[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 30, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H3230-H3234]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION CONSOLIDATED REPORTING ACT OF 2012
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 3310) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to consolidate
the reporting obligations of the Federal Communications Commission in
order to improve congressional oversight and reduce reporting burdens,
as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3310
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Communications
Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2012''.
SEC. 2. COMMUNICATIONS MARKETPLACE REPORT.
Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et
seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
[[Page H3231]]
``SEC. 14. COMMUNICATIONS MARKETPLACE REPORT.
``(a) In General.--In the last quarter of every even-
numbered year, the Commission shall publish on its website
and submit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on the
state of the communications marketplace.
``(b) Contents.--Each report required by subsection (a)
shall--
``(1) assess the state of competition in the communications
marketplace, including competition to deliver voice, video,
audio, and data services among providers of
telecommunications, providers of commercial mobile service
(as defined in section 332), multichannel video programming
distributors (as defined in section 602), broadcast stations,
providers of satellite communications, Internet service
providers, and other providers of communications services;
``(2) assess the state of deployment of communications
capabilities, including advanced telecommunications
capability (as defined in section 706 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 1302)), regardless
of the technology used for such deployment, including whether
advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to
all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion;
``(3) assess whether laws, regulations, or regulatory
practices (whether those of the Federal Government, States,
political subdivisions of States, Indian tribes or tribal
organizations (as such terms are defined in section 4 of the
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25
U.S.C. 450b)), or foreign governments) pose a barrier to
competitive entry into the communications marketplace or to
the competitive expansion of existing providers of
communications services;
``(4) describe the agenda of the Commission for the next 2-
year period for addressing the challenges and opportunities
in the communications marketplace that were identified
through the assessments under paragraphs (1) through (3); and
``(5) describe the actions that the Commission has taken in
pursuit of the agenda described pursuant to paragraph (4) in
the previous report submitted under this section.
``(c) Special Requirements.--
``(1) Assessing competition.--In assessing the state of
competition under subsection (b)(1), the Commission shall
consider all forms of competition, including the effect of
intermodal competition, facilities-based competition, and
competition from new and emergent communications services,
including the provision of content and communications using
the Internet.
``(2) Assessing deployment.--In assessing the state of
deployment under subsection (b)(2), the Commission shall
compile a list of geographical areas that are not served by
any provider of advanced telecommunications capability.
``(3) International comparisons and demographic
information.--The Commission may use readily available data
to draw appropriate comparisons between the United States
communications marketplace and the international
communications marketplace and to correlate its assessments
with demographic information.
``(4) Considering small businesses.--In assessing the state
of competition under subsection (b)(1) and regulatory
barriers under subsection (b)(3), the Commission shall
consider market entry barriers for entrepreneurs and other
small businesses in the communications marketplace in
accordance with the national policy under section 257(b).''.
SEC. 3. CONSOLIDATION OF REDUNDANT REPORTS; CONFORMING
AMENDMENTS.
(a) ORBIT Act Report.--Section 646 of the Communications
Satellite Act of 1962 (47 U.S.C. 765e; 114 Stat. 57) is
repealed.
(b) Satellite Competition Report.--Section 4 of Public Law
109 34 (47 U.S.C. 703) is repealed.
(c) International Broadband Data Report.--Section 103 of
the Broadband Data Improvement Act (47 U.S.C. 1303) is
amended--
(1) by striking subsection (b); and
(2) by redesignating subsections (c) through (e) as
subsections (b) through (d), respectively.
(d) Status of Competition in the Market for the Delivery of
Video Programming Report.--Section 628 of the Communications
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 548) is amended--
(1) by striking subsection (g);
(2) by redesignating subsection (j) as subsection (g); and
(3) by transferring subsection (g) (as redesignated) so
that it appears after subsection (f).
(e) Report on Cable Industry Prices.--
(1) In general.--Section 623 of the Communications Act of
1934 (47 U.S.C. 543) is amended--
(A) by striking subsection (k); and
(B) by redesignating subsections (l) through (n) as
subsections (k) through (m), respectively.
(2) Conforming amendment.--Section 613(a)(3) of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 533(a)(3)) is amended
by striking ``623(l)'' and inserting ``623(k)''.
(f) Triennial Report Identifying and Eliminating Market
Entry Barriers for Entrepreneurs and Other Small
Businesses.--Section 257 of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 257) is amended by striking subsection (c).
