Tribal Broadband Deployment Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4986) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to reauthorize appropriations for the Federal Communications Commission, to provide for certain procedural changes to the rules of the Commission to maximize opportunities for public participation and efficient decisionmaking, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today that the House of Representatives is taking up an important bill from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It is titled the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act of 2018, or RAY BAUM'S Act.

I thank our subcommittee chairman, Marsha Blackburn, for her hard work in introducing and moving this legislation forward.

Before I get into the policy side, I want to touch on the meaning behind this bill's title.

H.R. 4986 is a nod to our dear friend, and mine of 30 years, the former staff director of our Energy and Commerce Committee, who recently lost his battle with cancer.

It is a testament of not just Ray's dedication to telecom policy--as you know, he served as public utility commissioner, he chaired the Joint Board with the FCC on communications issues, and was such a policy brain for our committee--but also his ability to work across the aisle and with all levels of government officials. He got good things done for America.

Years ago, when I became chairman of what was then called the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Ray, at my invitation, finally agreed to come back to Washington and work on the committee.

He had served as a State representative and as majority leader of the Oregon House. He had been chairman of the public utility commission in Oregon and brought a lot to our process as senior policy adviser.

In the years that followed, these issues remained both a priority and a passion for Ray, and I believe and I hope our bipartisan work today reflects admirably the kind of commitment he wanted all of us to share in making good public policy.

By the way, that is Ray right there, for those who didn't know.

The RAY BAUM'S Act reauthorizes the Federal Communications Commission. It includes efficiency and transparency reforms for the FCC, and it spurs the development of next generation 5G technologies.

It is good for consumers, and it is good for our Nation's critical telecommunications services.

Importantly, the bill before us today is the product of a bipartisan and bicameral agreement, House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, including my friend from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), Senate Commerce Committee chairman Mr. Thune, and the ranking member in the Senate, Bill Nelson.

Mr. Speaker, we bring you a good product today of sound policy named for a wonderful individual, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of

Representatives,

Washington, DC, March 6, 2018.

Hon. Greg Walden,

Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Walden: I write concerning H.R. 4986, RAY

BAUM'S Act of 2018. This legislation includes matters that

fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on

Transportation and Infrastructure.

I recognize and appreciate your desire to bring this

legislation before the House of Representatives in an

expeditious manner, and accordingly, the Committee on

Transportation and Infrastructure will forego action on the

bill. However, this is conditional on our mutual

understanding that foregoing consideration of the bill does

not prejudice the Committee with respect to the appointment

of conferees or to any future jurisdictional claim over the

subject matters contained in the bill or similar legislation

that fall within the Committee's Rule X jurisdiction.

Further, this is conditional on our understanding that

mutually agreed upon changes to the legislation will be

incorporated into the bill prior to floor consideration.

Lastly, should a conference on the bill be necessary, I

request your support for the appointment of conferees from

the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure during any

House-Senate conference convened on this or related

legislation.

I would ask that a copy of this letter and your response

acknowledging our jurisdictional interest as well as the

mutually agreed upon changes to be incorporated into the bill

be included in the Congressional Record during consideration

of the measure on the House floor, to memorialize our

understanding.

I look forward to working with the Committee on Energy and

Commerce as the bill moves through the legislative process.

Sincerely,

Bill Shuster,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the chair of the subcommittee, who has been an incredible leader on our communications issues on the Energy and Commerce Committee for some time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), who is a talented member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kinzinger), who is a great member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) to speak on this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson), who has been a real leader on telecommunications issues.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello), a very important member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I would concur with my friend's comments. I am happy to work on these issues involving spectrum. I know there are multiple uses around, and we want to make sure that those using these frequencies are not disadvantaged. I look forward to working with the gentleman on that.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), a distinguished member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He also happens to have a pretty important title around here as the whip of the House. He has been very involved in telecommunications policies since he first came on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Louisiana an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg), who has been a very important member of our committee and active on these issues, and he had a provision in this legislation as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from New Jersey for his good work on this legislation and his kind words in memory of our mutual friend, Ray Baum.

I think it would be appropriate, as well, to thank the staff who put so much work into this, including Robin Colwell, Tim Kurth, Sean Farrell, Lauren McCarty, Evan Viau, and Elena Hernandez on the Republican side, and David Goldman, Gerald Leverich, and Dan Miller on the minority side. We thank all of them for working both here and on the Senate side.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to quickly go through the provisions again, because this really is important.

