House E&C To Introduce Lifeline-Capping Bill

House Energy & Commerce Committee Republican leadership was not pleased with the collapse of a compromise Lifeline proposal that would have capped the subsidy.

That compromise was supported by FCC Republican commissioners.

According to a source familiar with their thinking, those leaders plan to consider a bill in April to impose a legislative cap on the spending, as well as what they said was protect ratepayers and eliminate waste fraud and abuse.

Those Republicans are the same ones who have been critical of FCC process, and signaled the compromise's failure was yet another example of that.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.