A variety of amendments have been proposed to
FCC reform legislation that passed out of the Energy & Commerce Committee
earlier this month.
The
cable, phone and broadcast industries all supported the House Republican FCC
reform efforts, while House Democrats have said HR 3309 will needlessly tie the
FCC's hands and lead to endless litigation.
The
amendments were due at 10 a.m. Monday morning in
advance of a rules committee hearing late Monday on how the bill will be
brought up on the floor for a vote,
including limiting amendments once it gets there.
Among
the amendments filed Monday -- there were 10, eight from Democrats, two from
Republicans -- were ones that had either withdrawn or defeated in committee,
including one (Democratic) that would "require entities sponsoring
political programming to disclose the identity of any donor that has
contributed $10,000 or more to such entity in an election reporting cycle"
and another (Republican) that would allow each commissioner to hire an engineer
or computer scientist to advise them. Another (Democratic) would remove the
limits on FCC deal conditions that the underlying Republican bill imposes.
To
check out all the amendments, go here
and click on "amendments."
The
bill is likely to pass in the House, but not the Democratically controlled
Senate.
