Hill, FCC Aides Voice Bipartisan Cooperation Hope

“The question is if we all can come to consensus on the amount that we want to spend on broadband,” said Shawn Bone, Senate Commerce senior communications and tech policy counsel. “We're all actively looking at the discussions going on between the White House” and congressional Republicans to see if they can reach a deal (see 2105130071). Broadband spending proposals ranged from President Joe Biden’s call for $100 billion to Senate Republicans’ $65 billion counter (see 2104220067).

Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., “does believe in” continuing the committee’s tradition “as a bipartisan platform to do hard work,” as shown in its markup last week (see 2105120063) of the Endless Frontier Act (S-1260), Bone said. “I also think, at the end of the day, she does not want to miss this opportunity. And she does want to look back 10 years from now and know that … we've put in place a significant solution to” the digital divide.

House Commerce Committee Democrats are “ready to work with all sides to try and get a really once-in-a-lifetime investment” in broadband and infrastructure, said Communications Subcommittee Senior Democratic Counsel Gerald Leverich. He cited committee Democrats’ interest in the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act (HR-1783/S-745) and Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow's (Lift) America Act (HR-1848). There’s hope of “a bipartisan solution” from talks between the Biden administration and Republicans, and using the budget reconciliation process to pass a package with only Democratic support is “a backstop,” Leverich said.

Senate Commerce ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., considers broadband access “synonymous with access to economic opportunity” and “feels pretty strongly” any connectivity money in an infrastructure package should be tied to the FCC updating broadband maps, said committee GOP Policy Director Olivia Trusty. Congress “spent so much money on broadband” over the past year, which “increased the importance of having maps that tell us where broadband is available, where it’s not available, and at what speeds.”

It’s “crucial that we tie” additional broadband spending to such FCC completion, said House Communications Chief Republican Counsel Kate O’Connor. “We want the FCC to obviously move as quickly as possible to make accurate maps, because otherwise that whole effort would be fruitless.” But “if we don't have the maps,” that also risks the new broadband spending “being a fruitless effort,” she said.

FCC Cooperation

Recent orders on the emergency broadband benefit and Emergency Connectivity Fund “were done unanimously so … that speaks to this commission’s ability to take on some of our biggest challenges,” said Kate Black, aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Broadband demands won’t go away after the pandemic, she said. Virtual meetings and telehealth appointments will continue, she said.

“Things have been working very well,” said Ben Arden, aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr: “We’ve stayed very busy, maybe too busy. The marathon meetings seem to have continued from the last administration.” Pushing into 5G is important because of the “app economy,” which also got people “through the pandemic,” he said. Carr said the Covid-19 telehealth program is a “huge benefit to healthcare providers.”

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said pushing for more diversity is a priority for him. “There are diverse viewpoints and perspectives that can make us better,” Starks said, noting a majority of his staffers are people of color and women. Diversity is the “starting point,” Starks said, and there should be a strong support system that encourages people to grow in their field.

Rosenworcel “meets on a regular basis” with Commissioner Nathan Simington, said Carolyn Roddy, aide to the Republican. Rosenworcel staffers “hear us, they listen to us,” she said. Roddy said she had some 30 meetings on the ECF draft. “People came in and they gave me really valuable information,” she said. The chairwoman’s office “took almost all” Simington’s proposed edits, she said.

Commissioners are working together on national security and space, said Starks' Chief of Staff Bill Davenport. “On spectrum” there’s “broad agreement about moving forward on a number of bands,” he said. Broadband affordability is “a huge factor,” and there are other issues, like lack of information about programs like EBB, he said. Many don’t trust ISPs or government, he said. People trust school administrators and Starks is focused on working with schools to close the broadband gap, he said.

Space

This is “an incredibly exciting period” for space commerce, said Sean O’Keefe, a Syracuse University professor and former NASA administrator. Commercial space access “is expanding at an unbelievable rate,” he said. O’Keefe compared the industry to the early days of commercial aviation. Access to space “is a very inexpensive, relatively speaking, proposition compared to what it was just a decade or so earlier,” he said: “With that comes tremendous opportunities” and “incredible proliferation of capacity.”

Problems must be addressed, which will be difficult, O’Keefe said. The world needs an international standard on space debris like the remnants of the Chinese Long March-5B Y2 rocket that recently fell to earth, he said. “It’s an extremely hard proposition to bring together a global consensus.”

Most FCC work is focused on communications law, and the International Bureau Satellite Division has “very strong overlap with the space industry,” said Chief Karl Kensinger. Space matters are complex and take long to learn, he said. Space debris doesn’t raise “traditional communications” issues like interference, he said. The FCC looks at debris and other issues primarily through an RF “licensing lens,” he said: “This is one of the questions that kind of comes up on a recurring basis is when you are looking at space commerce through that lens, do you really have fully the right tools for addressing space commerce.”

The FCC is becoming “one of, if not the most important, space regulators in the world,” said SpaceX Satellite Policy Director David Goldman. SpaceX satellites are licensed by the FCC, which authorizes their launches, he said. Others at the company talk with NASA daily, he said. NASA isn’t a “regulator so it’s a different kind of relationship,” he said. Access to space has gotten cheaper and easier, he said: “When you change the economics, it just changes everything.”