Incompas Officials Expect Aid Bill, FCC Net Neutrality Shift

Incompas CEO Chip Pickering is hopeful this Congress enacts FY 2021 funding and a COVID-19 aid bill, despite partisan rancor. Group officials told a Thursday webinar they’re monitoring whether the Senate confirms FCC nominee Nathan Simington, plus the impact of a change to a majority-Democrat commission after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Thursday they’re not budging on seeking a major pandemic aid bill similar to what the House passed via two iterations of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act, which included broadband money (see 2009290044). “We're at the same place” on aid legislation as before the election, Pelosi said. “This election was maybe more a referendum on who can handle COVID well than anything else," Schumer said. Biden's "approach was embraced, and that's why we think there's a better chance to get a bill in the” lame-duck session, “if only the Republicans would stop embracing the ridiculous shenanigans that [President Donald Trump] is forcing them to do in the election and focus on what people need.” Trump hasn't conceded the election.

“There needs to be another package," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. "Hopefully, we can get past the impasse we've had now for four or five months and get serious about doing something that's appropriate.”

Incompas is “working with key members” of Congress’ Appropriations and Commerce committees to ensure a potential FY 21 funding omnibus bill and pandemic aid legislation include the group’s “broadband priorities,” Pickering said. He’s hopeful those priorities go in future measures enacted during the Biden administration. Even another continuing resolution to fund government past Dec. 11 would maintain current funding levels for the FCC and other agencies, Pickering said. Senate Appropriations Committee draft FY 21 bills, released earlier this week, seek funding increases for the FCC, NTIA and other Department of Commerce agencies and keep the FTC’s level flat (see 2011100041).

Simington’s Senate prospects remain a “big question mark” after the Senate Commerce Committee’s Tuesday confirmation hearing, said Incompas General Counsel Angie Kronenberg. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., threatened to place a hold on Simington after the nominee said it would be “premature” for him to commit to recuse himself from participating in the FCC’s Communications Decency Act Section 230 proceeding (see 2011100070). Senate confirmation of Simington could set up a situation in which FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has the votes to advance a Section 230 NPRM at commissioners' Jan. 13 meeting, though its prospects would be endangered once Democrats theoretically reclaim the majority, said Incompas Policy Adviser Lindsay Stern.

The FCC would be likely to move quickly on work to reinstate the 2015 reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service in concert with restoring that year’s net neutrality rules, Kronenberg said. That could come via granting a petition for reconsideration of the FCC’s recent order to address questions about the commission’s rescission of the 2015 rules raised by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2019 (see 2010270035), Kronenberg said. Whether the FCC pursues restoration of the rules via a recon petition depends on when the Federal Register publishes the October order, since that would trigger the 30-day deadline for filing such a request. It’s “looking less likely” that Pai “would be able to respond” to a recon petition if he departs the FCC before Biden’s inauguration, as is traditional, Kronenberg said.

The Senate Commerce Committee will consider four telecom-related measures during a Wednesday executive session, including the Ensuring Network Security Act (S-4472). The other measures are the Internet Exchange Act (S-1166), Beat China by Harnessing Important, National Airwaves for 5G Act (S-4803) and Space Preservation and Conjunction Emergency Act (S-4827). The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen, the committee said.