Senate Armed Services Member Kills Deal to Put Spectrum Innovation Act in Omnibus

An objection from Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., appears to have all but killed a deal telecom-focused congressional leaders struck over the weekend to attach modified language from the Senate version of the Spectrum Innovation Act (S-4117) to a planned FY 2023 appropriations omnibus package, a congressional aide and several communications industry lobbyists told us Monday. Another short-term renewal of the FCC’s auction authority is, however, still expected to be in the package, lobbyists said. Hill leaders were expected to release the omnibus’ text Monday, but it still wasn’t available that afternoon.

The deal that Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other leaders struck over the weekend appears to have used parts of S-4117’s filed text, which diverged significantly from how House-passed companion HR-7624 dealt with the framework for repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, lobbyists said. The version of HR-7624 the House passed in July calls for identifying ways to use all 350 MHz on the band for either nonfederal use or shared use with federal incumbents, which got DOD criticism in the days leading up to its approval in the chamber. S-4117 envisions an FCC auction of at least 200 MHz on the frequency.

Cantwell, Wicker and others agreed to include language modifying the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s original 3.1-3.45 GHz auction framework to restore NTIA’s spectrum management authority, lobbyists said. IIJA’s passed language gave DOD more power to identify how much of the band the federal government makes available for commercial 5G. The modified language appeared to have support from NTIA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, lobbyists said.

Senate Commerce and Rounds, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, didn’t immediately comment.