C-Band Talks Expected to Dominate House Commerce's Telecom Agenda

The House Commerce Committee’s telecom agenda is set to be dominated in the coming weeks by leaders’ work to reach a deal on legislation on allocating the proceeds of a coming FCC auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Committee members are being pressed by a planned Feb. 28 FCC vote on Chairman Ajit Pai’s C-band plan, which he unveiled Thursday (see 2002060057) and released Friday. Other items are also percolating, including on public safety communications, network resiliency and broadband.

“We’re pretty focused for now” on working toward a C-band deal because of Pai’s decision to press forward with a commissioners' vote on the plan, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. Pai proposed accelerated relocation payments of up to $9.7 billion for incumbents to clear the band quickly for an auction to start Dec. 8. The FCC isn't expected to be flexible on the incentive payments figure (see 2002070016). Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Rielly back the proposal, setting expectations that the commission will easily approve it.

Doyle told us he, House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and aides are “spending a lot of time negotiating” the fine points of C-band auction legislation with ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. The bill is expected to somewhat mirror language included in the Spectrum Management And Reallocation for Taxpayers (Smart) Act (S-3246), which is led by Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., and Senate Commerce Committee Democratic leaders (see 2001280041). S-3246 would set aside some sale proceeds for relocation, incentive and U.S. Treasury payments. It would reserve the bulk of the money for rural broadband and next-generation 911.

“The goal for us isn’t to satisfy foreign satellite companies,” though “we understand there’s got to be some money for relocation and incentive payments,” Doyle said. “We want to maximize the amount that’s available to be used for broadband, and the legislation will reflect that.” His earlier Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-Band) Act (HR-4855/S-2921) also favored allocating most proceeds to fund telecom projects (see 1910240046).

Quick Action

“You’re going to see things happen quickly” on the coming House Commerce C-band bill this month given the FCC’s pending vote on Pai’s proposal, Doyle said: “Right now, there’s nothing more important we can be doing” to advance House Commerce’s telecom agenda.

Congress will be on recess next week to mark the Presidents Day holiday, further narrowing the amount of time for House Commerce to advance a C-band measure. The House is expected to be in session Monday through Thursday and Feb. 25-28. That makes it increasingly likely House Commerce lawmakers will aim to file the bill as soon as possible to give enough time for the committee to run it through the markup process, lobbyists said.

Walden noted the time crunch for Commerce to act on C-band legislation, saying it’s “a big piece to chew” and will dominate over the coming weeks. It’s “important for us to move forward, I think there’s general agreement on that and that we can do legislation in concert with the FCC," he said. Commerce aides have been in talks with their Senate Commerce counterparts and Kennedy’s office about the coming bill, Walden said. “We haven’t had member-to-member discussions yet.”

Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., praised Pai’s proposal Thursday. “Winning the race to 5G requires having additional spectrum available in order to deploy advanced networks,” Wicker said. “I have advocated giving the commission the flexibility to get this done quickly while protecting taxpayers.” Thune said the plan “reflects the principles” in the 5G Spectrum Act (S-2881) that he and Wicker filed in November (see 1911180065). S-2881 would set a graduated scale for amounts the FCC would be required to return to the Treasury from C-band proceeds, beginning with “not less than 50 percent” of the first $40 billion.

Lawmakers are feeling time pressure because of the pending FCC vote and because of the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring process, said New America Open Technology Institute's Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese. If CBO updates its scoring for the expected auction revenue based on an approved version of Pai’s proposal, “that would reduce the score from any legislation that comes later," Calabrese said: House Commerce leaders will need to factor in “how hard Kennedy will press his concerns about excessive incentive payments and whether Wicker is inclined to compromise with him on that."

Doyle said he and others on House Commerce “definitely want to continue to pursue” broadband legislation. He cited the importance of using C-band revenue as a “pay-for” to fund projects. House Communications plans a Feb. 20 field hearing on rural broadband in Disputanta, Virginia.

The panel will begin at 2 p.m. at the Prince George County Central Wellness Center, House Commerce said. Prince George’s “transformative story -- from limited broadband access to gigabyte-speed fiber -- offers a successful blueprint for underserved communities throughout the country,” said House Communications member Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Va.

Public Safety

House Commerce is eyeing additional work on public safety communications, Doyle said. A communications sector lobbyist who follows Democrats said the committee is looking at holding a hearing later this month on public safety and national security communications legislation. The committee is believed to have bumped the panel to later in the quarter in favor of broadband issues due to House Democrats’ rollout of infrastructure legislative plans, the lobbyist said. Pallone and other Democratic leaders proposed $98 billion in funding for broadband and NG-911 (see 2001290052).

The tentative hearing is expected to examine six or seven bills. They would include the draft Pallone-led Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure, and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act, lobbyists told us. The draft measure would require the FCC to issue rules to “provide for coordination among providers of advanced communications service during times of emergency.” It would mandate FCC rulemakings aimed at improving coordination between providers and public safety answering points and creating a master point-of-contact directory “to provide for effective communication during times of emergency between public safety and communications entities." The measure would make the FCC do triennial reviews of whether those rulemakings “are ensuring advanced communications services are sufficiently resilient.”

The draft Resilient Networks Act is a possible topic for discussion at the hearing because of negotiations with Republicans, a telecom lobbyist said. The measure would make the FCC and Department of Transportation study “the feasibility of expanding” one-call notification system programs to “cover advanced communications service.” It would mandate the FCC and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission develop “a set of recommended best practices for coordination between” communications providers “and electric utilities for ensuring that advanced communication service remains powered.” It would tell the FCC to issue a report on an evaluation of the resiliency “challenges or advantages” of 5G networks and later issue rules based on the findings.

The proposed hearing is expected to examine the Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act (HR-451/S-2748) and the 911 Fee Integrity Act (HR-2165). HR-451/S-2748 would repeal a provision of the 2012 spectrum law that mandates public safety move off the 470-512 MHz T band by 2021. HR-2165 would bar states from engaging in 911 fee diversion and give the FCC the power to decide on “acceptable” uses for the money (see 1905140060). Wicker attempted to tie T-band repeal and 911 fee diversion into work on C-band legislation via S-2881 (see 1912130046).

Also on the docket: the Preserving Home and Office Numbers in Emergencies Act (HR-1289), the Wireless Infrastructure Resiliency during Emergencies and Disasters (Wired) Act (HR-3836), the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act (HR-4194) and the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act (HR-4856). HR-1289 would restrict the reassignment of phone numbers during a declared natural disaster except at a subscriber’s request. HR-3836 would authorize states to require wireless companies to deploy infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters.

HR-4194 would designate 988 the hotline code and give the FCC a one-year deadline to finish the nationwide upgrade of the legacy switches to support it (see 1908200070). HR-4856 would eliminate the option for people to opt out of receiving certain federal alerts on cellphones and require active White House and Federal Emergency Management Agency alerts be repeated. It would update the process for creating and approving state plans and examine the feasibility of expanding EAS to also distribute warnings to online streaming services(see 1910240060).