Lead supporters and opponents of Senate Appropriations Committee-backed pro-public 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band auction language (see 1909190079) in the chamber's version of the FY 2020 FCC-FTC budget bill (S-2524) say they're not budging and expect a long fight. The dispute, which began last month, continued Thursday as Senate Appropriations Financial Services Committee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., and others grilled FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on whether he favors a private auction similar to what the C-Band Alliance proposes. Kennedy and some other lawmakers favor public auction (see 1908230049). Pai is expected to propose a private auction plan for a vote at commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting (see 1910100052).
House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., “largely” agrees the tech industry should have to earn its content liability protection. After Wednesday’s hearing on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1910150058), she told reporters it’s important Congress finds the best way to ensure content is “managed appropriately.”
Some wireless industry stakeholders in the debate over allocating the 6 GHz band have been lobbying to convince lawmakers to file and advance legislation requiring the FCC move forward with a plan that allows for licensed and unlicensed use of those frequencies, lobbyists told us. Such legislation would diverge from the direction of the FCC's current 6 GHz NPRM, which looks at opening 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use (see 1810230038).
Telecom sector supply chain security and spectrum legislation drew enthusiastic support from House Communications Subcommittee members and witnesses during a Friday hearing, as expected (see 1909260056). They gave no clear guidance during on how they want to proceed on the seven measures the panel examined. Lawmakers focused much of their attention on the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4459) and the Studying How to Harness Airwave Resources Efficiently Act (HR-4462), though they also showed interest in other measures.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., led filing Tuesday of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4459), as expected (see 1909230068). House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, bowed their Studying How to Harness Airwave Resources Efficiently (Share) Act, also as expected. House Communications is expected to examine both measures during a Friday hearing on supply chain security and spectrum legislation (see 1909200058), to begin at 9:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The long-anticipated HR-4459 would require the FCC to establish the Secure and Trusted Communications Reimbursement Program to provide funding to small carriers to remove equipment originating from companies that may be a security risk, including Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE. The measure would appropriate $1 billion to fund the program. Carriers with 2 million or fewer customers would qualify to receive the funding. It would also bar the use of federal funds to buy communications equipment or services from any company that's a national security risk to U.S. telecom networks. House Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., the Congressional Spectrum Caucus co-chairs, co-sponsored HR-4459. “This bipartisan legislation will protect our nation’s communications networks from foreign adversaries by helping small and rural wireless providers root-out suspect network equipment and replace it with more secure equipment,” said Guthrie, Matsui, Pallone and Walden in a statement. The Share Act is aimed in part at reasserting the existing roles the FCC and NTIA hold in managing and sharing federal spectrum. The bill's filing comes as House Commerce leaders push to jettison language in the Senate-passed FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (S-1790) that would tell DOD to work with the FCC and NTIA to establish a spectrum R&D program aimed at sharing among 5G technologies, federal and nonfederal incumbent systems (see 1906270051). Pallone and Walden are pushing (see 1909180048) to remove the language from the NDAA via a House-Senate conference working to marry elements of S-1790 and the House-passed NDAA (HR-2500). The Share Act would direct the FCC and NTIA to develop a plan for sharing the 7 GHz band and other frequencies between federal incumbents and commercial users. CTIA lauded Doyle and Latta for bowing the Share Act. Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Kelly Cole said the bill “reconfirms the U.S.’s longstanding process for managing and sharing federal spectrum assets is the right one.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 Thursday to advance to the floor its Financial Services FY 2020 budget bill with report language to pressure the FCC to hold a public auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. The measure, which the Financial Services Subcommittee cleared Tuesday, would allocate $339 million to the FCC and its Office of Inspector General and $312.3 million to the FTC (see 1909170060). The House-passed equivalent (HR-3351) allocated the FCC the same funding level but gave the FTC $349.7 million -- $37 million more than Senate Appropriations proposes (see 1906260081).
A planned Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on supply chain security and spectrum legislation is likely to focus on an expected bill aimed at helping smaller carriers address equipment on their networks that may be a security risk (see 1909120003), Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., told reporters. The hearing targets legislation “to root-out suspect network equipment nationwide and explore ways to improve coordination and management of spectrum resources to better serve the American people,” said Doyle and House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., in a statement. The panel is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn. Pallone has been leading work on coming legislation expected to provide funding to rural carriers to remove equipment from Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE (see 1907220053). House Communications aims to use “regular order” for advancing all of its legislation, “and the first step would be hearings and then markups, so it's reasonable to assume that if we have a hearing, then a markup can't be too far behind,” Doyle said. The hearing is unlikely to touch much on legislation on repurposing spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band for 5G, Doyle said. “We're not there yet” on legislation marrying elements of his own draft bill and the Wireless Investment Now in (Win) 5G Act (HR-4171) from House Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif. “I'm for a public auction and getting as much” of the C-band spectrum “sold as we can,” Doyle said.
House Communications Subcommittee leaders appear to be eyeing ways to combine language from at least five bills on improving the federal government's collection of broadband coverage data, before a planned Wednesday hearing on the subject, communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. The lawmakers are aiming to make progress on broadband mapping legislation, an issue that drew bipartisan interest. That's amid slower progress on other House Commerce Committee communications policy priorities to clear spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band for 5G and Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization (see 1908050037 and 1908230049).
Eutelsat's no longer being allied with the C-Band Alliance (CBA) (see 1909030041) hurts its band-clearing plan before the FCC, though it remains to be seen how much, experts told us. The key is why Eutelsat left and what it does now. Chairman Ajit Pai’s office and Eutelsat didn’t comment.
Leaders of the House Communications and Senate Appropriations Financial Services subcommittees are using the month-plus August recess to finalize their plans for a legislative solution to the debate over how to clear spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band for 5G use. Some lawmakers said they need to reach a quick decision on how to proceed to influence the outcome before the FCC releases its proposal. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appears to be aiming for a plan to clear at least 300 MHz of C-band spectrum (see 1908200044). The sides offered conflicting readings earlier this month of initial comments to the FCC on alternative plans (see 1908150042). Those comments showed little move toward consensus (see 1908080041).