Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she hopes to soon file legislation on a five-year renewal of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority without language authorizing sales of specific bands, despite Republican criticism during a Thursday hearing about omitting an airwaves pipeline. Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., emphasized their 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) as an antidote to concerns about the Biden spectrum strategy, as expected (see 2403200001). The hearing also revealed clear divisions among panel Republicans about continuing to explore 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which has drawn opposition from DOD and top Capitol Hill allies (see 2403200061).
The House Commerce Committee unanimously advanced the Future Uses of Technology Upholding Reliable and Enhancing Networks Act (HR-1513) and three communications equipment security measures Wednesday, as expected (see 2403190062). Also on the agenda: the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act (HR-820), Countering CCP Drones Act (HR-2864) and Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security Act (HR-7589). HR-820 would require the FCC to publish a list of communications companies with agency licenses or other authorizations in which China and other foreign adversaries’ governments hold at least a 10% ownership stake (see 2210250067). HR-1513 would direct the FCC to establish a 6G task force that provides recommendations about ensuring U.S. leadership in developing that technology’s standards. HR-2864 would add Chinese drone manufacturer Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) to the FCC’s covered entities list. HR-7521 would direct the Commerce Department to “specify what transactions involving routers, modems, or devices that combine a modem and a router are prohibited” under a 2019 executive order by then-President Donald Trump’s that barred transactions involving information and communications technologies that pose an “undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of” U.S.-based communications services (see 1905150066). “China poses a serious threat to America's national security across the board, including to our critical communications infrastructure,” said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., during the committee meeting. “We know that the [Chinese Communist Party] will utilize every tool at its disposal to exploit vulnerabilities in our communications networks, which is why this committee has taken decisive action in these areas. Failure to address these exceedingly complex threats not only jeopardizes our economic competitiveness and national security, but also risks ceding ground to an adversarial power intent on undermining American leadership.” The four bills “will help protect American networks from security threats, while also allowing our country to remain a global leader in communications technology,” said panel ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. He singled out HR-1513, which “will help us understand the potential risks to best protect our networks and strengthen the technologies designed.”
The House on Wednesday unanimously approved TikTok-related legislation that would ban data brokers from transferring “sensitive” U.S. information to “foreign adversaries” such as China. Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee are planning a joint hearing about their legislative options.
A Thursday Senate Commerce Committee hearing is likely to highlight stark differences between panel leaders’ competing proposals for a spectrum legislative package, including whether it should mandate sales of specific bands before NTIA completes studies of those frequencies in keeping with the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). Lawmakers’ apparent failure to reach a deal allocating additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403190062) as part of a FY 2024 still-unreleased “minibus” spending package also ratchets up the pressure for a spectrum bill to use future auction revenue to pay for multiple telecom priorities, officials and lobbyists told us.
Stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program is not included in an FY 2024 appropriations “minibus” package Congress is aiming to approve this week, several lobbyists told us Tuesday. The omission also makes it doubtful congressional leaders attached an additional $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, lobbyists said. Advocates of both programs were pushing for their funding in the minibus (see 2403150063) as recently as last weekend. The White House and Capitol Hill reached a deal on FY24 funding for the FCC and most other agencies over the weekend; they reached a final agreement on the bill Monday night.
Advocates of additional federal funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program were closely monitoring congressional negotiations Friday in hopes appropriators would reach a deal addressing both priorities as part of a second tranche of FY 2024 spending bills lawmakers want approved before midnight March 22. Rip-and-replace supporters voiced strong optimism that the next “minibus” package would include $3.08 billion to fully fund that program. ACP backers were, at least privately, growing less hopeful of a deal including their priority.
Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (Texas) and 18 other Senate Republicans are pursuing a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to undo the FCC’s digital discrimination order that mirrors a January House measure (H.J.Res. 107), as expected (see 2402260001). The digital discrimination order faces multiple legal challenges, now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2403140042). “Despite admitting there’s ‘little to no evidence’ of discrimination by broadband companies, the Biden administration has plowed ahead with government-mandated affirmative action and race-based pricing for broadband,” Cruz said Thursday. “The only beneficiaries of the FCC’s Orwellian ‘equity’ plan are overzealous government regulators who want to control the internet. This resolution will roll back FCC Democrats’ unlawful power grab.” The other Republican co-sponsors include Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune (S.D.). Cruz, Thune and other Republican senators urged the agency in November to reconsider the then-draft rules (see 2311130059). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told reporters Thursday she has “confidence in” the FCC’s digital discrimination rules “and that our work is consistent with” authorizing language in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The Senate Commerce Committee needs to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Intelligence Committee before deciding on potentially marking up TikTok-related national security legislation, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday (see 2403130039).
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she's considering a clean FCC reauthorization bill that could pay for some of congressional leaders’ telecom priorities but wouldn’t necessarily mandate that the commission begin sales of specific frequencies. Senate Commerce plans a March 21 hearing on that and other spectrum policy issues, Cantwell told us Thursday ahead of a formal panel announcement. Cantwell's proposal would be in line with her pursuit of a slimmed-down measure (see 2403110066) drawing some elements of the stalled House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565).
The House voted 352-65 Wednesday to approve legislation that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest the app in six months (see 2403120062).