Senate Telecom Bill’s Future Murky
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 6/28/2006 7:59:00 PM
A major telecommunications bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday in a 15-7 vote, but the bill’s future was left murky by a bruising battle over an Internet regulation amendment that split the panel largely along partisan lines.
The bill, sponsored by Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), would allow phone companies to enter cable markets within 90 days without any obligation to wire an entire franchise area. As new video providers enter their markets or when their old franchises expire, cable incumbents may opt in to the new franchising system created by the bill.
Stevens prevailed in keeping Internet nondiscrimination language from the bill after a net neutrality amendment failed on an 11-11 vote. Tie votes mean amendments fail. But the price of that victory might be that the full Senate never considers the bill because Stevens would need 60 votes to block a filibuster. The Senate has 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent.
“If this amendment goes down, you can expect a massive fight on your hands from a lot of folks, not just in the Senate but in the country,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) moments before the net neutrality amendment's defeat. “It’s not going to be pretty.”
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said the Senate had to avoid net neutrality provisions because they would ultimately take down the entire bill.
“This is absolutely a poison pill that the House will not accept,” Ensign said. “This will kill the bill.”
As the Senate panel was wrapping up its work, Stevens was already talking about paring back the bill and working with the Judiciary Committee on crafting net neutrality language from an antitrust law perspective.
“We’re going to have to take a good look at it and see how we might slim it down,” Stevens said, optimistic that a bill of some kind can become law this year. “I do believe this bill should be passed and I do believe we will get to the point where we will pass it.”
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