CTIA's Pai Urges Hill Leaders to Remove Military Spectrum Veto From FY26 NDAA
CTIA CEO Ajit Pai urged congressional leaders Thursday against reaching a deal on a “final version” of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that includes Section 1564 from the Senate-passed version of the measure (S-2296), which would give the DOD and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands. The Senate in October passed S-2296 with the military veto intact, despite a bid from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to jettison that provision (see 2510070037). House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and several other industry groups have also opposed the veto language (see 2510090048). The House-passed NDAA (HR-3838) doesn’t include a similar military veto.
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Pai noted that Republicans’ enacted reconciliation law, previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, already exempted both the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands from potential reallocation as part of a mandated 800 MHz spectrum auction pipeline. “The law protects the mission-critical operations of our defense and intelligence communities while affording the wireless sector the clarity and certainty necessary to invest, innovate, and deliver next-generation connectivity,” he said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and the chambers’ Democratic leaders.
S-2296’s military veto language “will undermine the government’s ability to implement” the reconciliation law’s spectrum mandate, Pai said. “This additional requirement is unnecessary because the [law] already vests this authority with the President, in whom the Constitution vests plenary executive authority as Commander-in-Chief.” He noted that the White House itself opposes the veto language “because it would ‘hinder the President’s executive authority.’”