Thune, Cruz Eye Senate Cloture Vote on NTIA Nominee Roth This Week
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Wednesday that votes are possible this week on NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth but said the chamber’s schedule remains in flux. Thune filed cloture on Roth Tuesday night, putting her on track for confirmation before the August recess, as expected (see 2505290053). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and lobbyists told us they expect the chamber to hold at least the initial cloture vote before the chamber leaves for the weekend. “I hope and believe it'll be this week,” Cruz said. The cloture motion on Roth ripens Thursday.
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“We hope to” bring Roth up for at least a cloture vote before the Senate leaves for the weekend, Thune told us. “We’ve got to get through [work on the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4)] before we get back on nominations, but we filed on [Roth], so she’s available.” The chamber was still voting on largely Democratic amendments to HR-4 Wednesday afternoon, including several attempts to jettison language that would claw back $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 (see 2507160077).
Cruz voiced hope that some Democrats would back Roth on the floor after she got “bipartisan support” when Senate Commerce advanced her in April. All Senate Commerce Democrats except John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against advancing Roth amid frustrations about the Trump administration's plan for administering NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program (see 2504090037). Roth is all but certain to win confirmation with all Senate Republicans likely to vote for her.
Lobbyists expect the final vote to divide largely along party lines, with Fetterman the only Democrat likely to back the nominee. Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., told us he was unlikely to change his mind about continuing to oppose Roth on the floor. There haven’t “been any changes from this administration” on BEAD that would prompt Democrats to support her now, Lujan said. “I think a lot of folks were looking to be supportive" at the April Senate Commerce markup but "ultimately said no” because of the Trump administration’s stance on the program.
There are still “a lot of questions” about how the administration plans to proceed on BEAD “and there's not been any clarity that I'm aware of that has been provided to show that … there will be support even if the program needs” the revamp that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spearheaded, Lujan said. NTIA released an updated BEAD notice of funding opportunity in June that reversed much of what the Biden administration developed in the program’s initial rules (see 2506060052).