Broadband Omission in Trump State of the Union Draws Disappointment, Surprise
President Donald Trump briefly highlighted his anticipated infrastructure legislative proposal during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, as expected (see 1801170054), but failed to mention broadband among the many types of infrastructure he intends to bolster. Industry officials and lobbyists told us they were disappointed and surprised, diverging on whether it's a bad omen for their push to strengthen a broadband title in coming legislation. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., had expected Trump would at least touch on his broadband intentions (see 1801300051).
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Trump asked Congress to pass legislation “that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs. Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit.” The infrastructure bill “must also streamline the permitting and approval process,” reducing the permitting timeline “to no more than two years, and perhaps even one,” he said.
The speech wasn't entirely devoid of tech. Trump praised Apple for its plan to “invest a total of $350 billion in America and hire another 20,000 workers,” in response to tax cut legislation enacted in December (see 1712200030). He vowed to “protect American workers and American intellectual property through strong enforcement of our trade rules” amid ongoing concerns about theft of American IP in China and other countries.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., didn't mention Trump's infrastructure proposal in his response but told us before the event he was confident what the White House ultimately proposes will include significant broadband language. “We've got good former [House Commerce] staffers planted around” in the administration, including NTIA Administrator David Redl; Grace Koh, National Economic Council technology, telecom and cybersecurity assistant; and Kelsey Guyselman, an Office of Science and Technology Policy adviser, Walden said: “We're all working together on what we can get done on broadband buildout, streamlining siting” and a group of 25 broadband-related bills that House Communications examined during a Tuesday hearing (see 1801300051).
“If [the White House is] going to do infrastructure, they have to do infrastructure,” said Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in an interview. “If they're going to propose an infrastructure bill that is serious -- meaning it may have modern priorities but is traditionally financed, in other words the government's paying for it -- they're going to get great bipartisan support. If they view this as a way to undermine environmental and labor law and put Wall Street in the middle of this, it's going to be a short conversation.” The administration appears to be "of mixed minds” on how a final legislative proposal should be structured, as there are “some folks who want to do a big, proper infrastructure package and there are others who don't,” Schatz said.
“How are you gonna pay for” the infrastructure plan, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters: “You tell me how we pay for it and I’ll tell you what we can do” in Congress. “Leveraging private dollars is a good start but [we've] got a lot of work to do,” he said. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and congressional committee leaders were expected to lead a Thursday session on infrastructure during Hill Republicans' retreat in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Walden was among the GOP lawmakers on an Amtrak train headed there Wednesday when it crashed into a garbage truck in Crozet, Virginia (see 1801310046).
Trump “laid out an ambitious agenda” in his speech and “I look forward to building off” momentum to address infrastructure and other issues this year, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said in a video. Blackburn said in a video she's “looking forward to hearing more details” on Trump's infrastructure proposal. House Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., criticized Trump's plan for allocating only $200 billion in federal funding for infrastructure, tweeting that Trump “expects states, localities, and the private sector to come up with $1.3 trillion.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and 75 other House Democrats jointly urged Trump Tuesday to include a National Infrastructure Development Bank in any legislative proposal. The proposed bank would “help supplement other federal infrastructure programs” by leveraging “public and private dollars for meritorious infrastructure projects of national or regional significance,” said a DeLauro-led policy document. Other Democratic infrastructure proposals have included the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-2479), which proposes $40 billion for broadband deployment as part of a broader infrastructure package (see 1706020056).
Industry Reaction
NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield and other communications officials we spoke with expressed varying degrees of disappointment and surprise over Trump's failure to highlight broadband or go into specifics on infrastructure. “There are so many things to talk about [in the State of the Union] and the fact he didn't mention broadband was disappointing,” Bloomfield said: “A single word got dropped [from the speech], but it's a pretty big word” that the communications sector wanted to hear. “But we get enough reassurances from folks over at the White House and the [Department of Agriculture] that it really will be part of the package, so I remain optimistic that we'll be able to go ahead and get that taken care of,” she said.
Lobbyists were divided on whether the omission spells doom for broadband language in the administration's proposal. Koh cautioned last month that the coming proposal is unlikely to contain stand-alone broadband funding but said broadband would be an "asset class" eligible for general infrastructure funding (see 1712070016). Recent meetings between administration aides and industry cemented expectations that funding language in the forthcoming proposal is “consistent with what was in” a leaked document, said a communications lobbyist. The draft proposed the use of state block grants and mentioned other programs in which broadband and other infrastructure projects would compete for a combination of federal, state, local and private funding (see 1801220035).
Bloomfield and others were more optimistic stand-alone broadband funding could be on the table. “Congress is going to be very hard-pressed to do infrastructure legislation without broadband” included and the Tuesday House Communications hearing appeared to close with “bipartisan recognition” that it will “take more than some tax incentives” to stimulate broadband development in unserved areas, Bloomfield said.