The FCC will get its extra month to prepare the National Broadband Plan, moving the deadline to 3/17/10, if key legislators make the decision. And two important players in the two Commerce Committees have agreed that the delay is warranted.
Senate Commerce Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is one, and House Communications Subcommittee Chair Rich Boucher (D-VA) is the other.
The sentiment is not unanimous, however. A top House Commerce Committee staffer believes the FCC is spending too much time on network neutrality and not getting the less controversial nuts and bolts in place and tightened up. According to The Hill, the staffer is Neil Fried, an advisor to key Republican committee members Joe Barton (R-TX) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL).
Genachowski, in his letter to Congress, had said the Commission wants the time “in the interest of advancing a national broadband plan that reflects the extraordinary importance of the task and that is responsive to the unprecedented record developed during the comment and workshop period.” The record reflects a process that he called “unparalleled in the history of the agency,” including public workshops and field hearings numbering in the 50s, over a dozen NPRs and a high percentage of the FCC’s open meeting time.
