Anticipate FCC and NTIA oversight hearings to begin soon now that Republicans have begun governing the House. Of particular interest is the Biden administration’s mechanisms for handing out tens of billions of government — meaning taxpayer — dollars in broadband deployment subsidies.
That oversight could come on at least two fronts — the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability (formerly Oversight and Reform) and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The NTIA is overseeing the distribution of most of the subsidy money, but the FCC also has billions of dollars through both historic and new subsidy programs.
On January 7, in a speech to CES 2023 in Las Vegas, NTIA chief Alan Davidson discussed the billions in subsidy money being tee’d up for this year, reported NextTV.com. He said approximately $65 billion would be an investment in a “simple but ambitious’ goal, to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.”
Republicans also have a goal — to make sure that money goes to connecting the unconnected, rather than overbuilding existing service, and without waste, fraud and abuse. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, told CNN over the weekend these government spending programs had gone without sufficient congressional oversight under Democratic control and signaled that would change.
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers is now chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In October when she was the lead GOP member of the Committee, Rodgers sent a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, warning her of what could happen if the Republicans took control of House chairmanships, Inside Towers reported. “As the committee of jurisdiction overseeing the FCC, I assure you the committee and its members will exercise our robust investigative and legislative powers to not only forcefully reassert our Article I responsibilities but to ensure the FCC under Democrat leadership does not continue to exceed Congressional authorizations,” McMorris Rogers wrote.
Republicans do not control the Senate, however John Thune (R-SD) last month wrote Commerce Department Inspector General (IG) Peggy Gustafson, saying she had failed to conduct congressionally mandated oversight of past broadband funds. Specifically, he wrote that Commerce had failed to produce the requisite IG reports on the $1.5 billion NTIA has handed out through its Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.
Davidson said over the weekend that 2023 would see another $1 billion going to that Tribal program, according to NextTV.com.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
Reader Interactions