Rounds Objection Complicates Senate Bid for May 19 FCC Spectrum Auction Authority Renewal

Uncertainty about the prospects for congressional leaders to break a Senate impasse on the length of a new short-term extension of the FCC’s spectrum auction authority led lawmakers and industry officials to renew warnings, during a Tuesday Incompas event and in interviews, about the potential consequences if Capitol Hill allows the commission’s current mandate to expire as scheduled Thursday. Senators have been grappling with whether to accept a House-passed bill that would renew the FCC’s remit through May 19 (HR-1108) to give lawmakers more time to negotiate a broader spectrum legislative package (see 2302240066). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., implied Monday there wasn’t a deal then (see 2303060071).

The logjam continued Tuesday, after becoming apparent Monday when Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, filed legislation to renew the FCC’s remit through Sept. 30, as expected (see 2302280068), rather than accept the HR-1108 proposal. Rounds objected earlier in the day when GOP leaders explored passing HR-1108 by unanimous consent, lobbyists said. He and Hirono cited a need to give DOD certainty as it completes an Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-mandated analysis on relocating its systems off the 3.1-3.45 GHz band. Rounds previously objected to language in a December spectrum legislative proposal that would have given the Commerce Department the ability to override DOD’s recommendations (see 2212200077).

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., confirmed “we’re still working through some issues” that “some members” raised with extending the FCC’s authority only through May 19, though he didn’t cite Rounds as specifically the main opponent. Rounds “does have concerns about this issue” given he has been so engaged on it in recent months, but “hopefully he and any others that have objections … can be persuaded” that passing HR-1108 “is the right course of action,” with the FCC’s mandate so close to expiration, said Thune, who’s also Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member, in an interview.

“We’ve got to get something done to make sure that we can get a long-term deal” later this year, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, in an interview. “We’re two days off” from the FCC mandate’s current expiration date and it’s not helpful to seek a different extension date now that the House has already passed HR-1108. “We’ve got to have some continuity” for all communications stakeholders instead of “doing these short-term extensions,” he said: “The idea was to get this to the middle of May” and then “look over the horizon” at something more comprehensive. Latta suggested during the Incompas event a three-year renewal should be part of talks on a broader package, in line with what was included in the scuttled December spectrum legislative package that lawmakers failed to attach to the FY 2023 omnibus appropriations measure (see 2212190069).

“I don’t want to say” the Rounds-Hirono proposal “is a nonstarter, but we’d rather” set a shorter deadline rather than drag talks into the broader FY 2024 appropriations cycle, House Communications ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., told us. “Getting to May I think is just enough time for us to get to the table and try to work this out.” Matsui understands what Rounds’ “concern is” about allowing the DOD’s 3.1-3.45 GHz study to conclude, “and there are ways to address those concerns, but one party can’t determine how we’re going to do this. I’ve worked with [Rounds] before, and we can get it done” this time. “Having been involved” in talks with the defense community before the AWS-3 auction that closed in 2015, “there are ways that you can really work with DOD and understand” the department’s priorities “and still allow innovation to happen,” she said during the Incompas event.

It’s “critically important” Congress reach a deal on an FCC spectrum reauthorization before the deadline, said Senate Communications Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., during the Incompas event. “I thought there was a chance we could get” the December spectrum deal passed via the FY23 appropriations package and “it’s my understanding” that DOD and the Commerce Department are “on the same side” on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band now that “some of the objections that were raised” have been addressed. Lawmakers need to “bring this to a conclusion, especially when competing interests to me at least seem like they’re on the same page,” he said.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., both eyed broadband priorities they want to see included in the 2023 farm bill they hope to pass before the existing statute expires Sept. 30. The farm measure “needs to be about the farmer of tomorrow,” including language aimed at boosting precision agriculture, Thompson said. He wants to look at consolidating federal broadband programs where possible, though he acknowledged that’s “going to get all kinds of pushback” in Washington. “If we made up for that inefficiency, maybe we would be closer to closing the digital divide,” Thompson said.