(g) Section 706 Report.--Section 706 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 1302) is amended--
(1) in subsection (b)--
(A) in the last sentence, by striking ``If the Commission's
determination is negative, it'' and inserting ``If the
Commission determines in its report under section 14 of the
Communications Act of 1934 that advanced telecommunications
capability is not being deployed to all Americans in a
reasonable and timely fashion, the Commission''; and
(B) by striking the first and second sentences;
(2) by striking subsection (c);
(3) in subsection (d), by striking ``this subsection'' and
inserting ``this section''; and
(4) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (c).
(h) State of Competitive Market Conditions With Respect to
Commercial Mobile Radio Services.--Section 332(c)(1)(C) of
the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(c)(1)(C)) is
amended by striking the first and second sentences.
(i) Previously Eliminated Annual Report.--
(1) In general.--Section 4 of the Communications Act of
1934 (47 U.S.C. 154) is amended--
(A) by striking subsection (k); and
(B) by redesignating subsections (l) through (o) as
subsections (k) through (n), respectively.
(2) Conforming amendments.--The Communications Act of 1934
is amended--
(A) in section 9(i), by striking ``In the Commission's
annual report, the Commission shall prepare an analysis of
its progress in developing such systems and'' and inserting
``The Commission''; and
(B) in section 309(j)(8)(B), by striking the last sentence.
(j) Additional Outdated Reports.--The Communications Act of
1934 is further amended--
(1) in section 4--
(A) in subsection (b)(2)(B)(ii), by striking ``and shall
furnish notice of such action'' and all that follows through
``subject of the waiver''; and
(B) in subsection (g), by striking paragraph (2);
(2) in section 215--
(A) by striking subsection (b); and
(B) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (b);
(3) in section 227(e), by striking paragraph (4);
(4) in section 309(j)--
(A) by striking paragraph (12); and
(B) in paragraph (15)(C), by striking clause (iv);
(5) in section 331(b), by striking the last sentence;
(6) in section 336(e), by amending paragraph (4) to read as
follows:
``(4) Report.--The Commission shall annually advise the
Congress on the amounts collected pursuant to the program
required by this subsection.'';
(7) in section 339(c), by striking paragraph (1);
(8) in section 396--
(A) by striking subsection (i);
(B) in subsection (k)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by striking subparagraph (F); and
(ii) in paragraph (3)(B)(iii), by striking subclause (V);
(C) in subsection (l)(1)(B), by striking ``shall be
included'' and all that follows through ``The audit report'';
and
(D) by striking subsection (m);
(9) in section 398(b)(4), by striking the third sentence;
(10) in section 624A(b)(1)--
(A) by striking ``Report; regulations'' and inserting
``Regulations'';
(B) by striking ``Within 1 year after'' and all that
follows through ``on means of assuring'' and inserting ``The
Commission shall issue such regulations as are necessary to
assure''; and
(C) by striking ``Within 180 days after'' and all that
follows through ``to assure such compatibility.''; and
(11) in section 713, by striking subsection (a).
SEC. 4. EFFECT ON AUTHORITY.
Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act
shall be construed to expand or contract the authority of the
Federal Communications Commission.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Louisiana (Mr. Scalise) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Matsui) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana.
General Leave
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and insert extraneous material into the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Louisiana?
There was no objection.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, we're bringing forward H.R. 3310, the FCC Consolidated
Reporting Act. If you look throughout
[[Page H3232]]
the many different requirements that the FCC has, and the number of
reports--this is just a small stack of the reports that FCC has been
required to bring to Congress just in the last 2 years. Many of these
reports not only place tremendous burden on the industry groups that
have to provide this data, but many times, because of the way that
they're structured, by the time the report is issued, the data is
outdated and really doesn't look at any broad spectrum issues. They're
mostly specific to an industry and a specific area of an industry
instead of looking at the entire marketplace.
So what we're doing with the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act is
actually bringing forward a measure that reduces the size of government
and actually reins in the heavy hand of government and takes eight
different annual reports and consolidates them into one consolidated
biannual report. And so you're taking eight reports that in many cases
are outdated by the time they're released; and, in some cases the FCC,
even though they're required to produce this data annually, because the
reports are so burdensome on industry and on the FCC, they're not even
able to produce these reports annually. In many cases, we've had
reports that are due annually that haven't been submitted to us since
2009. So we're actually making a much more commonsense approach to this
reporting system.
In addition to that, we're actually repealing some of the
requirements that are still on the books--laws that Congress has passed
over the last few decades that are not even required anymore by FCC or
other agencies yet are still on the law books. And so we're cleaning up
a lot of those.
One of those I'll give as an example is we're still requiring a
competitiveness report to be produced with the wire-line telegraph
industry. I don't know anybody since Samuel Morse invented that
technology in the 1800s that is still using that technology on a broad
scale. But surely Congress doesn't need to still have on the books a
requirement that we have a report submitted by the FCC on
competitiveness in the wire-line telegraph industry.
