Sen. Casey opposes FCC plan to boost its authority

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) has urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to back down from a proposal that many see as a regulatory power grab, telling commission chairman Julius Genachowski to find a “more targeted” answer to uncertainty over the agency's authority. 

In a June 15 letter obtained by The Hill, Casey staked out his opposition to an FCC regulatory maneuver known as “reclassification” and urged Genachowski to instead reach a deal on network regulation with key stakeholders. 

Casey also said a stakeholder deal would be preferable to waiting for a Congressional overhaul of telecommunications law to settle the legal landscape around net neutrality regulations.

The senator is “concerned that neither [a telecom overhaul or FCC reclassification] will proceed to conclusion in time to provide carriers the clarity they need right now to continue investing tens of billions of dollars a year in their networks,” he said.

Working with stakeholders “to explore focused legislation that would expand the FCC’s net neutrality guidelines and provide the commission the specific authority it would now need” is the most productive option, he said. Casey also noted that reclassification would be subject to “protracted legal challenges.”

Casey is the second Senate Democrat to lobby against Genachowski’s proposal, along with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who opposed it last month. The majority of lawmakers have spoken out against the effort, including about 80 Democrats.

The chairmen of the commerce panels proposed a telecom overhaul in May after an April federal appeals court decision thrust the commission’s regulatory authority into question. But such an overhaul seems “almost certain to stretch into the 112th Congress, if not beyond,” Casey said.

The senator’s endorsement of a narrow broadband deal meshes with agency efforts to negotiate a settlement with stakeholders.

Top agency officials have been meeting with Internet service providers and Internet companies to see if they can come to an agreement. Those talks have included AT&T, Verizon and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) as well as Google, Skype and the Open Internet Coalition.

Comcast is headquartered in Casey's home state and is a significant employer there.

Broadband service providers worry that the reclassification plan could prompt the agency to say it has enough authority to impose strict net neutrality rules. These regulations would police how the companies deliver Internet traffic, in the name of consumer protection.