FCC Expects to Complete Review of 'Rip and Replace' Money Demands July 15: Rosenworcel
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel now expects a final estimate of demands for money from the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to repay U.S. carriers for removing from their networks equipment made by companies deemed a national security risk to be ready on or soon after July 15. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, meanwhile, advanced by voice vote Thursday its FY 2023 bill with FCC and FTC funding mirroring what President Joe Biden is seeking for the agencies (see 2203280069). The Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee advanced by voice its FY23 bill Thursday with funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency well above what Biden sought.
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A review of amended rip and replace applications is expected to conclude by July 15, meaning the FCC will “at that time” give Congress a final estimate of total demands for reimbursements from the program, Rosenworcel said in letters to Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other lawmakers released Thursday. That’s a month after the FCC’s original deadline. Rosenworcel said earlier this month the FCC’s final estimate would be delayed because it needed to give applicants time to amend “deficient” applications (see 2206080066).
“We continue to believe that total demand at that time will exceed” the $1.9 billion Congress originally appropriated for the rip and replace program, Rosenworcel said. She sent the letters Wednesday, the same day the House Communications Subcommittee advanced an amended version of the Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624) that would allocate $3.4 billion in proceeds from the 3.1-3.45 GHz auction the measure authorizes to provide additional funding for the rip and replace program (see 2206150067). Rosenworcel hailed House Communications’ advancement of HR-7624, saying “we are demonstrating once again that the safety and security of consumers is a top priority.”
"Absent an additional appropriation, the Commission will need to apply the prioritization scheme Congress specified” in FY 2021 appropriations, which requires the FCC to “allocate funding first to approved applications that have 2,000,000 or fewer customers, then to approved applications from accredited public or private non-commercial educational institutions providing their own facilities-based educational broadband services and from health care providers and libraries providing advanced communications services, and finally to any remaining approved applications,” Rosenworcel told lawmakers. All “but one of the eligible applicants falls within the first prioritization group, and the collective demand of these applicants exceeds available funds for the Program.” The FCC will have to “prorate reimbursement funds equally to each eligible applicant,” she said.
House Appropriations Financial Services advanced its FY23 funding bill after a brief debate that didn’t mention the FCC, but did touch on the proposed increase in FTC money. The measure proposes giving the FCC $390 million, up 2.3% from what Congress appropriated in the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package Biden signed in March (see 2203150076). The bill would give the FTC $490 million in FY23, up 30% from FY22.
“Increased” FTC funding “will protect Americans from the predatory practices of certain big corporations,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. Financial Services ranking member Steve Womack, R-Ark., cited the increased FTC funding as part of why the measure “further contributes to our growing debt and the inflationary spirals that are hindering our economy and affecting every household in America.”
House Appropriations ranking member Kay Granger, R-Texas, criticized language in the Financial Services bill that she views as allowing “radio and TV advertising for marijuana.” A rider in the bill would bar the FCC from using its funding to “deny, fail to renew for a full term” or otherwise condition a broadcaster’s license “because the station broadcast or otherwise transmitted” ads for “a business selling cannabis or cannabis-derived products” or “a business selling hemp” or other “hemp-derived cannabinoid products.”
The House Appropriations Homeland Security FY23 bill proposes giving CISA $2.93 billion. That’s more than 16% above what Biden proposed in March and 37% above what Congress appropriated to the agency in FY22. The measure would also allocate $40 million via the Federal Emergency Management Agency for public broadcasters to upgrade Next Generation Warning System infrastructure. America’s Public Television Stations CEO Patrick Butler praised the proposed funding as making it “possible to do more of this work, more effectively, in more places, helping save more lives and property in emergency situations.”