For more than a quarter of a century, the FCC has not been reauthorized. We do that here, thanks to Chairwoman Blackburn's legislation.

Second, we take care of our broadcasters, both public and private, and their translators, including FM translators as well as public broadcasting.

Mr. Pallone has been a long champion of the repack effort and, of course, his SANDy legislation.

You heard from Mr. Scalise on the legislation to consolidate redundant and outdated FCC reports: get rid of the ones we don't need, streamline the rest, and bring efficiency.

Mr. Johnson's legislation to establish an independent inspector general at the FCC, this is just good government we can all embrace.

Congresswoman Mimi Walters' legislation gives the chief information officer of the FCC the authority to play a significant role in planning, budgeting, and programming.

Congresswoman Grace Meng's bill to prohibit spoofing calls or texts originating outside the U.S., plus an 18-month shot clock, is put on the FCC to

conduct rulemaking in this matter. I think we are all kind of getting tired of those spoofs we get on our phones. It looks like they are coming from our hometowns, and it turns out they are not. We are going to try to get to the bottom of this and have the FCC work to do that.

Congressman Guthrie and Congresswoman Matsui's bill to include a spectrum auction deposit fix, this will actually allow future actions to go forward legally. They couldn't do that under existing law because of an interpretation, and so we fixed that. That was very, very important.

Congressmen McNerney and Kinzinger's legislation to require the FCC to report to Congress on promoting internet excess for veterans, we all know how important that is, especially those low-income veterans in our rural communities.

Congressman Loebsack's legislation to improve mapping methodology for mobile coverage, we need to know where we have service in America and where we don't and have numbers we can trust.

Representative Ruiz's legislation is very, very important, dealing with broadband in Tribal areas and carrying out rulemaking to address unserved Tribal areas. We have lots of Tribal areas in our country that lack service.

Anna Eshoo's legislation to provide further improvements on 911 caller information that builds on Kari's Law that we have already approved, that is really, really important.

And, again, Eliot Engel's legislation requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the NTIA, to study and consider how the agency can best coordinate the interagency process following cybersecurity incidents.

It just goes on and on, including Senator Thune's MOBILE NOW Act that will help us move forward on 5G.

So, as you can see, this is comprehensive, thoughtful, well-written legislation on telecommunications, moves our country forward, reauthorizes the FCC, and is a fitting tribute to my friend and our policy leader, Mr. Ray Baum from Oregon.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I also rise in support of H.R. 4986, the RAY BAUM'S Act. This bill is the product of extensive bipartisan collaboration. After exhaustive negotiations, we were able to reach a deal that includes bills introduced by Democrats and Republicans in both the House and in the Senate. That does not happen often, and I would like to thank my colleagues for working with me so closely.

This bill is a real tribute to its namesake, Ray Baum. Ray had a passion for telecommunications policy and a special place in his heart for broadcasting. Ray was also an eternal optimist. He never faltered in his belief that we could find a way to work together to find a solution, and he was right.

We were able to incorporate proposals from Members on both sides of the aisle, just the way Ray would have liked it, and we were able to produce this legislation that will reauthorize the FCC for the first time in 28 years.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to briefly mention some aspects of this bill that I am most proud of. First, we were able to include the SANDy Act, which is named to honor those affected by Superstorm Sandy, a storm that ripped through the Northeast, including my district, over 5 years ago. During that

superstorm, we saw firsthand how important communications were for survival. From television and radio broadcasters to wireless providers and cable networks, each played its own role in making sure people knew how to find help, look for loved ones, and stay out of harm's way.

I used the lessons we learned from Sandy in writing this legislation. When this bill is signed into law, our networks will be stronger, more resilient, and more capable to serve in an emergency.

This FCC reauthorization bill also includes the Viewer Protection Act. I introduced the Viewer Protection Act to make sure no viewer loses signal as a result of the FCC's incentive auction. Access to local information has become even more important as the number of natural disasters has increased over the past few years.

Not only does this bill help ensure consumers' broadcast stations don't go dark, as part of this bipartisan, bicameral deal, we have agreed to provide $50 million in funding to help educate consumers about the transition. This funding is critical to make sure that people have access to information about how to get their televisions to work.

