The attached was frowarded by Dewayne Hendricks, WA8DZP. Interesting background on Powell and his deteriorating relationship with Congress. 73. Jim, W6CF March 7, 2002 FCC Chief Powell, Senate's Hollings Clash In Hearing By MARK WIGFIELD Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., sharply criticized the deregulatory tendencies of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell during a congressional hearing Thursday. Barraging Powell with a series of Powell's quotes from newspaper interviews, Hollings said the FCC chief appears to be abandoning his responsibilities as regulator to the marketplace. Hollings cited one Powell quote in which the chairman is purported to have said "my religion is the market." "You don't care about the regulations," said Hollings. Hollings chairs the appropriations subcommittee that controls the FCC's budget and chairs the full Commerce Committee that sets telecommunications policy. "You don't care about the law. You say the public interest is an 'empty vessel.' That's the misgivings I have about your administration," Hollings said. "I think you'd be a good executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, not the chairman of a regulatory agency. Are you happy with your job?" "Extremely," Powell answered. The hearing marked a departure for Hollings from what appeared in the past to be a cooler, wait-and-see attitude toward Powell, who assumed his leadership post when the Bush White House took office last year. Hollings has taken a high-profile role in derailing a settlement brokered by Powell of the long-running $16 billion NextWave Telecom Inc. wireless spectrum dispute. While Powell saw the settlement as the quickest way to get the spectrum into use, Hollings saw the $6 billion NextWave would have received as a disturbing giveaway to a bankrupt company that never provided wireless service but instead acted like a law firm bent on bending FCC rules. Hollings is also the man trying to write the death sentence in the Senate for the House's so-called Tauzin-Dingell bill that would deregulate broadband services offered by the Baby Bell telephone companies. Hollings charged that Powell is trying to accomplish such deregulation with the FCC. Powell told Hollings he couldn't recall the "market is my religion" quote. He said there are "fundamental differences" between the FCC's broadband proceedings and the Tauzin-Dingell bill. And he denied that he was trying to confer upon NextWave any private ownership rights for the spectrum. Indeed, Powell noted that he pushed for and won on Monday a Supreme Court review of the NextWave case. The case could clarify that NextWave's spectrum licenses are not private assets subject to the protections of a bankruptcy filing, but are a regulatory tool properly overseen by the FCC. "But you were heading in both directions," Hollings said. "That's not accurate," Powell countered. "There was nothing in the settlement that would have undercut the Supreme Court case." "We have a fundamental difference of opinion," Hollings said. He proceeded to read a scathing op-ed column by William Safire in Thursday's New York Times, which portrayed a "roundheeled Michael Powell steering the Federal Communications Commission toward terminal fecklessness ..." Hollings also announced that the Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on local telephone competition on March 20. Among those testifying will be an author of the Tauzin-Dingell bill, Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., who chairs the House Commerce Committee. Powell got gentler treatment from two Republicans at Thursdays hearing. The difference in tone showed how telecommunications politics could be changed by the November elections, where party control of the Senate and its powerful chairmanships hang in the balance. Under questioning from Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who would chair the Appropriations subcommittee if the Senate changed hands, Powell said the FCC's broadband proceeding is considering ways to continue protecting access to telephone lines for competitive Internet services even if deregulated, something that critics of Tauzin-Dingell say that bill fails to do. Any new regulations "will focus on the service being offered, not the nature of the technology," Powell said. Broadband services are provided over both cable and telephone lines, which are regulated differently. Gregg pressed Powell for the status of a long-running proceeding that could open new competition to satellite television providers EchoStar Communications Inc. (DISH) and Hughes Electronics Corp. 's (GMH) DirecTV. Developed by a company called Northpoint Technology Ltd., the system would share satellite spectrum used by EchoStar and Hughes to beam terrestrial signals carrying television programming and broadband services. "I had hoped the FCC would have been done by now," Powell said. "We have failed to do so." While he declined to provide details on the proceeding, he said he had already cast his vote and is "awaiting the votes of my colleagues." "I continue to hope for a decision," Powell said. "I'd like to think it is imminent." Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Ak., asked Powell whether any further congressional action is needed to resolve the NextWave case. He noted that Congress came close to passing legislation last year that would have ratified the NextWave settlement. Powell said a need remains for legislation that would clarify that communications law trumps bankruptcy law when it comes to spectrum licenses. The only other option is to clarify that question through the courts -- an option that could still take years. Hollings made no comment on the prospects for such legislation. But he has said that communications law is clear that there is no private ownership right to public spectrum. Hollings viewed the NextWave settlement as a repudiation of that policy. It would have turned spectrum ownership rights over to the private sector, as well as cost taxpayers billions of dollars, he has said. -By Mark Wigfield, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-828-3397; mark.wigfield@dowjones.com Updated March 7, 2002 1:26 p.m. EST