Senate GOP aides said Friday afternoon that chamber leaders aimed to hold an initial vote Saturday on a motion to proceed to the chamber’s combined budget reconciliation package, which includes the Commerce Committee’s revised proposal for an 800 MHz spectrum pipeline and restoration of the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through Sept. 30, 2034 (see 2506060029). Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, secured backing last week for the spectrum proposal from a pair of Armed Services Republicans after he strengthened the original proposal’s carve-outs excluding the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential FCC auction or other reallocation (see 2506250054).

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., called Thursday for the federal government to “ban cellphones in every K-12 classroom in America,” reflecting similar recent state-level pushes to bar students from using smartphones and other mobile devices in school (see 2501290066). Slotkin and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., last week filed the Restoring Our Educational Focus on Children of U.S. Servicemembers at DOD Education Activity (DODEA) Act to bar students at K-12 schools on U.S. military bases from using cellphones during school hours.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina led a Wednesday letter with 46 other congressional Democrats, pressing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to reverse NTIA's rewrite of rules for its $42.5 billion BEAD program (see 2506060052). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas and other Republicans have praised the BEAD rewrite (see 2506100071), while Democrats argue NTIA's requirement that jurisdictions resubmit their plans for reexamination will further delay the funding rollout. Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., were among others who signed the letter.

The House on Monday passed by voice vote HR-1737, which would direct NTIA to submit a report to Congress on the feasibility of developing a trans-Atlantic submarine fiber cable connecting the U.S., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ghana and Nigeria. The House previously cleared the measure during the last Congress as the DiasporaLink Act. The House Commerce Committee advanced HR-1737 in March (see 2503040063). House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., hailed passage of HR-1737 and seven other bills.

NAB publicized Monday that the number of sponsors for the House version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979) reached 218, meaning a majority of the chamber formally backs the measure. H-979 and its Senate Commerce Committee-cleared companion, S-315, would require the Department of Transportation to mandate the inclusion of AM radios in future automobiles, mostly affecting electric vehicles (see 2502100072). S-315 has 61 sponsors, above the chamber’s legislative cloture threshold. The figure in each chamber marks “a pivotal milestone … and underscores AM radio’s enduring value to the American people,” said NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt.

The House is set to vote as soon as Monday night on HR-1737, which would direct NTIA to submit a report to Congress on the feasibility of developing a trans-Atlantic submarine fiber cable connecting the U.S., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ghana and Nigeria. The House previously passed the measure during the last Congress as the DiasporaLink Act. The House Commerce Committee advanced HR-1737 in March (see 2503040063).

Nextlink Internet Chief Strategy Officer Claude Aiken and 23 officials from other Texas-based WISPA member companies urged the state's GOP senators, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, to “consider the importance of shared spectrum, particularly” the 3550-3650 MHz citizens broadband radio service band, as the chamber moves forward on a budget reconciliation package that Republicans want to include airwaves legislative language. Cruz led a Senate Commerce reconciliation proposal for an 800 MHz pipeline of reallocated spectrum that would exclude some DOD-controlled bands but doesn't address CBRS (see 2506060029).

The Senate Finance Committee's portion of the chamber’s proposed budget reconciliation package, released Monday night, omits language from the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act (HR-1873/S-674) that Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and others were seeking. The measure would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow broadband grants enacted via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and American Rescue Plan Act, including NTIA's $42.5 billion BEAD program, to not count as gross income (see 2503050073). Moran said during an Incompas event in March that the reconciliation process was “probably the only possibility” for moving S-674, given that the forthcoming legislative package aims to extend tax cuts enacted during the first Trump administration (see 2503110058).

The Senate’s Monday executive calendar said two cloture motions for Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty would “ripen” at 5:30 p.m., meaning they would be eligible for votes this week, as expected (see 2506130065). Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., filed last week for cloture on both of Trusty’s nominations -- one to finish out the term of former Democratic FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, which ends June 30, and a subsequent full five-year term. Trusty is very likely to clear the Senate’s majority-vote cloture threshold for executive branch nominees on what lobbyists expect to be unanimous GOP support. Thune previously indicated he was likely to move up Trusty in confirmation priority after Republican FCC commissioner Nathan Simington abruptly departed the commission earlier this month (see 2506040073). Simington’s exit and the simultaneous departure of Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks left the commission in a 1-1 tie and lacking a quorum.

The offices of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., continued sparring Monday over panel Republicans’ proposed spectrum language for the chamber’s budget reconciliation package. The proposal, which Cruz released earlier this month, would renew the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through Sept. 30, 2034, and mandate an 800 MHz pipeline of spectrum for licensed sale (see 2506060029). The measure proposes excluding the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential reallocation. Cantwell repeatedly criticized Republicans’ proposal last week as inadequately protecting DOD-controlled airwaves (see 2506120084).