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HOUSE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE INTERNET SUBCOMMI1TEE MARKUP OF NATIONAL VIDEO FRANCHISING BILL On Thursday, April 5, the House Telecommuni- ber John Dingell (D-Mich.), which asserts that the cations and the Internet Subcommittee marked up company's new enhanced internet/video service the 'Communications, Promotion, and Enhance- does not qualify as a cable service under current ment Act of 2006,''' which aims to expedite the law or under the Republican draft measure. provision of video service by telecommunications companies through the creation of a national Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) franchise system. explained his frustration with the situation, but also maintained his belief that the language As mentioned in last week's Priority Focus, the adopted in the Republican Committee draft measure was unveiled by the House Energy leadership's manager's amendment was ad- and Commerce Committee's Republican leader- equate in including IPTV as a cable service ship after bipartisan negotiations on a federal despite AT&T's insistence otherwise. Congress- telecommunications law reform measure broke woman Eshoo did not find the language in the down. The measure raises several concerns for manager's amendment sufficient towards this local governments. These are described in "Initial end, however, the Congresswoman's amend- Concerns with the 'Communications, Promotion, ment was defeated on a 17-13 vote. and Enhancement Act of 2006, '" located online at www.cacities.ora/telecom. The manager's amendment introduced and passed by the Committee's Republican leader- The League has been working closely with our ship inserts language into the draft measure on members of the California Congressional delega- "Reporting, Records and Audits." This new tion that serve on the House Energy and Com- language would require cable operators to submit merce Committee as well as with the national local periodic reports to the FCC and local franchising government groups to develop amendments that authority (LFA) to verify compliance with the cable would alter the draft bill and address some of our operator's franchise fee PEG/I-NET responsibili- concerns. Two Californian's are on the Subcom- ties. However, the new language limits the LFA's mittee-Representatives George Radanovich (R- auditing authority. Fresno) and Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto). The amendment mandates that the LFA must At the Subcommittee markup, Congress- submit a written request to the cable operator to woman Eshoo offered support for local govern- audit its records and can only review the records ments' concerns in her opening remarks and once per year. Further, the language only permits proposed an amendment that sought to clarify such a review in accordance with guidelines to what type of provider qualifies as a cable operator be established by the FCC. in the bill. The amendment is a very important clarification since the main thrust of the bill is to The Committee and Subcommittee Ranking identify national franchise requirements for cable Members Dingell and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) providers. As currently written, the bill does not expressed their support for local government equate Internet based video service (IPTV) with concerns and offered several amendments to cable video service, meaning that providers of alter the draft measure along these lines. The I PTV, such as AT&T, do not believe that the bill nor first amendment would have initiated a build-out its requirements would apply to them. schedule for new video service providers. That amendment failed on a 22-11 vote, however. A clarification of this issue became a focal point The second amendment would have main- of the markup, as the Committee's Republican and tained local government control of public rights- Democratic leadership expressed dismay about of-way and settled public rights-of-way enforce- AT&T's recent letter to Committee Ranking Mem- Continued on Page 4 Visit the League's Official Websitenwww,cacities.org PRIORITY FOCUS . PAGE 3 April 7, 2006 . Issue #14 "--.-.,