Jimm Phillips

One more member of the Senate Commerce Committee won reelection, but another’s race remained uncalled Thursday afternoon. News organizations declared Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the winner Wednesday night in his race against Republican challenger John James. Peters led James Thursday by more than 87,000 votes, 49.9%-48.3%, with 99% of votes counted. Peters is also ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security Committee. James refused to concede. Peters “is currently ahead,” but “I have deep concerns that millions of Michiganders may have been disenfranchised by a dishonest few who cheat,” James said in a statement. He will accept the final result, “but at this time there is enough credible evidence to warrant an investigation to ensure that elections were conducted in a transparent, legal and fair manner.” It’s “an indescribable honor to be able to spend six more years” in the Senate, Peters said in a statement. At a later news conference, he called James’ fraud claims “sad and pathetic.” Half the vote remained unreported in the race between Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Al Gross, an independent candidate running with Democrats’ backing. Sullivan led Gross by more than 67,000 votes, 62%-32%. Two other Senate Commerce members earlier won reelection (see 2011040052): Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Ed Markey, D-Mass. One member, Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., lost. Democrats and Republicans were each projected Thursday to hold 48 seats in the Senate. Most news organizations have declared that Democrats are keeping their House majority, though Republicans are expected to gain seats. Democrats are expected to hold at least 208 seats in the chamber and led in 13 others Thursday. Republicans are expected to hold at least 190 seats and led in 23 others.

Split control of Congress is now very likely to continue for another two years, based on votes counted through Wednesday afternoon. Observers we spoke with noted that continued uncertainty about the presidential race makes it hard to predict whether there’s a realistic possibility of a split Congress making progress on telecom policy. Not knowing whether President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden would win the White House is clouding expectations (see 2011040049).

Election Day hasn't yet claimed any key members of Congress' panels overseeing tech and telecom. Republicans appeared to be defying prognosticators’ expectations. Vote counts showed them retaining several vulnerable Senate seats and regaining some House seats Democrats took in 2018. Control of the White House and Congress remained unresolved Wednesday morning with millions of votes in Tuesday’s election still being counted.

FCC nominee Nathan Simington’s Senate confirmation hinges on Tuesday's elections, lawmakers and other officials told us. Many of the hurdles for his confirmation would likely clear if President Donald Trump is reelected, but his prospects will likely be greatly diminished if Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins, lobbyists said.

There may be some turnover in leadership of the House and Senate Commerce committees and subpanels important to tech and telecom policymaking next Congress, and some leaders are almost certain to remain no matter who wins Tuesday’s elections, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. House Commerce’s GOP leader will be different due to the retirement of ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon (see 1911260048).

The GAO said Friday it’s recommending the FCC “revise” its performance goals and measures for its high-cost USF program to ensure they're “measurable and quantifiable” to better align “with leading practices.” Doing so will allow the commission to “improve the performance information it uses in its decision-making processes about how to allocate the program’s finite resources,” the GAO said. It found in interviews with stakeholders that the high-cost program’s goals “generally reflect important and appropriate strategic objectives” but don’t meet the standards outlined in the Government Performance and Results Act that they be “objective, quantifiable, and measurable.”

The DOD proposed in a new spectrum strategy Thursday that the Pentagon use “dynamic and bidirectional sharing for facilitating access to commercial spectrum.” The document’s release follows DOD’s September request for information on dynamic spectrum sharing on the 3.45-3.55 GHz band (see 2009210056), a proposal some critics see as a backdoor to 5G nationalization. “This strategy seeks to align [spectrum] resources, capabilities, and activities across” DOD “to support our core national security objectives while remaining mindful of the importance of U.S. economic prosperity,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper in an introduction to the report. The “traditional model of static frequency allocation is not sufficient and a new model is needed to address the growing demand” for access to “increasingly congested and constrained” spectrum, DOD said. The department believes bidirectional sharing "could help facilitate access to commercial spectrum while addressing the cybersecurity risk of an information sharing infrastructure outside of the [DOD] Information Enterprise, and pursuing machine-to-machine technologies that enable cognitive cohabitation in the spectrum. International and domestic spectrum policy and regulations must continue to evolve to enable spectrum sharing to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies and increased mission requirements.” The strategy calls for DOD to plot an implementation plan within 180 days. The Pentagon has already begun writing that plan and is on target to release it in March, a DOD official said during a call with reporters. DOD understands U.S. “near-peer competitors” like China “are out there operating across all of the spectrum space including commercial, so they don't discern commercial or federal or anything like that, they're just operating across the spectrum space,” an official told reporters. “We have to be able to access and maneuver in any spectrum to be able to defeat our enemies and deny them access in the same way.” That's “going to require us to get access to commercial spectrum in the U.S., as a first step, to be able to train and exercise and do the things we need to do to … fight as we do in war,” the Pentagon official said. “We understand that the industry guys don't like that,” but “we really have to take a whole-of-nation approach to this.” The U.S. “can no longer look at spectrum as a … single win for a single entity,” the official said. “We're really trying to beat our adversaries to 5G or the next G after that. We really have to get to faster decisions as a first step.” The U.S. is consulting with intelligence allies and its NATO partners about the sharing ideas proposed in the strategy, an official said. Some of those ideas are new and untested. DOD said it will continue to work with the FCC and Commerce Department “to shape favorable outcomes.”

Supporters and opponents of the FCC's rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules will closely watch the results of the Nov. 3 election to see what course a push for a return to that regulatory regime will take in 2021. A win by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and a switch to Democratic control of both chambers in Congress is believed to provide the best chance for returning to those rules and reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, lawmakers and communications lobbyists told us. A President Donald Trump reelection would endanger efforts to bring back the old rules, they said.

There’s likely to be bipartisan interest in fixing the dysfunctional relationship between the FCC and other federal agencies on spectrum management no matter who wins the Nov. 3 presidential election and control of Congress, telecom officials and others said in interviews. Lawmakers we spoke with expressed interest in ending the brawling, which has hounded President Donald Trump’s administration in recent years. Observers see the issue as an outlier and expect no major shifts in other aspects of U.S. spectrum policy after the election.

The Republican National Committee Friday touted President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign pledge to establish a “National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network” as among “his priorities for a 2nd term.” The Trump campaign proposed a national network ahead of the August Republican National Convention, prompting questions about whether it was a callback to past 5G nationalization proposals (see 2008270051). DOD in September issued a request for information on dynamic spectrum sharing of the 3.5 GHz band (see 2009210056), which critics call an avenue for nationalization. Trump also wants to build the “World’s Greatest Infrastructure System” during a second term, the RNC tweeted. The committee didn’t comment on whether it views the Trump campaign’s proposal as a form of nationalization.