Lujan 'Very Confident' Hill ACP Funding Deal Near; Republicans Cite Permitting Rollbacks

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., voiced varying levels of optimism during a Tuesday Incompas conference (see 2403050052) about the prospects that lawmakers will be able to reach a deal on stopgap funding that will keep the FCC’s affordable connectivity program running past this spring. The FCC said in a Monday update on its wind-down of the program that it will be able to provide only “partial” reimbursements for ACP in May (see 2403040077). Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., highlighted their ongoing interest in enacting legislation to lift or ease permitting processes in a bid to streamline broadband deployments.

“I’m very optimistic” that Congress will reach a deal on ACP stopgap funding that will keep the program running through the rest of FY 2024 based on “conversations that I’ve had” around Capitol Hill, Lujan said. “It seems to be in the right place.” He noted congressional “appropriators are talking about” the ACP Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), which would allocate $7 billion for ACP in FY24 (see 2401100056). HR-6929/S-3565 is "the answer” to prevent “millions of people across America” from losing broadband access, Lujan said.

Lujan hopes his USF working group with Matsui, Senate Communications ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., and other lawmakers will also reach a consensus on “good policy reforms” that “shows our colleagues that may have some reluctance in providing” stopgap ACP funding that “we're changing this program. We're modernizing it. We're updating, we're looking forward.”

Matsui acknowledged it’s going to be “more challenging” to get ACP stopgap funding through the House, but said she’s urging colleagues to look at it as a “nonpartisan” issue, since people in all areas of the U.S. depend on the subsidy. The USF working group is looking at “how we can make USF better but also to find” a way to “make ACP more sustainable rather than having to wait all the time for appropriations,” she said: That’s an important goal, “but at this moment in time, let’s at least try to make sure” ACP’s funding continues.

Lujan and Blackburn noted their continued support for FCC action opening the 12 GHz band to mobile service (see 2209010062). “It’s time for the FCC to act,” Lujan said. The 12 GHz “space is going to be one of the important components to be able to help connect all of America, especially in” mountainous areas where “it's hard to get from here to there.” He and Blackburn told the FCC to “follow the science,” so “I'm hopeful that there can be some strong rulemaking made in this particular area that will open the door for" more efficient and improved spectrum use.

“There is a way to” allow sharing on the 12 GHz band, Blackburn said. “The FCC should move forward” on the proceeding. The federal government also needs “to go in, inventory and recoup” parts of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band DOD isn’t using effectively for its military systems as the spectrum strategy directs, she said. “Spectrum is too valuable to have people squatting on it and not utilizing it.”

Lujan cautioned that “we should also not lose focus on encouraging” Congress to pass long-stalled legislation to renew the FCC’s spectrum auction authority (see 2312280044). The mandate’s lapse “is not a good thing” and “we have to do something about it,” Matsui said. “It’s unconscionable,” but NTIA’s implementation of the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy will hopefully help lawmakers move forward given it will deal with matters like potentially opening up the lower 3 GHz band for 5G use that have proved to be stumbling blocks to reaching a legislative deal.

Blackburn said she, Lujan and House Commerce Committee member Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, are close to filing legislation modeled on a 2023 Virginia statute that allows broadband construction to cross the rails if it’s designed to prevent damage to the railroad and ensure passenger safety (see 2303280043). “We're trying to get this finalized” so the Senate Commerce Committee can mark up the measure, Blackburn said. Incompas is championing that legislative push, said CEO Chip Pickering.

Walberg acknowledged House delays in considering the Commerce Committee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-3557) and his Proper Leadership to Align Networks for Broadband Act (HR-4505). He said the House was supposed to consider HR-4505 this week, but “I guess it's been moved back” because chamber leaders are prioritizing work to pass an FY24 appropriations minibus package (HR-4366) that will include funding for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies, the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service and DOJ’s Antitrust Division (see 2403010072). The chamber is also set to vote this week on the 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act (HR-498) and NTIA Reauthorization Act (HR-4510) under suspension of the rules (see 2403010073).

Walberg is hopeful HR-4366 will make it back to the House floor within “three weeks.” The measure, which the House Communications Subcommittee cleared last year (see 2307110079), would require NTIA to develop a national broadband strategy the GAO recommended in 2022. Walberg said Democrats’ continued opposition to HR-3557, a package of GOP-led connectivity permitting revamp measures (see 2305240069), continues to be an impediment to the measure’s passage. “We're going to have to keep working toward” a permitting revamp solution because speeding up broadband deployments has the same importance for national defense now as building the national interstate highway system did in the 1950s, he said.