Wicker Criticizes Reconciliation Bill Proposed Corporate Tax as Including Spectrum Assets
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., raised concerns Wednesday that language in Democrats' proposed Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation package that would set a 15% minimum corporate tax rate would include wireless carriers' spectrum assets. CTIA President Meredith Baker…
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urged lawmakers during a Tuesday Communications Subcommittee hearing to make a “technical correction” to the proposal so it doesn’t cover spectrum assets (see 2208020076). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hopes to have a final vote on the reconciliation bill this weekend. The 15% corporate tax “would not only reduce the GDP and kill jobs, but would disproportionately punish American wireless carriers who have invested heavily in resources to fuel connectivity and build state-of-the-art networks,” Wicker said: “Wireless carriers have spent hundreds of billions of private-sector dollars on spectrum assets” and the proposal “would apply retroactively and prospectively to those purchases, diverting billions of dollars intended for future investment.” No “other country in the world has instituted a tax on spectrum,” he said. “China is working to undermine the United States as it seeks to dominate 5G and next-generation wireless technology. This makes the Democrats’ tax proposal not only an economic security issue but a national security issue as well.”