McCaskill 'Not Optimistic' on Opportunities for Pay-TV Scrutiny in New Role

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., sees no easy opening to continue her pay-TV scrutiny under the banner of the Homeland Security Committee, where she's the new ranking member this Congress. Last Congress, she was ranking member of the committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), a perch that allowed her to press in conjunction with Subcommittee Chairman Rob Portman, R-Ohio, for a hearing that happened last summer on the topic. She had hoped to hold a follow-up hearing late last year on retransmission consent and programming costs. “Probably, it would depend on the chairman’s proclivities that way, and I’m not optimistic,” McCaskill said in an interview last week about the possibilities of continuing those activities in this new Congress. She wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai this month on some of the findings of her staff on the topics, uncovered in the midst of last Congress’ PSI inquiries (see 1702080066). Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., took over as ranking member of PSI this Congress. Spokespeople for Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Portman and Carper didn’t comment about their desire to continue the inquiries and perhaps hold another hearing. The Senate has rarely considered video policy issues directly in hearings in recent years, usually doing so only peripherally in Commerce Committee hearings or when Judiciary Committee senators consider acquisition proposals. Senate Commerce sought to hold a video policy hearing, with one tentatively scheduled for fall of 2015, but it never happened. During a panel at last week’s Incompas meeting in Washington, Dish Network Senior Counsel Alison Minea said satellite TV reauthorization is poised to change that. “Before the end of 2019, Congress will need to act,” she said of the next satellite reauthorization deadline, which is Dec. 31, 2019. “I assume that much like in prior years, the information gathering and hearing process will turn into a process for lots of different video competition issues to be discussed.” Those processes, which would pull in the Commerce and Judiciary committees in both chambers, would start in 2018 if not sooner, Minea said.