Some Senate GOP Defections Possible on CRA to Undo FCC's E-rate Hot Spots Order
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and other GOP leaders are optimistic, but not yet certain, that they have the votes on their side of the aisle to pass a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval (S.J.Res. 7) to undo the FCC's July 2024 order allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. Chamber Democrats are vowing to fight S.J.Res. 7 if leaders bring up the measure for a vote, which lobbyists said could happen as soon as next week. Supporters and opponents of the E-rate expansion are eyeing a handful of Republicans they believe are reluctant to rescind the FCC’s order.
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Thune and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas, the lead sponsor of S.J.Res. 7, separately told us that they expect nearly all their fellow Republicans to back the measure but left open the possibility that some in the GOP caucus may vote against it. “I suspect [S.J.Res. 7] is something we can all get behind” within the Republican conference, Thune said in a recent interview. The Senate placed the measure on its general calendar Wednesday night after its backers filed a petition to discharge Senate Commerce jurisdiction, bypassing the need for the panel to advance it.
“I hope” for unanimous GOP support, Cruz told us. He said he's not aware of any Democrats who might support the measure, “but we certainly would welcome that as well.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a S.J.Res. 7 co-sponsor, said she expects it will easily clear the chamber. It can pass with up to three Republicans opposed if the other 50 vote for it and Vice President JD Vance breaks a tie in the measure's favor. All 47 Democrats are likely to vote against it.
House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, who sponsored a companion to S.J.Res. 7 (H.J.Res. 33), told us he's watching how the Senate moves on the proposal. Lobbyists told us that whether all 53 Republican senators back S.J.Res. 7 will depend on how hard Thune and other GOP leaders whip the vote. A lobbyist who backs the rollback proposal said it theoretically should appeal to all GOP factions.
Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., questioned whether S.J.Res. 7 has a clear path in the chamber. She wondered whether Senate Republicans “who wanted” the $65 billion in broadband funding that Congress enacted via the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and “care a lot about” E-rate will support a rollback. Cantwell pointed to three Republicans as among the potential wildcards: Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins of Maine and Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both of Alaska.
SHLB Forecasts 'Difficult Vote'
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., told us some Republicans may think twice about rolling back the FCC's order if they “go home and have a conversation with all the students and all the educators and explain to them why they don't deserve to have connectivity.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who wrote the language in the 1996 Telecommunications Act that authorized the original E-rate program, told us he is “going to fight vigorously anything that the Republicans try to perpetrate which would harm” expanded access to its funding.
House Communications member Rob Menendez, D-N.J., told us that congressional passage of S.J.Res. 7 isn’t a foregone conclusion. “The Republicans seem set on rolling back anything that the Biden administration did, no matter how beneficial it is for all of our districts,” he said after a Wednesday subpanel hearing (see 2503050067), during which he brought up the proposed resolution. He said he brought it up during the hearing, which partially focused on a potential revamp of NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program to put the implications of a rollback on Republicans’ “radar.”
Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen told us he’s “not sure that all the Republicans are going to support” S.J.Res. 7 if it comes up for a Senate vote. “A lot of the offices that we've talked to have had a lot of questions about whether this is the right strategy, to roll this FCC proceeding back,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It's going to be a difficult vote for a lot of senators because the applications for E-rate funding for hot spots are coming from” 46 states. Voting on S.J.Res. 7 could put “a lot of senators in a difficult position,” he said: “Do they really want to vote to take service away from their constituents?”
Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and a former aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, told us he can “think of a couple [of Republican senators] who may have thoughts or concerns about” S.J.Res. 7, but its sponsors have “definitely demonstrated to the Republicans why the [hot spots] order was beyond the pale and the need to kind of rethink this in a way that’s in line with protecting American taxpayers and schoolchildren.”