So this bill is a bipartisan approach to remove so many unnecessary
requirements on our job creators who have to have compliance
departments to comply with all these requests from the FCC; and, in
many cases, they're getting these requests, and they know that when
they submit this data the reports that they're submitting the data for
aren't even going to be produced annually. And when those reports come
out, they're going to be outdated, yet you still have to have massive
compliance departments to go and gather all this information.
I think it makes much more sense for us to tell our job creators
that, instead of having these massive compliance departments to do
unnecessary work, that dollar would be much better spent going out and
creating jobs and building out those wireless networks that people all
across this country so desperately need.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3310, the Federal
Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2012. This bill
consolidates various technology-specific competition reports the
Federal Communications Commission is required to make to Congress into
a new, single communications marketplace report that will be submitted
to Congress every 2 years.
The FCC is required to assess the state of competition, deployment,
as well as regulatory barriers to market entry and competition in the
communications marketplace, taking into special consideration Internet-
based competition. I support efforts to streamline the FCC's reporting
requirements, and I am pleased the committee majority, led by
Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Walden, worked with
Democrats to improve the legislation throughout the markup process.
These improvements include the adoption of an amendment offered by
Ranking Member Eshoo that would ensure the FCC continues to have the
ability to consider all forms of competition in producing the
communications marketplace report.
H.R. 3310 seeks to reduce the reporting burdens Congress had
previously imposed on the FCC while encouraging the agency to analyze
competition in the communications marketplace in a much more
comprehensive way.
Under Chairman Genachowski's leadership, the FCC has accomplished
numerous reforms aimed at improving agency process. The FCC has
improved the number of notices of proposed rulemakings that contain the
full text of proposed rules from 38 percent to 85 percent.
Additionally, the FCC has reduced average time between Commission vote
and release of full text of the decision from 14 calendar days to 3
calendar days. In addition, the FCC voluntarily complied with President
Obama's Executive order in conducting retrospective analysis of the
Commission's existing rules. During the process, the FCC has eliminated
over 200 obsolete regulations, including the Commission's elimination
of 25 data collections as part of the Data Innovation Initiative.
Looking ahead, the FCC has a major task in implementing the public
safety and spectrum provisions of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job
Creation Act. Specifically, the Commission will be undertaking arguably
the most complex spectrum auction in history through an incentive
auction of the broadcast spectrum. Congress must work closely with the
FCC to ensure the auction's success.
As a cochair of the bipartisan Federal Spectrum Working Group, I'm
hopeful that we'll have the opportunity to work closely with the FCC
and the NTIA and other relevant agencies in identifying underutilized
Federal and commercial spectrum for repurposing.
Mr. Speaker, our Nation continues to face a spectrum scrunch,
particularly as more and more Americans opt for advanced technology and
mobile devices and applications. We must ensure that we meet future
demand.
Finally, I want to applaud the FCC's recent efforts ensuring that all
Americans have access to the communication tools they need to be
competitive in the 21st century economy.
{time} 1720
Today, one-third of Americans have not adopted broadband, and these
numbers are particularly high among lower-income Americans, seniors,
rural Americans, residents of tribal lands, and people with
disabilities.
The commission recently approved responsible reforms to parts of the
Universal Service Fund, including the creation of pilot programs to
promote broadband adoption. These pilot projects will help make
broadband more affordable for lower-income Americans and address other
challenges to broadband adoption, including digital literacy and the
cost of devices.
I commend the FCC for these efforts, and I look forward to working
with the commission when these pilot projects are announced.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), a member of the committee
and subcommittee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and I do rise to
support the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting
Act. It's a commonsense piece of legislation, much like Mr. Walden's
process reform bill for the FCC that was passed in this House in March
on a bipartisan vote.
The FCC Consolidated Reporting Act, as Mr. Scalise said, will
streamline eight annual and triennial FCC reports into one single
biennial communications marketplace report. The effect is to ease some
of the reporting obligations while providing the FCC a better platform
to analyze the converged nature of today's competitive communications
marketplace.
It's important to get the reporting in check because the FCC has
control over one-sixth of our Nation's economy. This legislation would
simply bring back some efficiency and transparency to an agency that is
clearly lacking in both categories. We need to redirect the FCC away
from its antiquated approach to regulatory policymaking. A streamed and
consolidated reporting system that better reflects today's competitive
marketplace is necessary to help in this process, especially for those
who understand that
[[Page H3233]]
we need wholesale change and deregulation at the Nation's leading
communications governing agency.
I support the legislation to simplify the FCC's reporting measures. I
encourage my colleagues to support the legislation.
Ms. MATSUI. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield 3
minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the chairman of the
Telecommunications Subcommittee.
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Scalise for his
leadership on this issue, and I want to thank Ms. Matsui for hers as
well, and for the work that we are all doing on the subcommittee to
improve the processes and procedures at the FCC, bring about
efficiencies and accountability, and look for Federal spectrum that
might be freed up to help grow jobs and spur innovation in America.
This particular piece of law, as we move it forward, H.R. 3310, gets
about trying to reduce some waste. It really starts with Congress
because this is all stuff that is in statute that we have to change.
Believe it or not, the Communications Act still requires the Federal
Communications Commission to assess the state of telegraph--telegraph--
competition. This is not just unhelpful; it's a waste of taxpayer
funds. The American public expects and deserves an efficient Federal
Government that keeps pace with changes in the market, and this bill
helps get us there.
Rationalizing the industry reports the FCC issues not only reduces
some of the FCC'S administrative burdens but also helps make sure that
the agency, the public, and stakeholders have a realistic picture of
the marketplace upon which to make their policy judgments.
The communications and technology sector is very competitive. It's
very innovative. It's creating jobs, and it's one of the most open
sectors of our economy. From fiber optics to 4G wireless service, from
the smartphone to the tablet to the connected TV, this sector has been
creating new services, new devices, and the high-quality jobs that come
with high-tech innovation and investment.
Despite even a lackluster economy, wireline, wireless, and cable
providers invested $66 billion of private capital in broadband
infrastructure in 2011. The U.S. is leading in cutting-edge wireless
technologies. Industry convergence has led to a boom in competition;
voice, video, audio, and data providers are competing across different
platforms. And the market is simply moving faster than the law. Despite
the convergence of the industry, the FCC is still required by law to
evaluate stove-piped industry segments each year. For example, they
have to write two reports each year on the satellite industry and two
reports on the cable industry, and yet it is one market and there
should just be one report covering both.
The FCC Consolidated Reporting Act consolidates eight separate
congressionally mandated reports on the communications industry into a
single comprehensive report with a focus on competition among
technology platforms, deploying communications to unserved communities,
eliminating regulatory barriers, and empowering small businesses.
The marketplace report is synched to the congressional calendar.
That'll improve our oversight abilities, and it'll help reduce costs.
The bill also eliminates 12 additional outdated reports from the
Communications Act, including reports repealed more than a decade ago.
The bill is bipartisan, and it's supported by CTIA, NAB, NCTA,
USTelecom, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and I urge my colleagues
to join in this bipartisan piece of work out of your Subcommittee on
Communications and Technology and pass it into law.
Ms. MATSUI. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3310, the FCC Consolidating
Reporting Act of 2012. I commend the author of this legislation and
fellow member of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, Steve
Scalise of Louisiana, for his work on this issue. And I also applaud
the work of subcommittee chairman Greg Walden, who ensured that we
moved this legislation through regular order.
H.R. 3310 consolidates eight congressionally mandated studies into a
single report with a focus on intermodal competition, deploying
communications to underserved and unserved communities, eliminating
regulatory barriers, and empowering small businesses. This legislation
will also make the FCC more efficient by eliminating a number of
duplicative, repealed, or outdated reports that are still listed in
statute. For example, in the 21st century, it is simply not necessary
for the FCC to provide the report on competition between wire telephone
and wire telegraph providers. Think Morse code.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3310 passed the full Energy and Commerce Committee
by a voice vote on March 6, 2012. It will alleviate the unnecessary and
antiquated reporting standards and replace them with an analysis of the
21st century marketplace and its demands on the telecommunications
industry. This legislation represents solid policy. I urge my
colleagues, support H.R. 3310.
Ms. MATSUI. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Stearns), the chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee.
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill. It streamlines,
as mentioned, eight separate congressionally mandated reports into one,
a single comprehensive report.
As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigation, as Mr. Scalise mentioned, I, along with Chairman Walden,
have looked into the backlog and workload of the FCC. In a report we
released in November, we found that annual reports to Congress, such as
the Satellite Competition Report and Video Programming Report, have not
been completed in years. This is just disconcerting, particularly since
the Telecom Act of 1996 was designed with a deregulatory slant--
requiring the FCC to conduct these competition reports to determine
whether regulation was indeed necessary. How can the FCC appropriately
make these decisions and regulate an industry it has not
comprehensively analyzed in more than 4 years? This bill is aimed at
reducing some reporting burdens on the FCC to ensure that these annual
reports are just that--they are simply reported annually.
