Lujan Leads FAA Amendment Giving ACP $6B With Rules Revamp; $3.08B for Rip and Replace

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and four other senators joined forces Tuesday night to file an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill that would allocate $6 billion to the FCC’s affordable connectivity program for FY 2024 and $3.08 billion to fully fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. Senate leaders were still in talks Tuesday night on what amendments to the FAA package they would allow floor votes on in hopes of securing a time agreement to speed consideration of the measure.

The amendment’s ACP language strikes a compromise with an earlier proposal from Vance and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., that would have allocated $7 billion in stopgap ACP funding for FY24. Welch is cosponsoring the Lujan-led proposal. The amendment appears to mirror several ACP-related elements of a coming congressional Universal Service Fund working group proposal, including an end of the affordability initiative’s $100 device subsidy. It would also alter ACP eligibility rules, including tightening language that confers subsidy eligibility on households with children who attend schools with an Agriculture Department Community Eligibility Provision designation to provide free breakfasts and lunches for all enrolled students.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., signed on as a cosponsor of the amendment, which includes language from his Supporting National Security with Spectrum Act (S-4049) that would offset the additional rip and replace funding by authorizing a reauction of the 197 AWS-3 licenses that Dish and affiliated designated entities returned to the commission last year. Daines previously filed an amendment to the FAA package containing S-4049's text. Former Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) are also cosponsors. Incompas swiftly backed the proposal.