Capitol Hill telecom talks make little progress on fine print

Schwartzman said Friday’s meeting “drilled down into the specific provisions of” Title II of the Communications Act — which currently governs telephone service — that might be appropriate to apply to broadband providers through targeted legislation. The discussions have been posed by the chairmen of the commerce committees as a way to update communications law, potentially boosting the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) authority after an April appeals court decision seemed to diminish the agency’s ability to act.

But Friday’s talks did not yield progress on the nitty-gritty of a potential law, according to Schwartzman.

“It was conducted at a very high level,” he said. “Fifty thousand feet above.”

Schwartzman said the group did not receive word on how their work might impact other efforts to tackle net neutrality, including meetings and rulemaking at the FCC as well as smaller stakeholder meetings being conducted by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who lead the House Communications Subcommittee.

The group will meet again later in July.