Appeal of Phone Ruling Opposed

Leaders of the House committee overseeing the Federal Communications Commission are urging the Justice Department not to appeal a lower court’s reversal of telephone competition rules.

The letter sent late Wednesday from the House Energy and Commerce Committee runs counter to two letters sent in the last week from leaders of the House Judiciary Committee and Senate committee overseeing the FCC, both of which asked the government to back an appeal.

The letter from Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking minority member John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) is part of a heated lobbying campaign at the White House and Justice Department over what to do about the ruling.

The March 2 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia threw out rules governing the access that companies such as AT&T; Corp. have to local networks owned by the Baby Bells, including SBC Communications Inc.

Bush administration aides have been meeting this week to decide whether to step into the fray and which side to take.

Appeals backed by U.S. Solicitor Gen. Theodore B. Olson, who is part of the Justice Department, typically have a greater chance of being heard by the Supreme Court.

The Barton-Dingell letter pointed out that the FCC’s local phone rules have been struck down twice by the circuit court and once by the high court since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was designed to spur competition in local phone service.

“Further appeals will not affect the outcome when the regulations adopted by the commission are so completely at odds with the statutory language cited by the courts,” it said.

But leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, who co-authored the 1996 law, said in a letter to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft that it was the circuit court’s opinion that was “fundamentally at odds with the statute.”

Opponents of the decision say it will result in higher prices and fewer choices as rivals pull back or leave the local phone market.

The Bells say no one will be cut off and no evidence exists that consumer rates will rise.