Senate, House Commerce GOP Prod on NTIA
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., pressed the FCC and NTIA Thursday to work on "improving the cooperation and collaboration between your agencies that is essential to spectrum management and the future of U.S. spectrum policy," including updating their memorandum of understanding for handling frequency allocations. Top House Commerce Committee Republicans, meanwhile, are pressing the Communications Subcommittee to "promptly schedule" an NTIA oversight hearing, after the Senate's Tuesday confirmation of Alan Davidson as agency administrator.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Davidson was expected to have taken office as soon as Thursday (see 2201120050). That afternoon, the agency's website still listed Evelyn Remaley as acting administrator. Davidson will be the first permanent NTIA leader since 2019.
"In light of recent disputes over spectrum allocations, it is more important than ever that the FCC and NTIA work together to promote spectrum policy that best serves the dual goals of furthering commercial innovation and enabling the mission-critical operations of federal agencies," Wicker wrote Davidson and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "This relationship can be strengthened through an update of the MOU between the FCC and NTIA."
The "MOU has not been updated since 2003 and does not appropriately account for the dramatic changes in technology in the past 20 years," Wicker said. He noted his role in writing the Improving Spectrum Coordination Act (S-1472) and NTIA Reauthorization and Reform Act (S-3288), which both mandate periodic MOU updates. "Although this legislation has not yet been signed into law, I urge both of you to work together to accomplish the objectives it lays out, resulting in a more predictable and certain spectrum policy environment for all users, federal and nonfederal," Wicker said.
As Rosenworcel "publicly expressed this week, the FCC and NTIA have worked together as partners in the past, and she looks forward to building on that history with close cooperation in the future," a spokesperson emailed. "Among other things, she looks forward to working together with" Davidson "on spectrum policy that reflects our national priorities." NTIA didn't comment.
"Given NTIA’s role in spectrum management and administering unprecedented amounts of broadband funding" via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, "it is imperative that" Davidson appears before House Communications "as soon as possible," Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta of Ohio wrote committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and subpanel Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., in a letter released Thursday. House Communications hasn't had an NTIA oversight hearing since 2018 (see 1803060048).
"New programs established across the federal government" provide "hundreds of billions of dollars that can be used to support broadband access," so it's "imperative that we understand how NTIA plans to track and coordinate these programs effectively," the GOP leaders said. House Commerce didn't comment.