With Days To Spare, House Sets FCC Oversight Hearing

0

On Feb. 10 Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who serves as the House Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman, announced that the subcommittee would hold a hearing on March 8 examining the FCC’s reauthorization, budget, spectrum auctions, and proceedings.


That never happened, as Blackburn sought to bring FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Mignon Clyburn to the House side of Capitol Hill immediately after a previously scheduled Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing held at 10am on that Wednesday in March.

By mid-July, Blackburn had yet to reschedule the House oversight hearing, leading Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Communications and Technology (CAT) Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) to urge House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Blackburn  to follow through on Blackburn’s assurances that the subcommittee would hold a public oversight hearing for the FCC by the end of July.

Blackburn has finally responded, as the House E&C Communications and Technology Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the oversight and re-authorization of the FCC on Tuesday (7/25) at 10am.

The House’s FCC reauthorization gives it a budget of $322.04 million per year from fiscal 2018 through fiscal 2022.