Biden Close to Nominating Davidson to Head NTIA

The Biden administration is working behind the scenes on plans to name Mozilla Foundation Senior Adviser Alan Davidson its nominee for NTIA administrator, former government officials and communications sector lobbyists told us. The White House is facing increased pressure to quickly fill the post since the agency is on course to administer the bulk of $65 billion in broadband money if Congress enacts an infrastructure spending package that a bipartisan Senate group formally filed Sunday. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., swiftly filed amendments aimed at addressing anti-digital redlining and consumer protection provisions in the broadband title he sees as a potential back door to rate regulation, as expected (see 2107300054).

Davidson’s prenomination paperwork has been processing for weeks, but it’s unclear when Biden will formally nominate him, lobbyists said. Davidson emerged as a contender to lead NTIA last month (see 2107090063). He was previously Mozilla vice president-global policy, Commerce Department digital economy director 2015-17, and Google's first U.S. public policy director. Davidson was involved in Mozilla’s unsuccessful legal challenge to FCC repeal of its earlier net neutrality order (see 2007070012). The White House, NTIA and Davidson didn't comment Monday.

The American Economic Liberties Project, Demand Progress and 20 other groups wrote President Joe Biden Sunday urging him to nominate an NTIA administrator, a third FCC Democrat, Patent and Trademark Office director and other officials to overcome “stiff resistance and intense lobbying” from major tech companies to efforts to revamp U.S. antitrust enforcement. Those nominations should “continue in the pattern” of Biden’s naming of Jonathan Kanter as his pick to lead DOJ’s Antitrust Division (see 2107200070) “by choosing the public interest in real reform and aggressive antitrust enforcement” over tech companies’ “interest in extending the status quo indefinitely,” the groups said.

The broadband language in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, filed as a substitute amendment for infrastructure shell bill HR-3684, changes some funding allocations. $42.5 billion would go to the proposed NTIA Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants program, up from the $40 billion in previous drafts. The proposed extension of the FCC emergency broadband benefit, renamed as the Affordable Connectivity Fund, would get $14.2 billion. Digital equity and inclusion would get $2.75 billion, up from $1.31 billion. There’s almost $2.1 billion for Agriculture Department rural broadband programs and $2 billion for NTIA’s Tribal Broadband Connectivity Fund. The measure increases the amount for NTIA middle-mile grants to $1 billion for FY 2022-26, a move sought by Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

Wicker filed amendments to pare back the bill’s affordability, pricing transparency and redlining provisions because those sections largely mirror what was included in drafts that circulated last week (see 2107290061), lobbyists said. One Wicker amendment proposes adding language barring federal entities from using the broadband title “to regulate the rates charged.” Another Wicker proposal would completely eliminate a requirement that the FCC issue rules within two years “to facilitate equal access” to broadband. It would instead direct a notice of inquiry “examining obstacles to equal access” to broadband services.

Wicker proposes to completely strike a section extending FCC spectrum auction authority and authorizing the commission to auction spectrum on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band. The current bill would require the Transportation Department and NTIA to jointly audit DOT’s current spectrum allocations, including any frequencies it’s currently using. Another section would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to write a report analyzing “the extent to which applications supporting vulnerable road users can be accommodated within existing spectrum allocations for connected vehicle systems.”

Other amendments from Wicker and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., propose additional policy language. Thune proposes adding in his Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act (S-163). The Senate was set to vote on the amendment Monday night. Wicker wants to allocate $5 billion to an NTIA broadcast internet and public broadcasting grants program for broadcasters to upgrade equipment so they can deliver services using ATSC 3.0 and enable deployment of distributed transmission systems.

Wicker wants to allocate $30 million to create within NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences an “applied research open network architecture test bed” for open radio access network, virtualized RAN and “cloud native technologies that replicate” telecom hardware as “software-based virtual network elements.” He proposes inserting the text of his Improving Minority Participation and Careers in Telecommunications Act (S-996), which would give $100 million to historically Black, tribal and minority-serving colleges and universities to develop telecom sector job training.