Week ahead in tech: House to hold FCC oversight hearing

The three sitting commissioners from the Federal Communications Commission are heading to the Hill on Tuesday for an oversight hearing.

Chairman Ajit Pai, Michael O’Rielly and Mignon Clyburn will testify before the House Commerce subcommittee on technology. It will be the first FCC oversight hearing the House has held this year.

The lack of hearings has rankled committee Democrats, who this month accused the panel’s GOP leadership of trying to shield the agency from oversight as Pai pushes to repeal the net neutrality rules.

“This hearing could not come too soon considering the FCC has not appeared before the Committee — or any House committee — to testify a single time this year,” Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) wrote in a letter to their GOP counterparts before the hearing was announced.

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“That stands in stark contrast to the Chairman of the FCC under President Obama testifying on Capitol Hill eight times by the end of July last Congress, including six times in front of House committees.”

A spokesman for Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the Commerce Committee chairman, dismissed the letter as “little more than political grandstanding.”

House Democrats were outraged that the committee didn’t hold any hearings earlier this year to consider a bill that repealed the FCC’s internet privacy rules. The privacy repeal was signed into law by President Trump.

Dems have also hammered Pai for his effort to repeal the Obama-era net neutrality rules, which require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally.

During the hearing, the committee will also be considering legislation that will reauthorize the FCC, a draft of which was introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who chairs the tech subcommittee.

The bill would codify a number of agency reforms that Pai rolled out after being named chairman in January, including provisions to make the rulemaking process more transparent.

For Pai it will be his second trip to the Hill in as many weeks. On Wednesday, he appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee alongside two nominees for the commission, Republican Brendan Carr and Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel.

The chairman, who has to be reconfirmed this year, was grilled about the White House’s involvement in regulatory matters, including the AT&T-Time Warner merger.

Pai said that there had been no interference from President Trump on the merger. The New York Times had reported that White House officials had discussed using the government’s merger review as leverge over CNN, which is owned by Time Warner.

Elsewhere on the Hill on Tuesday, the House Homeland Security subcommittee on border security will hold a hearing 10 a.m. on the role of technology in policing the border.

On Wednesday the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology will hold a hearing on STEM education for the 21st century workforce at 10:00 a.m.

At the same time, the House Foreign Affairs Committee while hold a hearing on U.S. cyber diplomacy.

At 11:00 a.m. the House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing on protecting small businesses from cyber attacks.

In the Senate, the Environment and Public Works committee will convene to hold a hearing on deploying clean energy technologies on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.

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