Cantwell 'Not Giving Up' on Spectrum and National Security Act After Canceled Markup

Public recriminations escalated Monday night and Tuesday after the Senate Commerce Committee yanked a planned committee vote on the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) for the fourth time (see 2406170066). The panel described Tuesday's markup as “canceled” but characterized previous situations as postponed. Senate Commerce planned a vote on a revised version of the measure (see 2406140062) Tuesday that the Commerce Department, DOD and the Joint Chiefs of Staff endorsed last week. Observers cited the finger-pointing to justify their doubts that there's a path forward for the measure or another major spectrum package during this Congress.

S-4207 lead sponsor and Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Tuesday she’s “not giving up” on the bill despite the lack of a new markup date. “We think Americans deserve to have affordable broadband” along with other telecom priorities S-4207 would fund, she said. S-4207 proposed loaning the FCC $7 billion for ACP. Congress also needs to “get the FCC started” with a restored auction authority to meet U.S. airwaves needs, “so we're going to keep pushing away at that,” Cantwell said. The bill would renew the FCC's mandate for five years.

Cantwell stood by her Monday night statement that ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was “stoking culture wars” in bad faith rather than seeking a spectrum deal. She made similar remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday night that Cruz chose "to obstruct and delay” S-4207's markup “with petty partisan culture wars all to serve wealthy and well-connected corporations.”

Cruz and other GOP leaders planned forced roll call votes on amendments that S-4207 supporters considered poison pills. The votes would have required Senate Commerce Democrats facing tight reelection bids to take positions on controversial cultural issues. The amendments included measures barring ACP subsidies for college protesters, households with undocumented immigrants, those who commit Social Security fraud and registered sex offenders. Another proposal would ban broadband equity and access program funding for sanctuary cities.

Cruz and other GOP leaders were “more interested in playing culture wars than trying to actually solve the problem,” Cantwell told reporters Tuesday. They “tried to get us not to vote when there were Republicans that wanted to support” S-4207. Cruz and others “are just arguing over the size of the pipeline,” but “you have to balance” Commerce and DOD spectrum interests, Cantwell said: There was “a lot of education by the telecom sector” against the revised S-4207 in recent days.

Republicans Bash Process

Cruz countered in a Tuesday interview that Cantwell negotiated revisions to S-4207 “behind closed doors.” He claimed Cantwell was “trying to ram through a partisan bill in the dark of night.” S-4207 “did not provide a meaningful pipeline,” Cruz said: It “seems more directed at tying the hands of a future Trump administration than actually making progress” and “authorizes $20 billion of borrowing to pay for the Democrats’ spending priorities.” He touted his 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909), which would reallocate at least 2,500 MHz of midband airwaves.

Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and communications policy-focused lobbyists noted some Commerce Democrats’ behind-the-scenes misgivings with the revised S-4207. Certain panel Democrats were reluctant to vote Tuesday amid those misgivings and the prospect of voting on controversial GOP-led riders, lobbyists said. “I’m not sure all Democrats are happy with” the revisions announced last week, many of them aimed at pacifying DOD and its congressional supporters, Wicker told reporters Monday night.

Cantwell said she believes all 14 Senate Commerce Democrats would have voted for S-4207 either in person or by proxy had the Tuesday markup happened. However, lobbyists identified some Commerce Democrats as potentially reluctant, including Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who hedged when reporters questioned him. There were concerns “about spectrum and who has the right to veto” NTIA decisions to reallocate bands with federal incumbents, an issue that drew the ire of DOD and its congressional supporters, Tester told reporters.

Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, one of three dual Armed Services-Commerce Democrats, saw the GOP amendments as a point of friction that torpedoed the Tuesday meeting but later told us his vote on S-4207 would have depended on whether any of those proposals cleared the markup. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, another Armed Services-Commerce Democrat, said she had intended to vote for the bill by proxy.

Wicker, one of four Senate Commerce Republicans believed to have been the strongest potential converts to supporting S-4207, told reporters all sides were previously “negotiating toward a bill that might have had some momentum on the floor and might have gone to the House.” He faulted Cantwell for “turning on a dime” last week in announcing the revised proposal, which constituted a “very substantive” departure from previous versions.

Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, another of the Armed Services-Commerce Republicans, said it was “very disappointing” that DOD officials “didn’t fight harder” in negotiating with Cantwell’s office on the revised S-4207 “to get what they really needed to defend this country.” She indicated one of her proposed amendments would have better reflected what Pentagon officials previously indicated they preferred.