The House Monday (Jan. 23) unanimously passed H.R. 599, the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2017, which was sponsored by Energy & Commerce Committee member and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.).
It was one of a package of 11 bills out of the Energy & Commerce Committee that passed the House Monday.
The bill would consolidate eight FCC reports into a single, biennial, review of competition in the communications marketplace. The FCC is required to consider the Internet as a marketplace competitor, something the FCC has been reluctant to do, signaling it was a nascent competitor, but not yet a full-fledged one.
The state of broadband deployment must be assessed using a list of geographical areas without any advanced telecom provider.
A similar bill passed the House, either as a standalone or part of a package, in three previous Congresses.
"The Energy and Commerce has always been known as a legislative workhorse and we’ve hit the ground running in the 115th Congress,” said committee chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.).
