The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General plans to publish a “management alert” about NTIA’s “reliance on tribes’ self-certifications of their broadband status to determine their eligibility for grants under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program,” Assistant IG-Audit and Evaluation Arthur Scott said in a Monday memo to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson we obtained Tuesday night. OIG plans to release the alert Wednesday, officials said. TBCP is one of several federal broadband programs congressional Republicans have focused on since December as part of ramped-up scrutiny of the government’s connectivity spending.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote Wednesday on three FCC nominees and commission inspector general candidate Fara Damelin, as expected (see 2306270067), the committee said Thursday. Incumbent Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and new pick Anna Gomez got copious questions from Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and other panel Republicans, but none of them indicated the same level of negativity that ex-nominee Gigi Sohn faced during her often-fractious year-plus confirmation process. Committee Democrats, meanwhile, probed Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr on controversial statements he made since becoming a commissioner during the Trump administration.
House Communications Subcommittee members made the future of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program a major focus of its Wednesday commission oversight hearing, as expected (see 2306200075), but the panel didn’t result in a clear sense of whether Commerce Committee GOP leaders will back additional funding for the initiative. Subpanel Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and others haven’t committed themselves as either for or against further ACP funding (see 2305100073). Democrats strongly defended the program and urged its extension.
Senate Commerce Committee Republicans are likely to barrage FCC nominee Anna Gomez with questions during a Thursday confirmation hearing to pinpoint her positions on communications policies the commission might act on under a 3-2 Democratic majority, but won’t go as negative as during ex-candidate Gigi Sohn’s February panel (see 2302140077), lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. Gomez will get a far friendlier reception from Senate Commerce’s Democratic majority, but officials say they will be eyeing questions from three caucus members who were undecided on Sohn in the weeks before her March withdrawal (see 2303070082).
The FCC’s administration of its affordable connectivity program and other broadband initiatives won’t be the sole focus of a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing with commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and other commissioners, but it’s likely to be the item with the most bearing on future policymaking, observers said in interviews. The panel is happening a day before two of the commissioners -- Republican Brendan Carr and Democrat Geoffrey Starks -- appear before the Senate Commerce Committee for a joint confirmation hearing with new FCC nominee Anna Gomez (see 2306150068). The House Communications hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told us he doesn’t plan to seek amendments to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act involving his push to delay a deal on a spectrum legislative package until after DOD completes a study of its systems on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band (see 2305170037). The 175-member House-side Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, backed restoring the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority for an indeterminate amount of time, in its FY24 budget proposal.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans a confirmation hearing June 22 on FCC nominee Anna Gomez, along with renominated Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, despite a GOP push to split up the trio, panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, told us Wednesday. The panel is unlikely to formally notice the hearing until Thursday. Supporters of shifting the FCC to a 3-2 Democratic majority are hopeful the move will set the Senate on a course to confirm all three nominees before the chamber begins its August recess. The House Communications Subcommittee is also to hear from FCC commissioners next week, setting its first commission oversight hearing of this Congress for June 21.
The House Commerce Committee-approved Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565) “misses the mark,” but “I remain committed to enacting legislation that expands commercial access to spectrum and maximizes value for American taxpayers,” Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us in a statement Monday. Panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others are citing Cruz as the main impediment right now to congressional leaders reaching a consensus on a spectrum legislative package (see 2306120058). HR-3565 mirrors major parts of the spectrum legislative package House and Senate Commerce leaders proposed in December (see 2212190069), including language to allocate some future auction proceeds to the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, next-generation 911 technology upgrades and middle-mile projects. Cruz said he's “especially” opposed to “the $20 billion earmarked for a variety of pet projects like unneeded and duplicative broadband subsidies.”
Backers of allocating additional money for the FCC's affordable connectivity program and other broadband initiatives the federal government created during the COVID-19 pandemic need to make Republicans "understand the consequences ... of not funding access," said House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee ranking member Steny Hoyer, D-Md., during a Tuesday Punchbowl News event. GOP leaders on the House and Senate Commerce committees called ACP's future into question in May when they asked the FCC's Office of Inspector General to probe the commission's management of the program money it received via the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 2305080067).
Telecom-focused congressional leaders told us they’re sticking for now with a potential spectrum legislative package that would allocate some future auction proceeds to the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program as the best option for fixing the initiative’s $3.08 billion shortfall. Talks on the package have yielded limited progress since January amid resistance from Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to major portions of a previous version of the measure lawmakers failed in December to attach to the FY 2023 appropriations omnibus (see 2212190069).