House Commerce Advances Spectrum, Broadband Mapping Bills

for Consumers Act (HR-5502). HR-1218 and Senate Commerce Committee-cleared companion S-198 would require the FCC to include maternal health outcomes in its broadband health mapping tool. HR-2501 would require the FCC and NTIA to update by the end of 2022 their memorandum of understanding for handling spectrum allocations. HR-5502 would require online marketplaces to authenticate the identity of high-volume, third-party sellers. "With the information this legislation will provide, we can then explore broadband policies that will help keep more mothers and their newborn babies safe and healthy," said Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. With $65 billion for broadband in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, it's "even more important that we foster collaboration between the agencies that will be implementing these programs and gather better data to understand how connectivity affects health outcomes," said Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. Ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., praised HR-2501: “These public fights among federal agencies and private industry harm our ability to compete globally, especially with China, and the experts need to be empowered without the interagency politics.” Federal agencies must share "necessary information with all stakeholders early in the spectrum auction process rather than go through the press with baseless fearmongering claims," said House Communications ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio.