Reconciliation Telecom Money Cuts Seen Possible

A reconciliation deal was elusive Friday afternoon despite continued talks between the White House and congressional Democrats in the liberal and centrist camps. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and other leaders remained uncertain about when the chamber would vote on the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684), which they previously had committed to passing by Thursday. Congressional Progressive Caucus members are refusing to vote for HR-3684, which includes $65 billion for broadband, until there’s a reconciliation deal.

"We're going to get this done," President Joe Biden told reporters Friday after meeting with House Democrats in a bid to break the stalemate. "It doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter whether it's in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. We're going to get it done." Biden wanted "to make the case directly to members,” but he’s “not going there to litigate the legislative path forward,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters ahead of the meeting. “It has been a day of progress in fulfilling” Biden’s infrastructure agenda “vision” via HR-3684 and the reconciliation package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said in a letter to the Democratic caucus Thursday night. “All of this momentum brings us closer to shaping the reconciliation bill in a manner that will pass the House and Senate.”

“We’re in good-faith negotiations, we’ll continue in good-faith negotiations,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told reporters Thursday night. He and fellow centrist Senate Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have been pushing to substantially decrease the reconciliation package’s proposed $3.5 trillion over ten years. Both would need to vote in favor of the measure for it to pass in the 50-50 Senate under reconciliation rules, given expected universal GOP opposition. Manchin on Thursday said he would back a maximum of $1.5 trillion.

Democrats 'Wondering'

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell of Washington and other Democratic leaders acknowledged to us even before Manchin set his latest reconciliation threshold that proposed additional money for broadband and other telecom priorities would be as likely as any other item in the reconciliation package to face potential cuts if negotiations meant the final spending level dropped below $3.5 trillion. House Commerce’s proposal and drafts from Senate Commerce were structured around the $3.5 trillion, which Congress authorized in August via Senate Concurrent Resolution 14.

“We’re all in this world of wondering, ‘What’s reconciliation going to look like?’” in terms of determining spending priorities based off a final top-line spending figure, Cantwell said in an interview. “Let’s see where we land” in a final deal. She believes there’s less disagreement now between House and Senate Commerce Democrats on what ratio of their allocated portion of the money they’re willing to spend on broadband, though some aspects of the existing proposals remain “lacking.”

“I don’t think we’re ever going to do enough on the [broadband] affordability issue in the current constructs of Congress,” Cantwell said. Senate Commerce Democrats in August were eyeing up to $45 billion for telecom, including $20 billion for deployment and affordability programs. Congress may feel more urgency in the future to spend additional money on connectivity based on the eventual results of improved FCC broadband coverage data collection practices, she said.

“We’re going to send over” a package to the Senate that leadership believes can pass both chambers and House Commerce leaders decided that it wanted to prioritize less of its money for telecom than some Senate Democrats envisioned, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. “It does us no good to send over something that the Senate has no intention of voting on.”

“I don’t know that there’s going to be the opportunity for us to sit down with our colleagues in the Senate to talk through” a deal on spending, Doyle said. Manchin’s past opposition to spending the $3.5 trillion House leaders had in mind in writing the Build Back Better Act means “you have to wonder what these numbers are going to look like” after negotiations finish and whether that will require paring back the telecom money included in the Commerce proposal.

“It’s critically important that” lawmakers be “working together with the White House” to provide additional money for broadband via reconciliation, said Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. “I’ve been optimistic from the beginning” that a reconciliation deal will include connectivity money and “our [House Commerce] colleagues believe in this. We just have to keep pushing.”

“I’m always for more” broadband spending, and reconciliation “is just one step along the way,” said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who led revisions last month to House Commerce’s $4 billion ECF extension proposal (see 2109140063). “There’ll be more opportunities” in other legislation to provide additional funding.

NG-911

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., believes House Commerce’s proposed NG-911 spending is the telecom proposal that’s least likely to face cuts if leadership has to reallocate spending in a slimmed-down package. Communications sector lobbyists agreed, saying it’s the proposal with the most bipartisan support (see 2108240058).

“This will benefit all the states” and lawmakers will want to fix all the “degraded 911 systems” that haven’t been upgraded in decades, Eshoo told us. “This is long overdue and it’s so sensible and needed that it speaks for itself. If it doesn’t” make it into a final reconciliation package, the lawmakers responsible for removing the money will be “cutting their noses off to spite their faces.”

Public Safety Next Generation 9-1-1 Coalition members urge Congress to “fully fund” NG-911 at the $15 billion proposed in the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-1848). “We cannot shortchange public safety in America by prioritizing funding for other programs,” the coalition members told lawmakers. “Many other funding packages for infrastructure and social programs total in the trillions of dollars.”

Senate Democrats are no longer seeking to restore the full $50 monthly subsidy for an expanded version of the FCC emergency broadband benefit despite earlier interest, lobbyists told us. HR-3684’s EBB extension pares back the monthly subsidy to $30. The Democratic senators are continuing to press for the package to include a $5 billion voucher program proposed in the Device Access for Every American Act (S-2729) to subsidize computers and other devices so low-income families can access broadband, aides said.

One part of House Commerce’s proposal that chamber leaders have already decided to jettison is language to authorize an FCC auction of at least 200 MHz of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, aides and lobbyists told us. House leaders believed the proposal was likely to violate the “Byrd Rule,” which limits potentially extraneous provisions that lawmakers can include in reconciliation measures, aides said. Doyle last week filed the Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-5378), which mirrors the jettisoned language (see 2109290071), so it can later be attached to other must-pass legislation, lobbyists said.

Broadband advocates are “nervous that if the overall package size is cut,” the additional ECF money “won’t make it through,” said Public Knowledge Senior Policy Counsel Jenna Leventoff. Congressional leaders will likely ensure there’s enough “money for big-ticket items” in a slimmed down reconciliation measure, but that will likely mean cutting out lower-priority proposals. “It really comes down to how much” the money is reduced in negotiations, she said. PK is “going to keep pushing” for the device voucher program to be included in a final proposal.

“It’s certainly plausible” that a final package will have a reduced amount of ECF money or none at all, said Free Press Vice President-Policy Matt Wood. “The final number is probably going to be determined by the larger political fight about the overall sticker price.” Many proposals in the package will be “in for a haircut” if the overall money gets cut, he said.