At the same time, this bill encourages the agency in today's age of
convergence to analyze competition in the marketplace as a whole,
rather than based on archaic technology-specific silos. We no longer
need to consider the Internet, satellite, and cable industries in a
vacuum, as they compete head to head in most markets across this
country.
{time} 1730
In 1992, when we passed the Cable Act, cable occupied about 96
percent of the market. The FCC's most recent data cable now only
occupies about a third of this market, competing with FIOS, satellite,
Netflix, and the Internet. The report that looks at the marketplace as
a whole will inform both the FCC and Congress more sufficiently, and
it's a long time due. Therefore, I hope my colleagues will join me in
supporting this important legislation, and I appreciate its authors.
Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 3310 is a step forward to
further ensuring transparency by requiring consolidation of various
telecommunication reports by the FCC.
As broadband continues to play a critical role in our economy, it is
important that we fully understand any and all barriers to Internet
services while continuing to allow the Internet economy to grow and
innovate.
Again, I want to thank my colleagues on the Energy and Commerce
Committee for working in a bipartisan manner on this bill. I urge my
colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of
my time.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from
California for the bipartisan work that she's done on this legislation.
Especially, I want to thank Chairman Upton and Chairman Walden for
allowing us to bring
[[Page H3234]]
this bipartisan legislation forward that takes a commonsense approach
to so many reports and requirements that are placed on industry and the
FCC, frankly, that require a whole lot of work to produce reports that
are outdated before they're even filed. The job of government and
regulators should not be just to make companies go and do busy work, to
file reports just for the sake of building up reams and reams of papers
that nobody can read and nobody can really do anything with because the
data is not useful.
So what we're doing with this legislation is taking eight reports--
eight reports that all look at very specific sector areas, but don't
really tell a picture of what's happening in the industry--and we
consolidate those into one report rather than annual, a biannual, and
reducing a lot of requirements on business that just have to have these
compliance departments because when they're asked by the FCC to provide
data, they've got to go provide it, even though they know this data is
not going to be used, and in some cases the data is not going to be
useful in the context of the report that's going to be filed.
In addition to that, we often hear about all of the laws that are
passed in Congress. People say why don't you go and repeal laws that
have been sitting on the books for decades that serve no purpose. So we
actually do that too with this bill. We go and repeal 12 different
reports that are no longer used. As the example has been given a number
of times, the telegraph report that is still a law that's on the books,
we repeal that as well.
So it's a commonsense approach that tells the people that are out
there building this infrastructure, building these wireless networks
that so many people, millions and millions of people, in our country
use every single day to improve their lives, their quality of life--and
frankly the effectiveness of the job creators and our small businesses
out there--and it says you don't need to have massive compliance
departments to comply with things that nobody reads. You can actually
go out and use those resources to create more jobs, to build out that
network so that we can do even more innovative things with the
technology we have today and that we'll have in the future.
With that, I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 3310, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, Americans have demanded a more efficient
government that eliminates outdated and unnecessary bureaucracy; a
government that takes a hard look at the market before deciding to
regulate it--in short, a government that works. The FCC Consolidated
Reporting Act accomplishes those goals, all at no cost to the taxpayer.
Today, the FCC is required to write eight separate reports on
discrete components of the communications marketplace. Eight separate
reports multiplies the number of hours the FCC spends writing reports,
multiplies the number of employees working on such reports, and
multiplies the number of times industry has to respond to information
requests from the Commission.
The FCC Consolidated Reporting Act takes a smarter approach. It
consolidates these eight reports into a single, comprehensive report on
the state of the communications marketplace, and eliminates twelve
other reports from the Communications Act.
I want to thank Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman
Greg Walden and Representative Steve Scalise for working on this
important legislation. I support it, and I urge my colleagues to
support it as well.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, although, H.R. 3310 is intended to
streamline the Federal Communication Commission's reporting
requirements. There are concerns that FCC's statutory authority on data
collection could be affected and certain pertinent reporting
requirements could be eliminated.
H.R. 3310 would consolidate eight separate reports of the FCC into a
single comprehensive report in order to reduce the reporting burdens on
the FCC while encouraging the agency to analyze competition in the
marketplace as a whole. I believe that this bill is not only
unnecessary but harmful to the process especially since under Chairman
Genachowski many reforms have been made to address the issues the
Republicans have indicated they want to fix.
While the FCC has sufficient existing authority to collect data for
statutorily required reports, the language contained in Sec. 4 could be
construed as denying the Commission its ordinary data collection
authority with respect to certain provisions of the bill.
While I support the general intent of the bill to streamline FCC
reporting requirements, I did not support it at committee level in its
present form and no significant changes were made to improve the bill
before it was brought to the House floor.
I urge my colleagues not support this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 3310, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________