Cantwell Eyes 5-Year-Plus FCC Spectrum Auction Renewal Before March 21 Hearing

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she's considering a clean FCC reauthorization bill that could pay for some of congressional leaders’ telecom priorities but wouldn’t necessarily mandate that the commission begin sales of specific frequencies. Senate Commerce plans a March 21 hearing on that and other spectrum policy issues, Cantwell told us Thursday ahead of a formal panel announcement. Cantwell's proposal would be in line with her pursuit of a slimmed-down measure (see 2403110066) drawing some elements of the stalled House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565).

“We have a score” from the Congressional Budget Office that evaluated a clean spectrum mandate renewal, Cantwell told us in a brief interview. She is eyeing a five-to-seven-year FCC reauthorization that wouldn’t mandate specific auctions, communications policy lobbyists told us. Cantwell and others have worked to move beyond HR-3565 in the months since DOD’s report on the impact that 5G operations in the 3.1-3.45 GHz band would have on incumbent military systems, which appeared to scuttle hopes of an FCC sale of licenses on that frequency in the short term (see 2312040001). Cantwell isn’t pursuing specific auctions for now because she doesn’t want to step on the Biden administration’s toes by contravening its national spectrum strategy, which seeks further studies of the lower 3 GHz band and other frequencies (see 2311130048).

“We’re going to have a hearing next week” examining a clean auction renewal proposal and other matters in the context of “national security” and “what people think we should do” about returning the FCC’s authority, which lapsed a year ago (see 2303090074), Cantwell told us. “We’ll talk about what we can do now to stay competitive on important national security issues.” She didn’t divulge much about the proposal ahead of the hearing. “You could pay for some things” based just on a clean FCC reauthorization, but “that’s all I’ll say.”

The score that CBO sent Cantwell showed a five-year clean FCC renewal would let Congress authorize a “bridge” loan that would advance the FCC money to keep the affordable connectivity program running for a year and provide $3.08 billion to fully fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, lobbyists told us. The evaluation wasn’t immediately available. The CBO’s new figure is more than the $10.6 billion that the office last year found a three-year renewal of the FCC’s mandate would generate as part of HR-3565 (see 2308100058), a wireless-focused lobbyist said. Cantwell’s office was reportedly “surprised" the CBO number was as large as it turned out to be given it doesn’t include a “specific auction,” a broadband lobbyist said.

Cantwell said she already “had a conversation” with Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about her plans. Cantwell is “testing the waters” with Cruz and others who opposed HR-3565, a wireless lobbyist said. Cruz and Senate Communications ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., filed their 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) earlier this week as an alternative to HR-3565. That measure would mandate that NTIA identify at least 2,500 MHz of midband spectrum the federal government can reallocate for nonfederal or shared use within the next five years.

Cruz said he and Cantwell are “having productive conversations” about moving forward on spectrum legislation. Lobbyists told us they will be watching the response of Cruz and other Republicans to Cantwell’s proposal given its lack of specific auction mandates. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and other Republicans have criticized the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy’s lack of a plan for selling specific bands (see 2311150065). Lobbyists expect Cruz and Thune will point to S-3909 during the March 21 hearing.

Carr emphasized his support for S-3909 during a news conference after the FCC’s Thursday meeting. That bill is “a really smart path forward,” he told reporters. “One of the challenges to a clean reauthorization of the FCC's authority … has been the lack of a clear articulation of a path forward for what the FCC would do” with a renewed mandate. S-3909 “lays out a very concrete path forward for spectrum bands that would come up and be moved out,” Carr said. Fellow Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington also backs S-3909.