Kennedy Wants to Talk With Trump on FCC C-Band Concerns, Seeks Vote Delay
Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters Thursday he plans to again meet with or talk to President Donald Trump to express his renewed ire about the FCC’s direction in planning an auction of the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. Kennedy railed against FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s current C-band auction plan during a Senate floor speech, criticizing the proposal to allocate about $15 billion of sale proceeds for relocation and incentive payments to incumbents on the frequency (see 2002060057). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said she's supporting Kennedy’s C-band centric Spectrum Management And Reallocation for Taxpayers (Smart) Act (S-3246).
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“I don’t know if [Trump] knows about” Pai’s C-band proposal, but “I’m going to go see him” to discuss it, Kennedy told reporters. “If [Trump] looks me in the eye and tells me that ‘I have agreed to give away $15 billion to [C-band incumbents] for something they don’t own, then I will say ‘Mr. President, I understand your position. We just disagree.’ But he hasn’t told me that.” Kennedy opposed Pai’s auction plan soon after its release last week. The senator spoke with Trump before Pai’s November decision to back a public C-band auction (see 1911180065), which some believe influenced Pai’s process.
“There are some people at the White House that know all about this” proposal and if “it were up to” them, “they would have given the satellite companies the full” proceeds of the spectrum sale, Kennedy said. “Some of them over there got mad at me for raising the issue.” Vice President Mike Pence and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow endorsed Pai’s proposal last week (see 2002070016). “The indirect suggestion to me now is, ‘Kennedy, you won’” by getting Pai to back a public auction and shouldn’t criticize the amount of money the commission now allocates from that sale, Kennedy said. He said on the Senate floor he respects Pai but “wouldn’t take him with me” to buy a car because he would agree to “pay the full sticker price.”
Kennedy urged the FCC to delay a Feb. 28 vote on Pai’s specific proposal but still “vote to have the public auction as they promised.” There’s “no single solitary reason” why the FCC needs to approve the current proposal at this point in the year since the auction isn’t to begin until Dec. 8, he said: “We can negotiate a better deal.” The commission and the C-Band Alliance of major satellite incumbents didn’t comment.
“I’ve got several other cards I’ve yet to play” to give Congress a voice in shaping the auction plans if negotiations on a compromise between S-3246 and other C-band bills fully collapse, Kennedy told reporters. S-3246 would set aside some sale proceeds for relocation, incentive and U.S. Treasury payments. It would reserve the bulk of the money for rural broadband and next-generation 911. Kennedy led the measure with Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii (see 2001280041).
Cantwell told us she's “more optimistic” about the prospects for negotiation on a C-band deal, in contrast to pessimism voiced earlier this week (see 2002110041) by Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. “We don’t want anybody to overspend, including the FCC,” and that’s something lawmakers should be able to come to a consensus on, Cantwell said. Wicker touts his 5G Spectrum Act (S-2881). That bill would set a graduated scale for amounts the FCC would be required to return to the Treasury from C-band proceeds, beginning with “not less than 50 percent” of the first $40 billion.
S-3246 “could fund” NG-911 projects “from the revenues we raise at the FCC when we auction certain wireless airwaves to help power your mobile phone,” Rosenworcel said at a NG 9-1-1 Institute event Wednesday, in remarks released Thursday. “We need the blessing of Congress to make this happen. It would be a shame if the FCC simply auctioned these valuable public airwaves without first ensuring a cut for public safety. Because with the next spectrum auction, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help fund next-generation 9-1-1 nationwide -- and I think we shouldn’t squander it."
Kennedy didn’t rule out the possibility he would attach a rider setting out uses for money from the spectrum sale to Senate Appropriations’ bill allocating the FCC’s FY 2021 funding. He’s aiming for additional C-band-focused hearings, likely after Feb. 28, and wants “to know how they arrived” at Pai’s proposed amount of relocation and incentive payments. Kennedy wondered “did they just pull it out of their orifices?”
“It is extremely disappointing” the lawmaker “is looking to slam the brakes on the progress” in Pai’s C-band proposal, a 5G Action Now spokesperson emailed. “The United States is in a race to 5G development and deployment against China and the longer we wait, the further we fall behind.” Kennedy should “work with the Trump Administration and the FCC toward our collective goals of national and economic security in the 21st Century by supporting their efforts to get to full 5G development and deployment before Beijing does."