FCC National Broadband Plan: Senate Commerce Committee Cancels Oversight Hearing

By
( )
published

The Senate Commerce Committee has abruptly canceled its planned oversight hearing on the national broadband plan.

That news came in an e-mail from the committee that arrived at 2:32 for the announced 2:30 hearing.

A Commerce Committee spokesperson was unavailable for comment on the abrupt schedule change but an FCC spokesperson said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was ready to testify on the plan.

A source on background said the cancellation appeared to be part of a general hold on committee meetings Tuesday over the healthcare bill, which would explain the cancellation only minutes, if that, before Genachowski was to testify.

He had already released his written testimony for the hearing.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.