House Approves Revised CR Proposal; Telecom Bills Not Restored
The House voted 366-34 Friday evening to pass a revised version of the American Relief Act (HR-10545), likely averting a government shutdown that was otherwise set to occur at midnight. The Senate was viewed as likely to pass the measure later Friday, and the White House said President Joe Biden would sign it. The House had voted 174-235 Thursday night against the previous HR-10515, which combined a stripped-down CR and two-year debt ceiling suspension (see 2412190070), receiving President-elect Donald Trump’s endorsement. HR. The approved measure jettisons the debt-ceiling suspension but preserves a farm bill extension through Sept. 30, 2025, and disaster relief funding. Trump had demanded immediate debt ceiling action, along with his criticism of congressional leaders’ initial, more expansive CR proposal earlier last week (see 2412170081).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., pressed congressional leaders Friday to probe the role SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, co-lead of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency advisory group, played in the collapse of the initial CR proposal. “Republican leadership caved at the last minute to the demands of ‘President’ Musk to shut down the government and strip out hundreds of pages of critical provisions that would have reauthorized important programs to support American workers and families,” DeLauro wrote in a letter to the leaders. She noted some of the jettisoned language would require screening “U.S. investments in critical sectors in China,” which could impact Musk.
The revised HR-10545 doesn't restore language from the NTIA Reauthorization Act (HR-4510) and several other telecom and tech bills that congressional leaders included in a more expansive CR proposal earlier last week (see 2412170081) and which Johnson purged in HR-10515. Lobbyists lamented that congressional leaders removed HR-4510 from the package because it would have marked Congress’ first renewal of NTIA’s mandate since 1992 and elevated the NTIA administrator’s role from assistant secretary to undersecretary.
House Innovation Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., told us he didn’t expect leaders to try again to insert his revised AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-8449) into the CR after an objection from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., kept it out of the original CR proposal. Jeffries’ opposition to including HR-8449 in the CR “had nothing to do with the contents and substance of the bill,” Bilirakis said: “We’ll try again early next year” to move a refiled version of the legislation, especially given Johnson was one of 270 House co-sponsors of an earlier iteration (HR-3413). Senate companion S-1669 had 62 co-sponsors, more than the 60-vote threshold needed to clear the chamber’s cloture hurdle.
New York State Broadcasters Association President David Donovan told us he thinks the “ship has sailed” for 2024 Capitol Hill action on HR-8449, “but anything is possible in Washington.” A NAB spokesperson referred us to an earlier statement pledging to work to swiftly pass the legislation in the next Congress. CTA, an opponent of the bill, didn't comment.