Republicans hit ‘corporate welfare’ in airwave sales

Dish Network is in the crosshairs for receiving “corporate welfare” during a recent auction of the nation’s airwaves.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Thursday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Ajit Pai, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), criticized the satellite TV provider for exploiting a legal “loophole” allowing it to benefit from $3 billion in taxpayer discounts.

{mosads}“Nothing undermines confidence in government more than the perception that big, sophisticated and connected corporate interests can work the system at the expense of ordinary people,” the two wrote.

They called for a “top-to-bottom review of policies that aid billion-dollar interests at the expense of entrepreneurs,” and said that Congress should “put an end to this corporate welfare.”

Dish has been the object of scorn from some for its use of special rules that give a 25 percent discount to smaller companies participating in the FCC’s recent auction for spectrum licenses.

In taking part in the auction, Dish relied in large part on two smaller companies in which it has overwhelming ownership stakes. Both companies were formed just months before the auction and reported to be small businesses, but yet “magically managed” to make major bids in the auction, the two Republicans wrote.

But Dish “isn’t the only beneficiary of this loophole,” Ayotte and Pai wrote.

Instead, they accuse FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler of loosening the agency’s rules for small-business discounts “in a way that would make it easier for big companies to snag benefits intended to help small ones.”

The FCC has said that every bid will be properly investigated before any discounts are applied so that no one is allowed to game the system.