In what figures to be a very routine procedure, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is marking up the seven-plank FCC reform package that was previously green-lighted by the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.
The bill is being considered along with another, and the Committee doesn’t figure to complete the business on one calendar day.
The plan is to get started at 5:00 PM eastern on Tuesday 6/2/15, and complete the business the next morning beginning at 10:00 AM.
Democrats were in agreement on some of the bills that go into the total package, but are firmly against some of the provisions supported by the majority.
On the all-in-favor side is a provision to allow commissioners to meet outside the public eye under certain conditions, an ability they have lacked and have been seeking for years.
Other matters are designed by the Republican majority with an eye toward increasing transparency and efficiency. The Democratic minority believes they are actually intended to prevent the FCC from effectively doing its job.
In the past, similar legislation has passed in the full House but withered away in the Senate. With Republicans in control of both houses, it has its best chance ever at being referred to the White House for a presidential autograph.
Whether it actually gets the autograph is an of course questionable.
