Urges Committee Leadership to Ensure Universal Broadband Deployment

In a letter today, Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (CA-32), a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, urged Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (TX-06) and Ranking Member John D. Dingell (MI-15) to include enforceable provisions in the Committee's video franchising reform bill to prohibit the deployment of broadband in a discriminatory manner.

Below is the text of the letter.


The Honorable Joe Barton
Chairman
Committee on Energy and Commerce
United States House of Representatives
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable John D. Dingell
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce
United States House of Representatives
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515


Dear Chairman Barton and Ranking Member Dingell:

I am writing to urge the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to adopt meaningful and enforceable non-discrimination provisions as it considers legislation on video franchising. Non-discrimination in telecommunications is critical to bridging the digital divide. It is also critical to advancing the President's goal, shared by the bipartisan Congressional leadership, of universal broadband deployment.

Enforceable non-discrimination provisions are the acid test of meaningful telecom reform in the Latino community. While Latinos are the fastest growing demographic of on-line users, only one in eight Latino households has access to broadband services. Indeed, any reform must ensure that Latino communities get access to the latest broadband technologies as quickly as non-Latino communities. Numerous civil rights and Latino advocacy organizations support enforceable anti-discrimination language in video franchise agreements, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Hispanic Americans for Fairness in Media, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

Non-discrimination law is most effective when specific in its scope and backed with strong and reliable enforcement. Therefore, any non-discrimination broadband deployment provision adopted by the Committee must carefully specify both the scope and method of enforcement. In defining the scope, I would ask the Committee to ensure that a video service providers' entire footprint is covered. Like cable companies, who currently live by that requirement, new entrants to the video market should abide by this rule as well to ensure that all communities served by video providers receive broadband service, regardless of area income levels.

Some have suggested that the non-discrimination provision only apply to communities self-selected for access to video services by new service providers. But such a policy would actually encourage discrimination. It would allow a service provider to narrowly select only the few, elite communities for video services, so long as the provider does not discriminate within that community. In Los Angeles, for instance, such a policy would allow a video service provider to provide service only to residents in Brentwood, while disenfranchising the rest of Los Angeles, so long as the provider did not discriminate within Brentwood! Such an approach would actually pervert civil rights principles and turn back the clock on non-discrimination protections.

In addition, a meaningful non-discrimination provision requires strong enforcement. Current law requires that cable companies abide by non-discrimination provisions as a condition of providing service, and, today, this law is enforced by the local franchising authority. To the extent that the Committee seeks to revise the current franchising provisions of the Communications Act, a similar oversight and enforcement mechanism should be included to ensure that the needs of all communities are met and should be charged with overseeing compliance with the nondiscrimination requirements. The enforcement authority must have the tools necessary to ensure compliance. The absence of a meaningful and enforceable non-discrimination provision runs the risk of deterring universal deployment of broadband. A strong non-discrimination provision, on the other hand, will help forge a bipartisan consensus in ushering in new competition that will benefit consumers, raise our national productivity, and ensure the kind of robust broadband deployment that is clearly in the national interest.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, for your attention to this letter and for your continued leadership on telecommunications. I look forward to working with you and other members of the Committee on this important matter.

Sincerely,
HILDA L. SOLIS
Member of Congress