Lawmakers Eye Attaching STELA, Spectrum Policy Language to CR

There's interest in using the CR to address some spectrum policy issues, though negotiations on that are far from final, some lawmakers and lobbyists said. Lawmakers are interested in allocating proceeds from a coming FCC auction of the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band and repealing the 2012 spectrum law's mandate for public safety to move off the 470-512 MHz T band. The Senate Commerce Committee appears likely to easily advance at least four of the five tech and telecom bills slated for markup at a Wednesday executive session, lobbyists told us. There's less certainty about a committee markup of the 5G Spectrum Act (S-2881) amid a bid by committee Democrats to incorporate language from a rival C-band measure.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and others signaled Monday and Tuesday a deal was near. Talks stretched through the weekend, including between Wicker and other lawmakers who attended Sunday's Kennedy Center Honors event. Graham is viewed as the final arbiter of the deal, which was presented to him in preliminary form Monday. Graham has been seen as a STELA skeptic, especially after he wrote executives from major U.S. broadcasters in November about how they would transition satellite customers if the distant-signal license expired (see 1911010059).

The deal, which some communications sector lobbyists said is finalized “in substance,” would include the entirety of HR-5035. That bill would make permanent STELA's good-faith retransmission consent negotiations requirement. It incorporates amended language from the Truth-in-Billing, Remedies and User Empowerment over Fees (True Fees) Act (HR-1220) and would let small MVPDs collectively negotiate for retrans using a qualified buying group (see 1911200048). The HR-5035 language is “likely to stick” and be included in the final measure, Wicker told us Tuesday.

Negotiations

The deal would involve a modified version of the House Judiciary Committee-cleared Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act (HR-5140), as expected (see 1912090051), Graham and lobbyists said. That bill would make permanent STELA's distant-signal license language but limit its scope to cover only trucks, RVs and households in short markets. It would provide a limited extension of the distant-signal license for all other currently covered subscribers and would require satellite providers using the distant-signal license to serve all 210 designated market areas (see 1911180014).

Proposed modifications to the HR-5140 language include extending the window for satellite providers to serve all markets through May 31 and removing an amendment from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., that expanded the initial length of the full distant-signal license extension to six months (see 1911210052), lobbyists said. Lofgren’s amendment could let a satellite company apply for a theoretically unlimited number of 90-day license extensions. The DMA requirement is seen as targeting AT&T's DirecTV. Lawmakers repeatedly raised concerns amid the STELA debate about the 12 markets where DirecTV provides limited or no access to locally broadcast networks' stations. AT&T says the markets have access to local stations' terrestrial signals.

A deal will involve “some modifications” to the scope of STELA's distant-signal compulsory license language “and not everyone will be utterly delighted," Wicker told reporters Monday. “More people will be accepting of it than not.” A pact won’t be finalized by Wednesday's Senate Commerce meeting but is likely to be ready this week, he said. Wicker postponed a vote on his Satellite Television Access Reauthorization Act (S-2789) amid a committee members’ revolt (see 1911130055). S-2789 would renew STELA through the end of 2024 (see 1911130055).

The main hurdle to advancing via the CR appears to be uncertainty about the general CR dynamics on Capitol Hill before a looming House vote on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, lobbyists said. A lobbyist opposed to killing STELA’s distant-signal license rules acknowledged chatter about including a “hybrid” version of HR-5140 in a renewal deal, but questioned how close a deal is to completion.

The House-passed HR-5035 didn’t include language from HR-5140. That reflected expectations from House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., that the chamber would clear the unamended existing language and let the Senate be first to clear the compromise. “We’re sending [HR-5035] over” to the Senate as it currently stands because “we still have to reconcile” HR-5140, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., in an interview. “We’re urging the Senate to take a close look” at the measure and “put something together.”

Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other committee members also noted progress toward a deal Tuesday, but they emphasized there isn’t a final accord yet. “The House took action” on HR-5035 and "if we could get that passed over here in the Senate, that would be great,” Cantwell said. “Let’s let [the committee leaders] finish talking and then see” what finalized language looks like, said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. She noted she’s still pushing to attach language from her Ask Musicians for Music (AM-FM) Act (S-2932) to a STELA measure in a bid to secure a performance right for terrestrial radio (see 1911210067).

C Band

Wicker and Cantwell acknowledged Tuesday negotiations were continuing on a deal to advance S-2884 during Wednesday's markup. The bill would require the FCC to auction at least 280 MHz of C-band spectrum, starting by Dec. 31, 2020 (see 1911180026). The measure would require the FCC return at least 50 percent of proceeds to the Treasury.

“We’re working hard” on negotiations, a Wicker aide said. “There are a lot of different pieces that we’re trying to accommodate.”

There’s “a lot of negotiating to do” in hopes of incorporating in language from the Investing in America’s Digital Infrastructure Act (S-2956), Cantwell told us. She and other Senate Commerce Democrats filed the bill last month shortly after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's decision to pursue a public C-band auction (see 1911180026). The bill would require “nearly all” C-band auction proceeds be deposited into a Digital Divide Trust Fund (see 1911210056).

Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., told us he remains “likely” to place a hold on S-2884 if Senate Commerce advances it. “I’m a little concerned” about the proposed level of auction proceeds the bill would return to Treasury, he said. “I worry about putting a figure in that sets a ceiling” on money that would be returned “to the American people.” Kennedy doesn’t want the C-Band Alliance, which proposed a private auction, to “figure out a way to go through a back door” to claim an undue amount of sale proceeds, he said.

Doyle confirmed he’s “looking at” potentially attaching C-band and T-band language to the CR, though “there’s a lot of things we want to move before” the end-of-year recess. “We’ll move what we can move before we get out of here and what we can’t we’ll keep working on when we get back” in 2020, he said. Doyle and Kennedy have been pursuing the Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-Band) Act (HR-4855/S-2921) as a potential proceeds allocation mechanism. Doyle has also been interested in the Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act (HR-451), which would repeal the T-band mandate (see 1910310073).

Four other tech and telecom bills are expected to sail through Senate Commerce’s Wednesday markup with near-minimal changes. Those measures are the Data Analytics Robocall Technology Act (S-2204), Telecom Opportunities for Workers Engaging in Real (Tower) Infrastructure Deployment Act (S-2363), National Suicide Hotline Designation Act (S-2661) and Drone Advisory Committee for the 21st Century Act (S-2730). The markup starts at 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen. The FCC plans to vote Thursday on a draft NPRM on the national suicide hotline (see 1912090041).