Supporters of FCC's E-rate Hot Spots Order to Fight On as Senate Proceeds With Rollback

Three Republicans publicly identified by the order’s supporters as most likely to defect -- Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska -- ultimately backed the S.J.Res. 7. Murkowski said she had “a wager going with my staff right now [on whether] I can make it through the full day consistently saying ‘no comment’ to reporters’ questions. You don't want me to lose that wager, so you're going to have to ask me this tomorrow.” Collins’ and Sullivan’s offices didn’t comment.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Monday night that a final vote on S.J.Res. 7 would likely happen Thursday, assuming it cleared Tuesday's procedural hurdle. “I think we're in good shape” on the measure, despite E-rate supporters’ push to recruit some Republicans into the "no" column, Thune said. He noted that CRA measures brought up for Senate votes have generally drawn opposition from only a few Republicans, but most tend to get “on board in the end [with] this kind of rolling back the Biden [administration's] regulatory state.”

Thune argued on the floor Tuesday that there are “a host of reasons to repeal” the FCC’s hot spots order, including that the Communications Act “clearly limits the use of [E-rate funding] to classrooms and libraries.” The order “endangers children by giving unsupervised access to a host of potentially dangerous or unhealthy content [and] creates the potential for supplication of government efforts to deploy broadband,” he said.

Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director Joey Wender called the Senate’s initial vote on S.J.Res. 7 “a disappointing step backward. Stripping schools and libraries of the ability to use E-rate funding for hotspot lending will widen the digital divide and hurt the very people these programs are meant to serve.”

Wender told us ahead of Tuesday's decision that SHLB, along with other groups that urged senators in March not to back the measure (see 2503110065), “will continue to fight until the final vote. It’s not over until it’s over.” Murkowski and Sullivan “have long been strong supporters of [USF], and we all know Alaska benefits greatly from” E-rate and other programs that the initiative funds, Wender said. Collins is among other Republican senators whom SHLB “had good conversations with” in recent months on the matter.

Supporters of the FCC’s order on and off Capitol Hill acknowledged that they are unlikely to sway Collins, Murkowski, Sullivan or any other Senate Republicans against S.J.Res. 7, now that they supported the motion to proceed. It’s rare for senators to flip on a CRA between the procedural and final votes, several observers noted. American Library Association President Cindy Hohl appeared to acknowledge that the Senate is likely to support S.J.Res. 7 Thursday, saying in a Tuesday statement that the measure “doesn’t need to become law if House members consider how many constituents are benefitting -- and will benefit in the future from this program. The enthusiasm for this vote was low.”

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and other Democrats said they will campaign against S.J.Res. 7 ahead of the final vote. “I am definitely going to talk” against the CRA measure, although it may be in the context of the Trump administration's “overall strategy” on broadband, Cantwell told us. “We want broadband availability, [but] we'll see whether any of our Republican colleagues support that.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called repealing the FCC’s E-rate order "a cruel and shortsighted decision that will widen the digital divide and rob kids of the tools they need to succeed. My colleagues must join me in opposing this cruel resolution.”