Cantwell Sees Potential ACP Markup Next Week Amid Tension Over GOP Language

The Senate Commerce Committee will try again next week to approve funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program (see 2405100046), Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday after the scheduled markup was pulled amid tensions with Republicans over amendments.

A Senate Republican aide told us Cantwell pulled the markup partly because amendments would have forced “uncomfortable votes” on Democrats. That and a lack of Republican support for the Spectrum and National Security Act are why the markup was scrapped, the GOP aide said. More than 50 first- and second-degree amendments were filed. One potential amendment, from Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., would have blocked college protesters “supporting Hamas” from receiving ACP subsidies.

“It didn’t have anything to do with that,” Cantwell told us Thursday, citing ongoing efforts to get the FAA reauthorized. “We need to get Republicans who want to get ACP funded, and very few do. ... We just have a lot going on.” A bipartisan group of lawmakers failed to attach ACP funding to the FAA reauthorization bill last week due to opposition from Senate Democratic leadership.

Senate Commerce said Wednesday it was postponing again because of “too many members with scheduling conflicts.” Thursday isn’t the committee’s usual markup day, and several members had other obligations, Cantwell’s office said: This made it impossible to ensure all Democratic members would be present at the necessary time. Asked if the markup will be scheduled for next week, Cantwell said, “We think so.”

Thune on Thursday deferred to Cantwell on the reasoning for the postponement. “You’ll have to ask the chair,” he said. “I think there were potential amendments to the spectrum bill they didn’t want to vote on.”

The package would have passed and been sent to the floor, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., told us Thursday. “I was looking forward to getting the bill heard and having a conversation about what we needed to get done, and that’s a responsibility that we all have here.” Lujan led a failed, bipartisan bid with Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, to attach $6 billion in stopgap funding for the affordable connectivity program and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to the FAA reauthorization package (see 2405090052).

Congress can’t address issues related to AI and emerging technology if policies related to spectrum, ACP and rip-and-replace continue to stall, said Lujan: “I hope we will get a vote on these policies as soon as possible.”

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., was “disappointed” the markup was pulled. Asked if he understood the reasoning, he said, “I don’t. ... We’ve got bipartisan support for the ACP. Let’s focus on ACP. That’s what I’m focused on.” Similarly, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told us he was unsure why the markup was postponed.

“You’d have to ask the chairman,” Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us Thursday. On prospects for a markup next week, Cruz said, “No idea.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said it's become “a bit of a pattern with the committee on a lot of issues, so I truly don’t know.” He thinks “it was related to all the amendments dealing with the spectrum legislation, but I don’t know the details.”