Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2012

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.

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.

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

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this data, but many times, because of the way that they're structured, by the time the report is issued, the data is outdated and really doesn't look at any broad spectrum issues.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 And so you're taking eight reports that in many cases are outdated by the time they're released; and, in some cases the FCC, even though they're required to produce this data annually, because the reports are so burdensome on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.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), a member of the committee and subcommittee.

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. Speaker, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), the chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee.

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

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

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.