (see 1906210001).

Senate Commerce appears likely to advance S-1822 on a voice vote, but the amount of support is unclear in either chamber in relation to other broadband bills, lobbyists said. Current measures include the Broadband Data Improvement Act. HR-3162/S-1522 would direct federal funds to build out broadband infrastructure and require broadband providers to report more accurate data on the locations they serve to help improve the national broadband map (see 1905160087). “I'd be surprised if Congress could push something through both chambers” and get Trump's signature before the FCC votes on the coming order, but “they're still very useful in capturing things that the FCC and others should be thinking about as they tackle mapping issues,” said NTCA Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs and Business Development Mike Romano.

“Congress is giving the FCC indications of which direction they'd like to see” it go in reshaping its mapping, Romano said. “No one knows yet what the FCC will do” in its August order “but I suspect [the commission] is at least aware of what Congress is thinking on this.” S-1822 and other broadband mapping bills “are helpful in the FCC's own consideration of the record” as commissioners and staff consider “where they might want to go both in the near term and in the longer run,” Romano said. The FCC could use the process to have a “constructive conversation with Congress” if commissioners choose to move differently than Congress is eyeing, he said.

S-1822 appears to favor the NCTA-backed polygon shapefile approach to submitting provider broadband data, which “is cheaper and quicker to implement than” USTelecom's location fabric proposal but “would provide less granular data,” said R Street Institute Technology Policy Manager Tom Struble. Cable and telco officials don't believe the NCTA and USTelecom proposals are mutually exclusive and say both could add valuable data to broadband maps (see 1906280059). “These dueling proposals both seem good on the merits,” but the FCC will need to weigh their respective benefits and costs, Struble said. “I'd like to see the initial report from the FCC” on the two proposals “before Congress steps in.”