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Free Speech Media, LLC
August 6, 1995
Number 11
6 pages
====================================================
Compiled, written, and edited by Coralee Whitcomb
Please direct comments and inquiries to cwhitcom@bentley.edu
====================================================
The Telecom Post is posted to several distribution lists and is also available
from the CPSR listserv. To subscribe, send to LISTSERV@CPSR.ORG with the
message SUBSCRIBE TELECOM-POST YOUR NAME.
The Telecom Post will be published weekly while the U.S. Congress works on
a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S information delivery systems.
======================================================
TOPICS
HR 1555 - We lose
HR1555 The Bad and the Ugly
HR 1555, The Communications Act of 1995 passed the House on
August 4 by a vote of 305-117. The Congress then broke for
their summer recess and will reconvene in four weeks.
The schedule for the arrival of
HR1555 to the House floor was under considerable question last
week as it collided with the need to deal with a series of
appropriations bills. Appropriations bills must be on the
President's desk by October 1 in order for the government to
stay in business. Given the drastic revisions to many programs
in these bills, and the last minute and highly controversial
changes to HR 1555, it appeared that the American public would
have another month to learn and consider the implications of an
information overhaul. But that was not to be.
Commerce Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-VA), a supporter of the
"checklist" language for Bell entry into long distance requiring
"facilities-based" competition "comparable in price, features
and scope" apparently caved into pressure by subcommittee member
Jack Fields (R-TX) and Speaker Gingrich. In a reversal of the
spirit of that language, he offered an amendment (the 66 page
Managers Amendment covering 42 sections of the bill) changing it
to allow the definition of adequate competition to include the
resale of services of another carrier. This drastically softens
the test needed to prove that competition exists and shortens
dramatically the wait Bells have for entry into long distance.
It served to reverse the support of the long distance industry
to absolute opposition. Many of you are aware of the campaign
subsequently launched by AT&T to drum up support for defeat of
the bill.
On Wednesday, August 2, at midnight, the House agreed by a vote
of 255 to 156 to debate the HR 1555 under a modified closed
rule. This allowed for nine hours of debate and a set list of
amendments to be considered. Specific time allowances were
given for the debate on each amendment and a Thursday, August 3
date was set. An amendment proposed by Zoe Lofgren (D-CA),
Connie Morella (R-MD), and William Orton (D-VT) to provide
affordable telecommunications for schools and rural hospitals
was denied entry into the debate on the grounds that a
satisfactory funding mechanism did not exist. (Though Bliley is
reported to have assured Rep. Morella that the conference
committee proceedings on S652 and HR1555 would allow for the
S652, Snowe/Rockefeller language to be considered.) Disgust was
expressed by several members of the House over debating a bill
of such importance in the middle of the night and out of sight
of the public. Rep. Marcy Kaptur said "I feel tonight as I did
during the savings and loan debate...that we are truly being
muzzled, and that is not what representative democracy is all
about. I feel sorry for America tonight." Vice President Gore
issued a statement on August 3 saying
The telecommunications reform legislation being
considered by the House of Representatives is
abhorrent to the public interest and our national
economic well-being. Without significant changes
to the legislation, the President has said he will be
compelled to veto it.
In the early morning hours, the House today began
debate on HR1555. They are expected to vote late tonight
on the bill. It seems the House does not want the
American people to see or hear what's in this legislation
-- and for good reason. They couldn't support it if they
knew what HR 1555 contained.
One person owning the majority of the media outlets in a
community is a threat to the very system of democracy
upon which our society is built. And it is wrong.
Raising cable rates on American consumers immediately
_after_ the next elections to avoid responsibility is
wrong. Replacing competition with consolidation in the
cable and phone industries is wrong. Preventing parents
from having simple and cheap technologies to block
explicit sex and excessive violence from coming into their
living rooms to young children is wrong.
Unfortunately, HR 1555, as reported by the Commerce
Committee and amended by the managers' amendment, does
all these things. This bill has been sold to the highest
bidder in every telecommunications industry. The losers
are the American people.
Deliberations were set forth to allow general debate for 90
minutes and then a limited number of amendments considered one
after the other with five minutes allotted to the pro and con
arguments for each. The results:
Manager's Amendment -passed 256-149
The following is a summary of the most controversial proposals
from Rep. Blilely's memo to the Commerce Committee.
1. Resale
The Bell company has a duty to provide resale at wholesale
costs. Wholesale costs are defined as retail less all avoided
costs, including marketing, bulling and collection, etc.
2. Facilities Based Competitor
In order for the Bell company to meet the checklist, there must
be facilities based competitor providing local telephone
service, either exclusively or predominantly over the
competitor's network - resale would not qualify. For purposes
of this test, cellular service does not qualify as local
telephone services.
3. Separate Subsidiary
Once a Bell company is authorized to provide long distance, it
must do so through a separate subsidiary for a period of
eighteen months.
4. FCC Rulemaking
The FCC must complete its rulemaking relevant to the checklist
within six months. At the end of six months, provided that the
FCC has promulgated its rules, the Bell company may seek entry
into long distance.
In addition to the anti-competitive implications of these
provisions, the process used to insert the Manager's Amendment
can be seen as subverting the legislative process. This lengthy
and complex amendment was introduced at the eleventh hour and
reversed much of what had been accomplished in committee. The
ability to subvert the committee structure so brutally calls
into question the viability and reliability of the congressional
process.
Stupak amendment - passed 338-86, a clarification of the right
of local communities to manage public right-of-way and require
fair and reasonable compensation for the use of those
rights-of-way.
Conyers amendment - defeated 151-271, requiring the approval of
the Attorney General for Bell entry into long distance unless
the AG found there was a "dangerous probability" that the Bell
would "successfully use market power to substantially impede
competition." This amendment would enhance Rep. Hyde's (R-IL)
provision in the Manager's Amendment of a role for the
Department of Justice in approving long distance entry.
Cox/Wyden amendment - passed 420-4, leaving to private industry
the responsibility of a "clean Internet" and providing liability
protection to those service providers who take steps to keep it
clean. It bars the FCC from any role in determining content
standards for the Internet.
Markey/Shays amendment - defeated 148-275, would have prohibited
cable operators facing no effective competition from raising
rates beyond the Consumer Price Index, on a per channel basis
and limited the exemption from price controls for cable systems
of under 10,000, subscribers, lowered the threshold under which
the FCC would undertake a rate review to 10 subscribers, and
required cable operators to charge uniform rates within a
franchise area. This would have inserted a bit of re-regulation
of the cable industry. The Manager's Amendment allows for an
increase in rates in order to finance capital improvements to
their system 15 months after enactment.
Markey/Klink amendment - passed 228-195, limiting broadcast
ownership to a 35% cap on national viewership. (down from 50%).
Markey/Burton amendment defeated then passed, requiring the V
chip but not a mandatory rating system. At first it was
defeated but Markey countered with a recommittal motion - which
forces an up/down vote and never works. It won!
Some good news:
Language in the original bill that provides for an outlet for
the public voice did survive the chaos of the last week.
According to Barry Forbes, president of the Alliance for
Community Media,
As passed, HR 1555 provides the PEG (public,
education, and government) center programming
will be carried on so-called 'video dialtone'
networks to the same extent that they are
currently available on cable systems. 'video
dialtone' is similar to cable in that it would
provide video programming over coaxial or fiber-optic
wirelines. Unlike cable, where programming is selected
exclusively by the cable operating company, video
dialtone channel capacity would have to be offered to
any person or entity that wanted it.
Friday, August 4 the Communications Act of 1995 was passed
305-117.
The Regional Bell Operating Companies are delighted.
The lobbying efforts of industry are tallied at $20 million for
this legislation.
The next step in the process is creating a joint committee made
up of Commerce committee member of both the House and Senate.
The number and members of this committee will be chosen by the
Committees' leadership. New, joint language will be crafted
outside of public view and then submitted to both sides for
passage. The President's threatened veto has lost some of its
punch with the wide margins in both House and Senate votes,
however, there are many differences between the two bills yet to
be hammered out.
My 2 cents
You are aware, better than the greater American public, of the
dire implications of this bill. I've often wondered why, in all
our discussion, we have not reminded the world of the basic
concept that knowledge is power and knowledge is made up of
information. Military strategists are well aware that the cleanest
method of disabling the enemy is to destroy its ability to produce and
deliver information. The passage of this bill is no different. The
concentration of information production and delivery into the hands
of an ever-shrinking population of information providers accomplishes
the same thing. And as goes control of information so goes the
locus of power.
It would appear that our government officials know this. The
Internet community rose to the challenge in a new and organized
fashion - yet was largely ignored. The mere fact that there is
a truly effective and low cost method of information delivery
and public expression seems to have been disregarded by its very
nature, as evidenced by the low regard for email messages. Yet
big industry lobbyists, with big bucks to ease _their_ efforts,
were able to control the entire debate. Had a grassroots,
non-Internet effort, equal to the Internet effort been developed
- would they have listened? Will we, as the Internet community,
have a chance, in the future, to incorporate the rest of the
citizenry into the world of electronic communications and
activism so that the American public, as a whole, will serve as
a voice in the future? I believe, that in the month to come, we
must craft a message and a delivery system for that message that
will make the world outside of the Internet community,
immediately aware of what is at stake. We must simplify the
issues and develop scenarios of the likely nightmares this
legislation will bring. And we must work to reclaim the role the
American people were meant to play in the democratic process.
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