House Commerce Eyes $4B for ECF in Reconciliation
The House Commerce Committee seeks $4 billion more for the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund as part of its portion of the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package, the panel said in a summary we obtained Thursday. Commerce intended to have released the full bill text Thursday night, lobbyists told us. The House Science and Education committees were in the process early Thursday evening of marking up their parts of the reconciliation measure, which touch on other tech and telecom matters.
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The $4 billion in additional ECF funding appears to be the only broadband money House Commerce seeks via reconciliation, rather than seeking to include more of what the panel contemplated in its Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-1848). Earlier Senate Commerce draft reconciliation priorities envisioned $35 billion for broadband (see 2109020072) to supplement the $65 billion in the Senate-passed bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684). The $4 billion would “ensure students, school staff, and library patrons have internet connectivity and devices at locations other than a school or library,” House Commerce’s summary said. The panel didn’t comment.
House Commerce wants $10 billion for next-generation 911 tech updates, mirroring what Senate Commerce sought. Advocates identified the reconciliation package as a prime candidate to enact NG-911 funding after the Senate didn’t include any money for the technology in HR-3684 (see 2108240058). House Commerce is proposing language to set aside 200 MHz for a future FCC auction “while also allowing for permissionless, opportunistic, or licensed by rules uses of spectrum.”
The measure will include $1 billion for a new FTC “bureau dedicated to stopping unfair and deceptive acts and practices related to privacy violations, data security incidents, identity theft, and other data abuses.” It includes $10 billion for the Commerce Department “to monitor and identify critical manufacturing supply chain vulnerabilities.”
House Science’s markup of its reconciliation portion included a pending recorded vote on an amendment from Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, aimed at allocating $600 million to implement federal semiconductor research Congress authorized via the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (see 2101030002). House Education’s section includes more than $41 million for the Bureau of Indian Education to pay for broadband-related “digital infrastructure” updates (see 2109080070).
House Science was awaiting a recorded vote on an amendment from ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., barring use of the National Science Foundation’s proposed $7.6 billion R&D funding in the reconciliation package to establish a “Directorate for Technology Innovation.” The directorate is one of several issues under dispute in conference talks to reach a deal between the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), the House-passed NSF for the Future Act (HR-2225) and other overlapping measures (see 2106150078).
Lucas believes advancing House Science’s reconciliation language “undercuts the important work we’ve done to develop legislation to improve” U.S. R&D, including HR-2225. “Provisions in this package will make it harder to negotiate the House competitiveness package with the Senate,” Lucas said. “We’ll throw away our deliberate, strategic approach in favor of this one-time spending spree.” Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado said he and other Democrats opposed Lucas’ amendment because there’s a “bicameral, bipartisan agreement” that a new tech-focused NSF directorate “is appropriate.” While “we do still need to work out important differences with the Senate,” Perlmutter isn't "as pessimistic” as others about prospects for reaching a deal.”
House Science Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, led fellow Democrats in opposing Ellzey’s chip amendment. It would allocate “one-half” of the almost $1.2 billion NIST R&D funding in the measure “just for microelectronics packaging research. While it’s a worthy area of research,” Ellzey “has not justified why” it’s a “much higher priority than every other area,” Johnson said. She supports including semiconductor research funding via other legislation, including the “bipartisan competitiveness package” in conference talks.
Ellzey contended the microchip money is needed now because keeping such manufacturing in the U.S. is of “vital national security and economic importance.” Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., proposed allocating $500 million for “semiconductor basic research.” Baird successfully attached an amendment to allocate $150 million of NIST funding for cybersecurity R&D. Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., got language allocating $150 million of NIST funds to create a “new Manufacturing USA Institute that is focused on semiconductor manufacturing.”