Senate Commerce Faces 25 Amendments Filed for Mobile Now Markup

“I don’t think it’ll be significantly different,” Thune said of the substitute amendment to Mobile Now. “We’re trying to take into consideration some of the concerns and views that members of our committee have about things that they would like to have included in the bill. I can’t tell you exactly what that is right now, but I don’t think it’ll be a markup where we’ll have a lot of votes on amendments. But anything can happen between now and Thursday.”

Thune circulated drafts of Mobile Now in November, and after negotiation with the Obama administration and other senators, secured the backing of ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., for the latest version, formally introduced in February. The negotiation caused the bill, which includes many spectrum and broadband deployment provisions, to lose what some wireless stakeholders saw as the bill’s teeth. Thune filed an eight-page substitute amendment making many technical changes to the Mobile Now language. Republican presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has prioritized spectrum policy in recent years and, despite recent absence from the Capitol, his name is on multiple amendment texts. The markup is 10 a.m. Thursday in 253 Russell.

Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, filed his unlicensed spectrum proposal, as expected, and paired with Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who touted his interest in unlicensed spectrum issues last week. That amendment would force the FCC in consultation with NTIA to develop a national unlicensed plan within a year of enactment. The same amendment says the plan must involve NTIA sharing recommendations to the FCC about overhauling the Spectrum Relocation Fund, an ongoing priority for Moran. The proposal lacks the specific language that concerned CTIA in November (see 1511120046), which involved sections calling for “consideration of rules to permit spectrum sharing to make available additional radio frequency” that would entail “allowing underlay unlicensed operations in spectrum allocated for other services in a manner that does not cause harmful interference to licensees” and an FCC rulemaking within 18 months of enactment to review “whether to adopt rules that permit unlicensed operations in spectrum assigned by auction until the licensee brings the spectrum into use by initiating commercial service.” The Competitive Carriers Association lauded the “responsiveness” of Schatz’s office in addressing concerns last week and said it supports the proposal's inclusion.

Negotiation to include the proposal has become “vanishingly close,” Schatz said in an interview around noon Tuesday. “We’re just too close for me to get too specific. You’ll know hopefully within a few hours.” Schatz disputed that he would want to offer the proposal for a specific vote at the markup, instead hoping for inclusion in a package ahead of the markup: “We want it to be in the substitute.”

More Amendments

Moran is leading a different bipartisan amendment, as expected, addressing the broadcaster repacking process after the FCC broadcast TV incentive auction, scheduled to start March 29. Other backers include Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. The amendment would raise the broadcasters' relocation fund from $1.75 billion to $2.75 billion and extend the transition period, adding the following language: “The Commission shall extend the transition period for relocation of specific broadcast television stations in accordance with the reassignments of television stations ... to ensure that no broadcast television station is forced to stop broadcasting due to reasons outside the control of the broadcast television station.”

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., told us last week he planned amendments to make Mobile Now more “robust” and expand its scope, particularly focused on licensed spectrum (see 1602250049), and he did that this week. His bipartisan amendment would require that 100 MHz of spectrum be made available on an unlicensed basis and 100 MHz be made available on an exclusive, licensed basis. His backers include Blumenthal, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rubio. Gardner and Rubio have a separate amendment that would require analysis of the economic opportunity cost of federal spectrum, similar to a provision in Thune's original Mobile Now drafts. NTIA would have to work with OMB to do this annually, said the amendment text, covering all federally allocated spectrum between 150 and 6000 MHz.

“We certainly plan to offer them,” Gardner said in an interview Tuesday. “There may be one or two we vote on, but not quite sure of the strategy going in yet. We’re excited about it!”

Booker filed a seven-page amendment with Rubio that would require federal agencies to analyze their spectrum requirements. It would force NTIA and the Office of Management and Budget director to “develop and incorporate spectrum efficiency guidelines into budget and procurement processes.” The two senators also filed a separate amendment “to assess unlicensed spectrum and Wi-Fi use in low-income neighborhoods.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told us Tuesday his office was drafting some proposed changes. Mobile Now as currently written doesn't do enough for unlicensed spectrum, a Democratic Senate staffer told us, citing a desire for an amendment to ensure unlicensed spectrum is protected. Markey’s office is actively working with Schatz’s on this front, the staffer said. Markey filed two amendments, one page each and without other backers. One would “improve the rules of construction relating to unlicensed spectrum” and would cut the words “under existing rules and regulations” on Mobile Now’s 29th page. The other amendment would add a section on spectrum sharing authority that said: “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to alter the authority of the Commission or NTIA to authorize spectrum sharing through non-exclusive licenses, licensing by rule, or on an unlicensed basis.” Booker has advanced an amendment with Markey’s backing that contains the Community Broadband Act, which favors municipal broadband projects.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., filed an Internet of Things amendment with the same title as legislation she and other senators introduced this week (see 1603010053). That amendment would “ensure appropriate spectrum planning and inter-agency coordination to support the Internet of Things,” it said. Her backers are Booker, Schatz and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., same as those backing the legislation. Fischer also filed a one-page amendment that would add language to Mobile Now's dig once section to say it’s the sense of Congress that federal agencies should create policy that “respects incentives for and does not negatively impact private investment when communications facilities and services already exist in or near the area covered by such projects.” Fischer told us much was still in flux on Mobile Now amendments. “We’re still working on it,” Fischer said early Tuesday of possible amendments. “We’re looking at some things but haven’t made any decisions.”

Dig Once, FCC Process

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., filed two bipartisan amendments with several backers. One contains her dig once proposal, directing the transportation secretary “to require that broadband conduits be installed as part of certain highway construction projects.” The Thune/Nelson Mobile Now text only has a sense of Congress in support of dig once policies. Klobuchar’s amendment is also backed by Booker, Gardner and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., all co-sponsors of Klobuchar’s original S-2163. Klobuchar’s other amendment would include language on a rulemaking on partitioning or disaggregating spectrum licenses, echoing Klobuchar’s legislation with Fischer. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, back this amendment in addition to Fischer.

There are other telecom-related amendments. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., filed his FCC Process Reform Act as a Mobile Now amendment without any other backers. Heller also had another standalone amendment that would “strike the exceptions to the requirements that executive agencies use common forms for certain applications.” Heller and Manchin filed an amendment “to fix a deadline for the consideration, by executive agencies, of applications for certain easements and rights-of-way.”

Daines and Manchin joined for an amendment requiring the Commerce secretary and the FCC “to consider the importance of wireless broadband services in rural areas” of the U.S. “when making additional spectrum available for wireless broadband use.” Daines and Udall have an amendment containing language on promoting secondary markets in rural areas. Daines filed a five-page amendment on his own that would include a section on timing for consideration of applications by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and with consequences for failure to meet deadlines. Manchin and Heller want an amendment that would compel a GAO report on the National Broadband Map, a particular source of frustration for Manchin at a recent USF hearing. Manchin and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., are seeking to attach their Private Spectrum Relocation Funding Act to Mobile Now, and Moran and Manchin are seeking to attach the Wireless Telecom Tax and Fee Collection Fairness Act. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., wants “to require a report on ways to incentivize State and local governments to provide information to the National Broadband Facilities Asset Database,” his amendment said. Sullivan filed an amendment “to ensure timeliness of local action on wireless deployment.”

“It remains to be seen,” Thune said Tuesday of how the markup amendments may play out. “There is a universe of amendments out there, but I don’t know exactly how many of them will get offered. I think we’ll probably be able to accept a good number and maybe put together a manager’s amendment, put a lot of those into it.” Thune told us last week that depending on the markup results, he will seek to advance Mobile Now to the chamber’s floor fast, probably starting with a hotline attempt.