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Lawmakers Defy Bush on Media Rules
Negotiators Back Move to Stop FCC From Easing Ownership Limits
By Eric Pianin and Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 20, 2003; Page A01
House and Senate negotiators last night defied a White House veto threat and agreed to a provision that would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from loosening rules on ownership of multiple media outlets.
With little discussion, the lawmakers tentatively included the measure in a huge, evolving spending package needed to keep the government operating.
The decision is a setback for President Bush, who has strongly endorsed the rule change. The plan, drafted by FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, would have allowed a company to own television stations that could reach almost half the viewing public in a given area.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) are trying to use the $284 billion "omnibus spending" bill to reverse Congress's position on overtime, as Bush has urged them to do."The president said he would veto the bill over that . . . [and] the speaker doesn't think it's useful for us to send legislation to the president to veto," said John Feehery, Hastert's spokesman.
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Yesterday's setback for Bush on the FCC matter was tempered by assurances from House and Senate GOP leaders that a provision to establish a D.C. school voucher program would be retained in the spending bill's final version, even though the Senate blocked it Sept. 30.
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Last night, the negotiators agreed to kill an amendment by Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) that would have prevented California from imposing tight air-pollution controls on lawn mowers and other small engines. Environmentalists said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) had called some lawmakers to urge them to delete the Bond amendment.Posted by P6 at November 20, 2003 05:30 AM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2339House leaders also will try to use the spending package to overturn a new federal meat-labeling requirement -- even though the House and Senate never agreed on the issue -- and to enact legislation helpful to tobacco growers that could not be passed on its own.