My colleagues will discuss other important aspects of this deal. But before they do, I would like to point out two important provisions that we included as part of the reauthorization. First, we included a provision that makes the FCC's inspector general independent of the Commission's chairman. The IG is currently conducting a number of critical investigations, including one into whether the chairman of the agency has been improperly favoring Sinclair Broadcast Group. But under current law, these investigations are being conducted under a cloud-- the very chairman who is under investigation can obstruct the review by firing the inspector general or his or her staff at any time. So by passing this bill, we are ensuring that these important investigations can conclude without any interference.

Finally, I do not normally support unnecessarily cutting the budget of our agencies. But in this case, I would like to thank my colleagues for agreeing to limit this cut to the length of this administration. The current leadership of the FCC, in my opinion, has proven that it cannot be trusted to serve the public interest. Most notably, the agency has ignored its statutory duty and the call of the American people by destroying our net neutrality protections. Net neutrality safeguards our American values by empowering small businesses, creating new jobs, and ensuring free speech online.

By limiting the resources that we provide for the next 3 years, this reauthorization will limit this Commission's power, in my opinion, to do more harm.

For these reasons and many more, I urge my colleagues to support the bipartisan and bicameral agreement embodied by the RAY BAUM'S Act.

I would like to also thank the Democratic committee staff--David Goldman, Gerald Leverich, and Dan Miller--for all of their hard work in getting this bill to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Michael F. Doyle), who is the ranking member of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Matsui).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McNerney).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Loebsack).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Ruiz).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I just want to say, again, that this bill is a bipartisan bill. There has been a lot of work done on both sides of the aisle. I appreciate the fact that we are able to accomplish this and also include a lot of initiatives from Members on both sides of the aisle. And, again, as a tribute to Ray Baum and all that he did for us over the many years, I am proud to say that we enthusiastically support the bill and urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding and for his leadership working together in a very bipartisan way to bring forward RAY BAUM'S Act. Not only is this piece of legislation important to reauthorize the FCC and the important work that they do, but it also is a fitting tribute

to Ray Baum himself and, in so many ways, to all of the work that our great staffs do to allow this Capitol to work properly and to allow Congress to work for the American people.

It doesn't just take Members of Congress, but an incredibly dedicated and talented staff, and each of us are blessed to have wonderful staffs--I am surely no exception--who allow us to do our jobs so well. The fact that we are using this legislation to pay tribute to Ray Baum and all of the staff of the Capitol, I think, is equally important that we do just this.

Mr. Speaker, President Trump challenged Congress to make the Federal Government more accountable to the American people and to eliminate red tape that hurts job creation and economic growth. The RAY BAUM'S Act does just that.

First of all, we meet those two goals by doing a number of things. The legislation will reauthorize the Federal Communications Commission for the first time in 28 years.

The FCC does important work for our country, especially in the telecommunications arena. I am proud to continue to serve on the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, which is one of the great examples of United States dominance--America is the dominant force in technology--and it is important that we have fair rules of the game. The FCC is that arbiter. The fact that they haven't been reauthorized for 28 years, I think, it is long past due that we get this done. We also make critical reforms that will modernize the agencies with tools that it needs to meet the demands of consumers for the 21st century.

This legislation creates an important backstop for our local radio and TV broadcasters who have been completing the final stage of the incentive auction. This keeps America on track to be the global leader on 5G communications by implementing new spectrum policy.

This is something our committee has led on. The country needs more spectrum. We have been able to find creative ways to free up more spectrum so that billions of dollars of private sector investment can be used to build out these great networks in 3G, 4G, and, now, 5G so that we can continue to advance technology.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also thank Chairwoman Blackburn for including the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act that I worked so closely on with Senator Heller for years to try to get this legislation passed. This is included as part of this legislation. This will provide relief to so many job creators and to the FCC by consolidating and eliminating so many outdated reporting requirements.

What do I mean by eliminating outdated reporting requirements, Mr. Speaker?

How often do we hear about things that are on the books, laws that are on the books that are so outdated and so unnecessary? This is one of the reports that we are outdating in this bill.

Right now, there is still, on the books, a requirement that the FCC report on the annual competition within the telegraph industry. Mr. Speaker, that is right.

