Jimm Phillips

Backers of a bid to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe appropriations legislation, including a likely continuing resolution to extend federal payments past Sept. 30, is the most viable vehicle for formally allocating the additional money, due to concerns about delayed action on the House-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Senate Commerce Committee leaders are grappling during the August recess with how to respond to HR-7624, which would allocate some proceeds from a proposed auction of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for rip and replace reimbursements, given disagreements on spectrum policy priorities (see 2208090001).

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., ranking member Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and six other senators urged the FCC Wednesday to “stay and reconsider” its April 2020 approval of Ligado’s L-band plan, the latest renewal of their longstanding opposition to the action (see 2004160030). A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel, meanwhile, plans to soon release “an independent technical review” of the FCC’s Ligado order.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other panel leaders are hopeful they can use the August recess to negotiate a deal on a spectrum legislative package before Congress returns after Labor Day, or at least decide whether to seek a stopgap FCC spectrum auction authority renewal in hopes of reaching a consensus later. Panel Democrats and Republicans divided along party lines (see 2208020076) during a Communications Subcommittee hearing last week on whether they back the 18-month authority extension included in the House-passed Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624).

The nominee for ambassador at large-cyberspace and digital policy told Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Wednesday he intends to “try to expand” the number of nations signed on to the Declaration for the Future of the Internet that the U.S., EU and more than 60 other countries signed in April (see 2204280043). Nate Fick said during the committee hearing he supports deploying funding included in the Chips and Science Act (HR-4346) to develop secure 5G technology and believes the U.S. needs to promote open radio access networks and other technologies to ensure telecom infrastructure security. Fick, if confirmed, would also head the State Department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (see 2206070047).

Senate Commerce Committee Democratic and Republican leaders divided along party lines during a Tuesday Communications Subcommittee hearing on their preferences for extending the FCC’s spectrum auction authority, the dominant focus during the panel, as expected (see 2208010030). Communications Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., strongly backed a longer-term renewal than the House proposes in its Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Commerce ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., back HR-7624’s proposed 18-month renewal.

Senate Commerce Committee leaders remain intent on pursuing their own spectrum legislative package before a Tuesday Communications Subcommittee hearing, despite House Commerce Committee heads’ call for their colleagues to just concur with the chamber-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624) given the Sept. 30 expiration of the FCC’s auction authority. That deadline is expected to be a focus during the hearing, with the subpanel likely to get divided opinions from witnesses on the wisdom of HR-7624’s proposal for an 18-month auction authority renewal that would last through March 31, 2024. The hearing is to begin at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell.

Democratic leaders on the House and Senate Commerce committees aren’t fully discounting the possibility the panels could devote some time to evaluating the newly filed Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act during the remaining months of this Congress, but some acknowledge any serious consideration of the measure will likely have to wait until 2023 at the earliest. Democratic leaders bristled at some Republicans’ view that lawmakers unveiled the measure as a reaction to FCC nominee Gigi Sohn’s stalled Senate confirmation process (see 2206230066).

Senate backers of the Chips and Science Act package of U.S. semiconductor incentives and tech competitiveness initiatives and House leaders voiced strong optimism Wednesday that the measure will make it through Congress before the lower chamber recesses Friday for the six-week August break.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and other House Commerce Committee members urged the chamber Tuesday to pass the Spectrum Innovation Act legislative package (HR-7624) by a lopsided bipartisan margin ahead of floor votes as soon as that evening on several telecom and tech measures. The House planned floor votes on HR-7624 and two other telecom and tech bills on the docket: the Reporting Attacks from Nations Selected for Oversight and Monitoring Web Attacks and Ransomware from Enemies Act (HR-4551) and Safe Connections Act (HR-7132). The chamber was also expected to consider the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences Codification Act (HR-4990). The Rules Committee, meanwhile, began considering Tuesday afternoon a set of proposed amendments to the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act (HR-4040) amid Republicans’ concerns that the measure didn’t first get House Commerce clearance.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other lawmakers emphasized the importance of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's role in implementing pending “Chips+” U.S. semiconductor manufacturing incentives and a U.S. competitiveness package, during a Wednesday confirmation hearing for OSTP director nominee Arati Prabhakar. The substitute measure that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed Tuesday as an amendment to shell bill HR-4346, would supplant conference committee negotiations to marry elements of the dueling America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260).