Sources: Commerce Expected to Hold FCC Oversight Hearing March 12

Content, spectrum issues likely on the docket

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/1/2013 4:27:32 PM

According to sources, the Senate Commerce Committee plans to schedule an FCC oversight this month, with March 12 the likely date.

A committee spokesperson was not available at presstime, though no hearing has yet been scheduled on its website. But an FCC source confirms that is the target date for the hearing, to which all the commissioners are expected to be invited to testify.

Look for Commerce chairman Jay Rockefeller (D- W. Va.) to ask about the status of incentive auctions that will be used to fund the emergency first responder broadband network he has championed.

He is also likely to include other broadband and phone issues given that this week he reintroduced do not track online privacy legislation and sent letters to the largest wireless carriers about wireless "cramming" bill scams.

Rockefeller has also made gauging the impact of violent and indecent content on kids a priority for his committee, so that issue may come up as well.

Commerce held an FCC oversight hearing last May.