Since Samuel Morse invented the telegraph back in the 1830s, that might have been important in the 1800s, even in the early 1900s; but the fact that today, in 2018, there is still a requirement that the FCC issue a report on competition within the telegraph industry is a glaring example of why it is so important for us to update our laws and eliminate outdated laws.

We are getting rid of this ridiculous requirement and a number of other unnecessary and ridiculous requirements like that so that we can free the FCC up to do the important work they need to do.

So, again, I commend the chairman for the work that he has done in a very bipartisan way to bring forth the RAY BAUM'S Act, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4986, the RAY BAUM'S Act, the first FCC reauthorization in 28 years, named for our dear friend, the late Ray Baum.

This bill is the product of many long hours of hard work to achieve a bipartisan, bicameral compromise. While no bill is perfect, this legislation contains many solid policy advancements for digital communications in the 21st century.

I'm especially glad to see two bills I've championed for many years included in this package, `Dig Once' which I first introduced in 2009, and the RESPONSE Act, which I first introduced in 2010. Broadband is essential for every community in our country to function today, just as the physical roads and bridges we travel on are. For nearly a decade, I've been pushing for a `Dig Once' policy, a commonsense proposal to ensure broadband conduit is included in the buildout of roads and highways when they're being built and where there's a demonstrated need for broadband access, rather than tearing up roads later. Dig Once will enable states to make it easier for broadband providers to enter new and underserved markets by laying the broadband conduit during construction.

H.R. 4986 also includes the RESPONSE Act that ensures that multi-line telephones commonly found in office buildings and hotels are equipped with location accuracy technologies. This is essential for responders to locate a 911 caller in a large building as quickly as possible because lives are literally on the line and every second counts. This provision will help save lives.

I'm disappointed that the FCC Collaboration Act was excluded from the final version of H.R. 4986. This is another bipartisan, commonsense proposal that I have consistently introduced since 2009. It passed out of the Communications and Technology subcommittee, the full Energy and Commerce committee, and previously passed the full House, all with bipartisan support. All of the former Democratic and Republican FCC members have supported this policy one hundred percent. It's unfortunate that despite such broad support, this provision was stripped from the final bill despite our work in Committee.

I also want to express my concerns about some parts of the bill which consolidate the FCC's reporting on issues like price hikes, competition, and program diversity, and the scaling back of provisions on critical unlicensed spectrum. I worry that we'll regret weakening these public interest policies. Nonetheless, I support H.R. 4986 as a set of largely positive developments for consumers, policymakers, and many other stakeholders in the communications marketplace. I want to thank Chairman Walden for his hard work on this, and urge my colleagues to vote YES on H.R. 4986, the RAY BAUM'S Act of 2018.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my ranking member and the chairman for yielding. I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for their bipartisan efforts here.

I rise in support of H.R. 4986, the RAY BAUM'S Act. In the first place, this bill will help ensure that the incentive auction repack can move forward in a timely fashion and that Americans can have access to their local broadcasting stations during this period of time.

On the other hand, I am very proud that this bill includes a bipartisan provision that Congressman Kinzinger and I worked on.

This provision will move us forward in closing the digital divide for our Nation's veterans. Access to broadband internet service is critical for the more than 20 million veterans across our country, with the highest population of veterans residing in California.

Having a broadband internet connection helps veterans apply for jobs more easily, obtain necessary vocational training, communicate with family and friends, keep up with current events, access healthcare services, and get important information about their benefits and military records.

Without broadband internet access, it is difficult to fully participate in today's society. Veterans face many challenges when they return home, and not having internet access makes what is already an incredibly tough transition process even harder. This is particularly likely to be the case for low-income veterans and veterans living in rural areas.

Although we lack specific data on the number of veterans with broadband internet access, we know that Americans who live in rural areas are less likely to be connected. This is also the case for Americans who live at or below the Federal poverty level.

We must find ways to ensure that veterans, especially the more than 1.4 million veterans living below the Federal poverty level and the 5.3 million residing in rural areas, are not left behind.

This is why my provision directs the Federal Communications Commission to examine the current state of broadband access for veterans and what can be done to increase access, with a focus on low- income veterans and veterans residing in rural areas.

The findings and recommendations from this report will be important for paving the way to get more veterans connected. I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill.