Lawmakers divided on extent of FCC's regulatory authority over broadband

As lawmakers review a blueprint to extend low-cost, high-speed Internet service nationwide, a fight is brewing over how much regulatory authority the Federal Communications Commission should have.

During a hearing on Wednesday, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., urged FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to "bend the curve if you have to" in order to push the National Broadband Plan forward, after a federal appeals court ruled last week that the commission lacked the power to regulate Internet service providers' policies.

In Comcast v. FCC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia concluded FCC could not stop Comcast from interfering with its subscribers' use of peer-to-peer networking for sharing files. Rockefeller called the ruling "disheartening" and said it threatened the National Broadband Plan.

"I don't care how many lawyers you have or don't have -- I want you to exercise the authority that you do have," to roll out the plan, Rockefeller urged Genachowski.

But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, ranking member of the committee, said she was concerned more extensive FCC regulation would turn away private investments. She asked Genachowski for assurance that the agency would not exercise a heavy hand in imposing involuntary requirements, such as forcing broadcasters to free up broadband spectrum for FCC's plan.

Genachowski said although FCC had "inherited a landscape that had more unpredictability and instability in it than I would have liked," it would find a way to execute a "light touch."

He mentioned the agency was working with lawyers decide on how to administer the plan with a solid legal foundation, but did not say whether FCC would reclassify broadband services to expand its regulatory powers.

In a 2007 declaratory ruling, FCC said that because broadband is counted as an information service -- not telecommunications -- it is not subject to regulation.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement that he believed the FCC had legal authority to reclassify the service, although he advised the agency to "explore all options."

Hutchison and other committee Republicans warned that if the commission jumped the gun without a directive from Congress and thorough analysis, it could seriously undermine its legitimacy.

But Rockefeller, who visited the site of last week's mine accident in West Virginia and found the lack of cell phone service in the area "disturbing," pledged to fight for FCC's authority to launch the National Broadband Plan. "In the long-term, if there is a need to rewrite the law to provide consumers, the FCC and industry with a new framework, I will take that task on," he said.