Lawmakers Seek to Speed Up Vote on Media Rules

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers lined up enough support Tuesday to force a Senate vote on overturning the Federal Communications Commission’s loosening of media ownership rules as TV station executives planned a lobbying blitz on Capitol Hill today to fight efforts to nullify the new rules.

More than one-third of the Senate signed a petition to deploy a little-used fast-track procedure to bring the issue to a vote as early as this month.

The bipartisan stampede to invoke the rare congressional veto -- last used successfully in 2001 to wipe out job safety regulations imposed by the Clinton administration -- signals a new political front in the fierce battle to overturn the FCC rules.

The rules adopted by the Republican-led FCC on a 3-2 vote in June increase from 35% to 45% the share of national TV viewers a company’s stations are permitted to reach. The new rules also repeal a 28-year-old ban on simultaneous ownership of a TV station and a newspaper in the same market.

In the House, Democrats on the Appropriations Committee were expected today to push to attach a measure to the annual FCC spending bill that would roll back the expanded TV ownership limit.

The National Assn. of Broadcasters, which had opposed the FCC decision to increase the TV audience cap to 45%, expressed concern in a letter to lawmakers that the legislative efforts to overturn the rule change could “open the window for a whole host of anti-broadcast proposals,” such as reinstating the ban on ownership of a TV station and a newspaper in the same city.

Dozens of general managers of local TV stations owned and operated by the nation’s top television networks planned to descend on congressional offices to counter arguments that the new FCC rules would reduce local control and diversity in entertainment programming and news.

Bob Okun, NBC’s chief lobbyist, said the general managers were going to Washington to reassure lawmakers that “localism is profitable.”

A resolution overturning the rules is expected to be approved by the Senate, where the rules have drawn criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum, from liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to conservative Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

Opponents of the rules face strong resistance in the House, where influential House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-La.) has opposed any effort to overturn the agency’s decision.

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), a leader in the effort to overturn the rules, said a strong Senate vote would increase the political pressure on House GOP leaders to bring the issue up for a vote.