Cruz 'Actively Considering' Changes to House Commerce's Spectrum Reconciliation Proposal
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas is holding off on publicly endorsing or opposing the House Commerce Committee's reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), but he and some other fellow panel Republicans are already looking at potential changes if it emerges from the lower chamber as currently written. House Commerce hadn't yet tackled the reconciliation measure’s spectrum language Tuesday afternoon as panel members traded barbs about the legislation’s proposed Medicaid cuts.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Cruz told us Tuesday that he sees House Commerce’s proposal for a 600 MHz pipeline as a “major victory,” but he's still “actively considering what precisely to include” on spectrum in the Senate’s reconciliation bill. Cruz similarly said Monday night that the 600 MHz plan is “encouraging” but implied he wanted to see how it looks after the House finalizes its overall reconciliation package (see 2505120075). The measure would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through the end of FY 2034 and mandate selling all 600 MHz on an “exclusive, licensed basis.” It would exclude from eligibility for reallocation the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which DOD supporters have adamantly opposed repurposing in recent years (see 2501070069), as well as the 5.9-7.1 (6) GHz band.
Even House Commerce’s push for a 600 MHz pipeline in association with renewing the FCC’s authority “is something that just a couple of months ago naysayers in Washington said would never happen," Cruz told us. “The precise details of what gets enacted will continue to be negotiated between the House and Senate, but my optimism level is very high that we’re going to get a major spectrum pipeline enacted into law.” Two communications sector lobbyists said Cruz still wants to pursue a spectrum pipeline closer to the 2,500 MHz that he called for NTIA to identify in the 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act, which he has repeatedly touted this year as his preferred basis for an airwaves title (see 2502190068).
Cruz pointed to House Commerce’s lower 3 GHz and 6 GHz carve-outs as a point of contention. “My preference is not to block off any particular bands and to rather trust the [Trump] administration and the interagency process to determine the bands that are most valuable and technically feasible to make available” for commercial use, he said. “But that question will be part of the give and take of the legislative process.” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us he expects the band carve-outs will be “an issue that will probably have to be massaged in conference, but I am confident that we will get to a satisfactory result.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told us Senate Commerce will likely “need to revisit what [House Commerce] is doing” on spectrum, including the carve-outs. “We’ll look at exactly what [the lower chamber] sends forward,” she said. “But we know it is imperative that we reinstitute [the FCC’s auction authority]. It is imperative that we have those lower and midbands, that anything that is being hoarded” by DOD and other federal agencies “is going to be recouped by NTIA and moved forward for auction.”
Cantwell: No DOD Protections
Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she's concerned that House Commerce’s lower 3 GHz and 6 GHz carve-outs are insufficient, adding later that House Commerce Republicans’ claim that they “are protecting DoD spectrum from auction [is] not accurate.” The reconciliation measure “does nothing to prevent the FCC from auctioning the lower 3 GHz or any other band critical to national security or public safety. It only excludes one DoD band from the pipeline provisions,” Cantwell said, “and there are no protections whatsoever" for the 7 GHz and 8 GHz bands.
House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., was the only panel member to mention the spectrum proposal during the reconciliation markup as of our deadline Tuesday afternoon. Guthrie emphasized it “will raise $88 billion of new revenue through a historic agreement reauthorizing the FCC spectrum auction authority.” House Commerce leaders were likely to tackle the spectrum language and an AI legislative proposal after the panel votes on energy and environment language. The committee voted along party lines against a motion by ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., to preemptively adjourn.
NCTA and WISPA separately raised concerns about the House Commerce proposal ahead of the markup session. NCTA appreciates the restoration of the FCC mandate and language to “preserve the continued availability of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi,” it said in a statement. “However, we remain concerned both by the arbitrary nature of its spectrum targets and an overly narrow focus on exclusive licensing models.” WISPA is concerned the proposal “leaves vulnerable the widely used Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band from future auction consideration,” said CEO David Zumwalt.
“Leaving CBRS at risk not only undermines the band’s progress, but also the broader promise of shared spectrum models critical to unlocking the full potential of limited spectrum resources,” Zumwalt said. "The band supports dynamic sharing with incumbent federal users, enabling spectrum efficiency without displacement, and it has become a model of innovation, investment, and public-private cooperation.”