House Gop Members Threaten Telecom Bill

A wide-ranging bill that would deregulate the communications industry could be derailed by House Republicans who complained Thursday that the measure doesn’t give media and phone companies enough freedom.

The opposition comes one day after key congressional negotiators and the White House agreed on a media ownership plan, the last big hurdle to reconciling separate telecommunications bills passed by each chamber.

House GOP leaders said the proposed changes failed to give media and other companies enough freedom from existing laws and regulations.

The bill would allow cable TV and local and long-distance companies to get into each others’ businesses, lift price regulations on millions of cable customers and restrict smut on television and computers.

The agreement between the key congressional negotiators and the White House on Wednesday would give media companies more freedom to increase their holdings, but would still retain many restrictions. The House bill would lift most restrictions on media companies.