The Senate is highly unlikely to act on FCC nominee Gigi Sohn before the November election amid a busy legislative calendar and a campaign-centric atmosphere on Capitol Hill that’s made confirmation next to impossible for any Biden administration picks who lack GOP support, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. Top Senate Commerce Committee Republicans all but shot down speculation that circulated during the August recess that pairing Sohn with an eventual replacement for retiring GOP FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips (see 2208170039) could ease GOP opposition to the FCC nominee’s confirmation.
Additional money to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and a short-term extension of the FCC’s expiring spectrum auction authority both remain under consideration as additions to a planned continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past Sept. 30, but talks remain highly fluid, lawmakers and lobbyists told us last week. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and other committee leaders left open the possibility of a short-term auction authority renewal as a stopgap, telling us they hadn’t reached a deal during the August recess on a broader spectrum legislative package.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., is eyeing potential legislation to reverse the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s July ruling that vacated the FCC’s requirement that broadcasters check federal databases to determine if entities leasing time on their stations are agents of foreign governments (see 2207120069). Broadcast industry officials told us they don’t believe a bid to resurrect the vacated requirement -- that broadcasters check programming lessors against Foreign Agents Registration Act and FCC databases -- would get much traction in Congress.
FCC nominee Gigi Sohn's supporters are countering a recent Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT) letter to Senate Commerce Committee leaders opposing her confirmation, questioning the truth behind the group’s claims about her past interactions with the leaders of some member tribes and calling them character assassination. Telecom policy stakeholders see COLT’s letter as targeted at maintaining pressure on Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Democrats who have remained publicly undecided on the nominee for months (see 2205050050).
Backers of a bid to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe appropriations legislation, including a likely continuing resolution to extend federal payments past Sept. 30, is the most viable vehicle for formally allocating the additional money, due to concerns about delayed action on the House-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Senate Commerce Committee leaders are grappling during the August recess with how to respond to HR-7624, which would allocate some proceeds from a proposed auction of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for rip and replace reimbursements, given disagreements on spectrum policy priorities (see 2208090001).
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., ranking member Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and six other senators urged the FCC Wednesday to “stay and reconsider” its April 2020 approval of Ligado’s L-band plan, the latest renewal of their longstanding opposition to the action (see 2004160030). A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel, meanwhile, plans to soon release “an independent technical review” of the FCC’s Ligado order.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other panel leaders are hopeful they can use the August recess to negotiate a deal on a spectrum legislative package before Congress returns after Labor Day, or at least decide whether to seek a stopgap FCC spectrum auction authority renewal in hopes of reaching a consensus later. Panel Democrats and Republicans divided along party lines (see 2208020076) during a Communications Subcommittee hearing last week on whether they back the 18-month authority extension included in the House-passed Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624).
The nominee for ambassador at large-cyberspace and digital policy told Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Wednesday he intends to “try to expand” the number of nations signed on to the Declaration for the Future of the Internet that the U.S., EU and more than 60 other countries signed in April (see 2204280043). Nate Fick said during the committee hearing he supports deploying funding included in the Chips and Science Act (HR-4346) to develop secure 5G technology and believes the U.S. needs to promote open radio access networks and other technologies to ensure telecom infrastructure security. Fick, if confirmed, would also head the State Department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (see 2206070047).
Senate Commerce Committee Democratic and Republican leaders divided along party lines during a Tuesday Communications Subcommittee hearing on their preferences for extending the FCC’s spectrum auction authority, the dominant focus during the panel, as expected (see 2208010030). Communications Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., strongly backed a longer-term renewal than the House proposes in its Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Commerce ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., back HR-7624’s proposed 18-month renewal.
Senate Commerce Committee leaders remain intent on pursuing their own spectrum legislative package before a Tuesday Communications Subcommittee hearing, despite House Commerce Committee heads’ call for their colleagues to just concur with the chamber-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624) given the Sept. 30 expiration of the FCC’s auction authority. That deadline is expected to be a focus during the hearing, with the subpanel likely to get divided opinions from witnesses on the wisdom of HR-7624’s proposal for an 18-month auction authority renewal that would last through March 31, 2024. The hearing is to begin at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell.