Guthrie Open to Senate Talks as House Commerce Advances Spectrum Reconciliation Bill

“We're working with interested parties to make sure we get [the spectrum language] right” in a way that passes muster on the House floor and in talks with the Senate, Guthrie told us. “We're at where we are” on language to require the FCC to sell 600 MHz of repurposed bandwidth, which Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, may seek to replace. “I think we both have the same intent,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C. “We'll figure it out.”

Communications industry lobbyists said Cruz will almost certainly continue pursuing an airwaves amount closer to 1,250 MHz, the number NTIA would have to identify for auction under his 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act. He has repeatedly touted the bill this year as his preferred basis for an airwaves title (see 2502190068). Cruz “recognizes that this is a negotiation,” and pursuing a larger pipeline at this point won't torpedo a spectrum title's place in a reconciliation package, one industry official said.

Guthrie acknowledged concerns that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other senators raised about reconciliation language that wouldn't allow reallocation of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which DOD supporters have adamantly opposed repurposing in recent years (see 2501070069). The House measure also exempts the 5.9-7.1 (6) GHz band.

Rounds, Fischer Object

Senate Armed Services members Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., also raised concerns that the House Commerce proposal doesn't go far enough to safeguard DOD spectrum. “It doesn't do an adequate job of protecting” the lower 3 GHz band because the language doesn't “specifically exclude attempts to go after that spectrum” once the measure's renewal of the FCC's auction authority expires at the end of FY 2034, Rounds said. He added that he's also concerned there aren't protections for military incumbents on the 7 GHz and 8 GHz bands.

Rounds said he wants the lower 3 GHz carve-out expanded so the federal government would need “congressional approval before they could authorize sales of any portion of” the lower 3 GHz band after the proposed FCC reauthorization ends. Fischer, who is also Senate Communications Subcommittee chair, said in a statement that vital “national security assets are not adequately protected under this proposal and will end up costing taxpayers more in the end. I’ll keep working to make sure my colleagues understand why the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands must be explicitly safeguarded.”

“We think [House Commerce's proposal] protects the spectrum that it needs to protect,” Guthrie countered. He's “listening to [critics], and if people in the intelligence world say we need to go farther, then we'll look at that as we progress” to the floor. Some communications sector officials told us they're concerned that Rounds and other DOD supporters will continue moving the goalposts for a spectrum deal, but if a showdown looms, they believe the Trump administration will come down in favor of the wireless industry's needs.

Guthrie does have backing from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala. DOD officials “told me that they're comfortable with the [lower 3 GHz band] being secured, and I understand that the intelligence community has worked out an agreement" on the 7 GHz and 8 GHz bands, Rogers told us. “I'm sure somebody will find something to be concerned about, [but] that's the legislative arena” in action.

Democrats Scold

House Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey and other Democrats upbraided panel Republicans during the markup for abandoning several years of bipartisan spectrum negotiations in favor of what Pallone referred to as a more “partisan path.” He said Republicans in part “have abandoned their commitments to fund critical public safety upgrades with spectrum auction proceeds,” as House Commerce did in 2023 via the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (see 2305240069).

House Communications ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., urged lawmakers to “be careful when opening up spectrum bands to new uses." She cited concerns about repurposing the 3550-3650 MHz citizens broadband radio service band, which DOD in March proposed vacating, along with some others, while retaining the lower 3 GHz band (see 2504040068).

House Commerce voted 28-24 against an amendment from Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., to attach to the package language that would allocate up to $14.8 billion in future auction proceeds to pay for next-generation 911 tech upgrades. “I can think of no other better way of funding it than using these spectrum funds,” Carter said. Adding the NG-911 funding language previously included in the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act "would make perfect sense.”

Hudson said he still backs funding NG-911 but opposed the amendment. He argued that “getting it done outside of reconciliation ensures the quickest delivery, [because lawmakers need] an accurate number of dollars to appropriate for this technology.” The most recent cost estimate “for NG-911 deployment we have is from 2018,” he said. There's “no doubt the number we need to appropriate has changed, and I want to get this right.” NG-911 supporters in February were hoping to persuade Hudson and others to allocate some spectrum revenue in reconciliation to pay for the technology (see 2502260045).

The National Emergency Number Association, which last week asked House Commerce leaders to include NG-911 funding in the reconciliation bill, noted its absence from the proposal and urged lawmakers to reconsider. “If they do not, they must identify another source of revenue for this essential public-safety upgrade that will benefit all Americans,” said NENA CEO Brian Fontes.

Other Amendments

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., sought an amendment allocating 10% of spectrum auction proceeds from the 600 MHz pipeline to the FCC's lapsed affordable connectivity program. House Commerce rejected it 29-24. “The spectrum that my Republican colleagues are seeking to auction off today does not belong to them,” Clarke said. “The proceeds should be reinvested for the public good and not used exclusively to pay for tax cuts for their billionaire friends. Funding a program to help make broadband affordable is now needed … more than ever.”

Hudson argued that funding the connectivity program “using spectrum proceeds would ultimately harm the very people [the amendment] seeks to help. This is only a temporary solution. Spectrum proceeds will run out, and then all the families that rely on the subsidy will be left without it again.” It also “does nothing to reform [the program] to address eligibility or the waste, fraud and abuse that we saw rampant.”

House Commerce also turned down three other Democratic amendments. One from Pallone would have stripped out a proposed 10-year preemption of state-level AI laws. Another, from Matsui, would have delayed the spectrum proposal from taking effect until Cabinet-level secretaries and other executive branch political appointees “have received cybersecurity training, [including] on the operation of commercial messaging applications, such as Signal and TeleMessage, for official use.”

The third amendment, from Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., would have barred spectrum proceeds from benefiting “any entities where the President, government officials, special government employees, or family members of the President, government officials or special government employees maintain an ownership interest (directly or indirectly) in the entity.”