Fischer, Rounds Back Revised Senate GOP Spectrum Reconciliation Proposal
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, locked down support Wednesday from a pair of top Armed Services Committee Republicans for the panel’s spectrum budget reconciliation package language after strengthening the original proposal’s exclusion of the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential FCC auction or other reallocation (see 2506060029). Cruz’s office also reemphasized his view that the revised proposal’s language to encourage states to pause enforcement of AI laws no longer threatens jurisdictions’ eligibility for the enacted $42.5 billion in BEAD funding (see 2506230043) in the face of Democratic assertions to the contrary.
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The revised Senate Commerce proposal clarifies that nothing in its spectrum title “may be construed to authorize … the withdrawal or modification [of the lower 3 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands or] non-Federal use” of those frequencies. Cruz told reporters the revision represented a “resolution” with a trio of GOP senators -- Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Armed Services member Mike Rounds of South Dakota -- who had pushed for stronger exclusion language for both bands (see 2505220064).
The proposal also modifies its requirement that the NTIA director’s identification of 500 MHz of the proposed 800 MHz spectrum pipeline for nonfederal or shared federal and nonfederal use come from bands under federal control. The language clarifies that the identified 500 MHz “shall be in addition to” the 300 MHz that the proposal mandates to come from nonfederal airwaves. The revised spectrum language is otherwise identical to the original, including restoring the FCC’s lapsed auction mandate through Sept. 30, 2034.
Rounds and Fischer, who's also a Senate Armed Services member, endorsed the revised spectrum proposal and took a victory lap. “The text released today is a win for U.S. national security [that] solidified” the preliminary agreement Cruz reached with Cotton and Armed Services members earlier this month (see 2506040078), Fischer and Rounds said in a statement. “For the next decade, essential national security bands will now be statutorily excluded from spectrum auction and shielded from having commercial users squeezed into them.”
Fischer and Rounds are “hopeful that the language we agreed to will hold” if the Senate approves its reconciliation package and negotiations begin to reach a deal to marry it with the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR-1), which seeks a 600 MHz spectrum pipeline and doesn’t exclude the 7.4-8.4 GHz band (see 2506110052).
Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., noted that she continues to strongly oppose the panel’s reconciliation language (see 2506120084), even in its revised form. It still would “risk grounding both civilian and military aircraft due to interference with airplane altimeters” by requiring the FCC to sell off 100 MHz from the 3.98-4.2 GHz upper C band, which is close to altimeters that use the 4200-4400 MHz band, she said in a statement. “It would jeopardize our weather tracking radar systems and the bands we rely on for WiFi connectivity.”
CTIA Praise
CTIA General Counsel Umair Javed predicted Wednesday that Senate Commerce’s spectrum reconciliation proposal will “become the governing text going forward” in conference negotiations. It “does what the country needs at a high level and restores FCC auction authority,” Javed said during a Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy webinar Wednesday. The measure “puts much-needed spectrum in the pipeline for the wireless [industry], but it also takes care to protect the bands that [DOD] has identified as important for national security.”
Rysavy Research's Peter Rysavy said during the webinar that the proposed 800 MHz pipeline is “definitely going to be a benefit for networks and will really address the needs of the industry through the end of this decade.” He said he expects that the wireless industry will likely require another 800 MHz in the 2030s. Demand for more data will be driven by the growing use of smart glasses, IoT solutions and smart devices communicating with other devices, he predicted.
University of Pennsylvania professor Christopher Yoo noted that getting to a spectrum auction will still be “a multiyear process that transcends any administration,” even if Cruz’s proposal becomes law. He's “encouraged” by a “greater willingness to have a conversation” among the wireless industry and federal spectrum holders.
Meanwhile, Cantwell said Senate Commerce’s AI language “continues to hold $42 billion in BEAD funding hostage, forcing states to choose between protecting consumers and expanding critical broadband infrastructure to rural communities.” Her office noted that “the bill’s text conditions the full $42 billion, likely resulting in a nationwide AI moratorium,” despite Cruz’s claim that it now conditions eligibility only for a new $500 million AI-related BEAD allocation in compliance with the state-law enforcement pause.
Cruz’s office released a fact sheet Wednesday that said a “state that does NOT voluntarily decide to receive a portion of the $500 million federal investment money does not have to” pause enforcement of its AI laws. “In other words, this pause in AI regulation is voluntary and not a federal mandate on states.”