Cruz, Thune Bow Spectrum Pipeline Act; Cantwell Eyes CBO Scoring Slimmed Package

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., filed their long-circulating 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act Monday with some changes from a draft version proposed in the fall (see 2311220063). The proposal drew sharply divided reactions from communications policy stakeholders. Some lobbyists suggested Cruz and Thune filed the measure Monday to get ahead of NTIA's planned release later this week of its implementation plan for the Biden administration's national spectrum strategy (see 2403050048).

Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., meanwhile, believes she and other backers of the rival House Commerce Committee-approved Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565) will "very soon" get a scoring update from the Congressional Budget Office on a potential slimmed-down version of the package. She and other HR-3565 backers have been eyeing “whether there’s a smaller spectrum package we can do that would generate some revenue and take care of” some of their telecom spending priorities. Such a proposal is all but certain to jettison language included in HR-3565 that would have authorized an FCC auction of spectrum on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band that lawmakers believe is now untenable in the short term after the DOD’s study last year on repurposing the band for commercial 5G use (see 2309280087), Cantwell told us.

“A lot of people want” such a bill to set up a dedicated funding source for the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program and that may still be a possibility, Cantwell told us. The other “big item that members want to address is” allocating an additional $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. President Joe Biden sought money for both in an October supplemental funding request, including $6 billion to keep ACP running through FY24 (see 2310250075). Biden mentioned ACP in his State of the Union speech last week, which the program’s supporters are latching onto in their push for Congress to allocate the additional money (see 2403080034).

The revised Spectrum Pipeline Act filed Monday proposes requiring NTIA to identify at least 2,500 MHz of midband spectrum the federal government can reallocate for nonfederal or shared use within the next five years. The measure would require NTIA to identify within two years at least 1,250 MHz of that spectrum for full-power commercial licensed use. The fall draft would have required NTIA to identify 1,500 MHz in total spectrum for nonfederal or shared use within two years, including at least 750 MHz for full-power commercial licensed use.

The filed bill proposes reauthorizing the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction mandate through Sept. 30, 2027, mirroring the fall draft. It would give the agency eight years from enactment to auction off the mid-band spectrum the measure mandates NTIA identify. As in the fall, the filed measure doesn’t propose using proceeds from sales of those frequencies to pay for other telecom priorities. Cruz’s opposition to HR-3565 stemmed from concerns about its proposals for spending future auction revenue (see 2308100058).

“To dominate in next-generation wireless technologies, stay ahead of our adversaries, and advance strong economic growth, the U.S. must create a pipeline to expand commercial access to mid-band spectrum,” Cruz said. “This legislation restores the FCC’s auction authority, and, in doing so, it ensures that crucial mid-band spectrum is made available for commercial 5G and advanced Wi-Fi use, which is a win-win for American entrepreneurs and consumers,” Thune said. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., signed on as an original co-sponsor.

The Spectrum Pipeline Act “is an important step toward more productive spectrum use,” said the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “A legislative mandate to free up federal bands breaks the gridlock that has recently plagued U.S. spectrum policy.” NATE was equally laudatory. “The legislation is both timely and critical as it serves to renew the FCC’s spectrum auction authority and expands commercial access to mid-band spectrum that is necessary to unleash the potential of next generation wireless networks to the American economy,” said President Todd Schlekeway in a statement.

Free State Foundation President Randolph May didn’t outright endorse the bill but believes it “has important features” that would ensure the U.S. doesn’t “lose its leadership position in wireless, especially in” 5G. “No doubt there may be different views regarding the specific dates and amounts identified for reallocation contained in the bill,” he said in a statement. “But there should be widespread agreement that it provides a good basis for moving forward promptly to develop a bipartisan, bicameral plan.”

New America’s Open Technology Institute's Michael Calabrese criticized the proposal. “This bill is dead on arrival, not only with Democrats, but also with some Republicans on Senate Armed Services Committee,” he emailed us. “A mandate to auction 1,250 megahertz within five years necessarily presupposes that the Pentagon is going to not just share, but clear off a majority of the spectrum they currently rely on in the lower 3 GHz and 7 to 8 GHz bands. That would be a backdoor maneuver to undermine the studies of those same bands in” the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy.