Congress is buying itself more time to continue negotiations on a potential spectrum legislative package by agreeing to temporarily extend the FCC’s auction authority through Dec. 16 (see 2209210076), but the breathing room hasn’t appreciably improved prospects those talks will result in a deal by the new deadline, lawmakers and lobbyists told us last week. The House voted 230-201 Friday to pass a continuing resolution that includes the FCC renewal and an extension of federal appropriations to the Dec. 16 date (HR-6833). The Senate approved it Thursday (see 2209290066). President Joe Biden was expected to sign the measure before FY 2022 appropriations expired late Friday.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., warned the FCC and FTC not to "continue to exceed Congressional authorizations" given the "limitations" on their authority highlighted in the Supreme Court's June West Virginia v. EPA ruling. The high court further clamped down on the ability of agencies like the FCC to regulate without clear direction from Congress (see 2206300066). The committee "will exercise our robust investigative and legislative powers" to ensure federal agencies don't overreach, Rodgers told FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and FTC Chair Lina Khan in Sept. 23 letters released Wednesday. Rodgers appears to be putting federal agencies on notice ahead of the GOP's potential regain of House control in the Nov. 8 midterm election.
Telecom-focused lawmakers are hopeful they will be able to reach a final deal in the coming days to include a short-term extension of the FCC’s expiring spectrum auction authority in a potential continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past Sept. 30 (see 2209090053). Talks Wednesday appeared to be strongly coalescing around a stopgap reauthorization through Dec. 16 -- in line with the likely expiration of the overall CR -- but there’s been no final deal, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Lawmakers believe the temporary renewal will give them more breathing room to reach a deal on a broader spectrum legislative package during the lame-duck session (see 2208090001).
House Agriculture Committee leaders eyed how to address broadband issues in the 2023 farm bill during a Thursday hearing, with panel ranking member Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and some others noting dissatisfaction with the degree to which the $65 billion in connectivity money included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would affect rural areas. “Rural broadband will continue to be a major focus” for House Agriculture despite House passage of IIJA’s connectivity money instead of the panel-approved Broadband Internet Connections for Rural America Act (HR-4374), which included $43 billion to Rural Utilities Service programs for FY 2022-29 (see 2107140061), said panel Chairman David Scott, D-Ga.
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.