Senate Commerce Hearings Likely to Focus on Broadband Funding, Regulatory Streamlining Proposals
A pair of Senate Commerce Committee hearings this week on President Donald Trump’s infrastructure legislative proposal will likely delve into thorny questions about how a final bill would fund broadband projects, and there will be interest in plans to streamline regulations viewed as impeding deployments (see 1803120049), communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. A Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday is to concentrate on broadband aspects of the Trump proposal. A full Commerce hearing that will include Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is expected to touch on broadband and other infrastructure (see 1803060056).
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Broadband funding is likely to be a major focus during at least the Communications hearing, given ongoing questions and criticism of the Trump proposal’s approach, lobbyists said. The administration package, released last month, proposes $50 billion in federal funding for rural infrastructure projects allocated via state block grants (see 1802120001). Democrats criticized the proposal for not including dedicated broadband funding (see 1802140052 and 1802140064). Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., questioned Chao earlier this month about the funding (see 1803010050).
Senate Communications Democrats likely will seek to use the hearing as a venue to contrast Trump’s proposed state block grants with an infrastructure proposal of their own that includes $40 billion in direct funding for broadband projects, said WTA Senior Vice President-Government and Industry Affairs Derrick Owens. It’s an issue “we’ve been concerned about,” he said. WTA raised concerns the block grants will result in other infrastructure priorities receiving “precedence” over broadband “when states determine where to spend federal resources.” Democrats will certainly take the opportunity to “call the Republicans’ bluff” on broadband funding, particularly since Capito and Ernst questioned Trump’s block grants proposal, a Democratic industry lobbyist said. Some industry witnesses may continue to raise concerns about Trump’s proposed funding mechanism, lobbyists said.
American Action Forum Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Will Rinehart will listen for discussion of how state governments have been taking up broadband funding grants and broader questions about the economics of deployments. If “we do build broadband in rural areas, what are the economic benefits going to be for individuals?” he said: “While there is clearly this cost question, the bigger question is what are the economic benefits writ large that we are going to get out” of such deployments.
Significant discussion will center on the Trump package’s regulatory streamlining proposals, said lobbyists. The White House said its goals include a proposal that Congress amend current rules on National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act permitting reviews to “expedite” the process for small cells and Wi-Fi attachments. The hearing could give senators an opportunity to tout their own streamlining legislation, two lobbyists said. One cited the Streamlining and Investing in Broadband Infrastructure Act. S-2381, refiled in February, includes dig once provisions and would use a “standard fee” to streamline leasing agreements for installation, construction and maintenance of a communications facility by instructing agencies in possession of federal government property or infrastructure to grant a real property interest to applicants (see 1802060067).
Two lobbyists predicted a discussion about a draft bill being circulated by Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Communications ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, that aims to ease barriers to 5G and other broadband deployments (see 1710310057 and 1711240024). The draft encountered opposition from some state and local governments because of language that would pre-empt state, local and tribal laws seen by some as barriers to deployments (see 1712070075).
Some Communications members likely will highlight concerns about the accuracy of broadband connectivity data mapping, especially since the issue figured into the House Communications Subcommittee’s recent NTIA oversight hearing (see 1803060048), a telecom lobbyist said. Many of the industry groups whose executives will testify at the Senate Communications hearing previously highlighted the need for improvements in broadband data accuracy, including NTCA and CTIA, the lobbyist noted. WTA's Owens will be interested in discussion during the Wednesday Senate Commerce hearing about some USDA broadband priorities, including its January Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity report. That report recommended the White House improve rural “e-connectivity,” including a multi-agency strategy for increasing rural broadband deployment and reducing regulatory barriers to broadband projects (see 1801080063).