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from: Market Watch

Senate commerce chairman still pushing for telecom bill

By Siobhan Hughes
Last Update: 4:32 PM ET Sep 21, 2006

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on Thursday said that he won't alter a major telecommunications bill in order to increase the chances of passage before the November elections.

"We're going to deal with our bill as it is," Stevens told reporters following remarks to the Progress and Freedom Foundation. He said that he had won some assurances of support, but so far lacks the 60 votes necessary to shield the bill from a filibuster - a maneuver that usually kills legislation.

Stevens was responding to a question about whether he would seek to advance only the portion of the bill that would make it easier for telephone companies to roll out cable television service. The bill, the most sweeping rewrite of telecommunications laws in a decade, is seen as primarily benefiting AT&T Corp. (T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), which are currently going from state to state and municipality to municipality to win the approvals necessary to offer the service.

A Senate vote has been stalled amid a debate over whether the legislation should ban phone and cable companies from experimenting with a type of business plan that would involve charging extra fees to bandwidth-hogging Web sites for priority delivery of their content. Opponents of such a business plan want the government to mandate "network neutrality" and guarantee that all Internet traffic will be treated equally, without favoritism.

Stevens appeared to suggest that efforts to advance the telecommunications bill would be stopped if Democrats gain control of Congress in the elections, ending years of Republican dominance.

"I've been around through a couple of sea changes," he told reporters. "Nothing happens after a sea change."
Stevens said the Senate Commerce Committee won't have time to hold a hearing on the tactics used by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) to uncover leaks to the media.

"I don't think we have time to consider that before we go home," he said.

The Senate will be on recess starting in early October.
Stevens also confirmed that a Senate vote on approving Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to serve a second term as head of the agency had been delayed.
"I don't know what the problem is," he said. "I know (the Senate action) was delayed last night."

The bill is called the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act in the House, and The Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunities Reform Act in the Senate. Its bill number is H.R. 5252.