Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg backed lawmakers' concerns Thursday about the FCC’s November vote to reallocate 5.9 GHz for Wi-Fi and cellular vehicle-to-everything (see 2011180043). He pointed during a House Infrastructure Committee hearing to coming talks within President Joe Biden's administration about an equitable way to address the issue. Lobbyists we spoke with said they expect a formal interagency review soon.
Jimm Phillips
Jimm Phillips, Associate Editor, covers telecommunications policymaking in Congress for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2012 after stints at the Washington Post and the American Independent News Network. Phillips is a Maryland native who graduated from American University. You can follow him on Twitter: @JLPhillipsDC
More industry groups urged the Commerce Department in docket 210113-0009 to delay implementing an interim final rule on securing the information and communications technology and services (ICTS) supply chain. The Information Technology Industry Council previously sought a delay, while Microsoft proposed an alternative (see 2103230062).
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., led refiling the Eliminate the Digital Divide Act Wednesday. The measure, first filed in October, would allocate $10 billion to states for broadband buildout in unserved areas, including $1 billion for high-cost locations. It would require the FCC update its maps to reflect the 2020 Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Roger Williams, both of Texas, are the measure’s lead GOP co-sponsors. NCTA said the plan “recognizes the importance of tech neutrality and includes important safeguards … to ensure accountability. The legislation also focuses on the need to remove barriers to broadband deployment, such as the [eligible telecom carrier] requirement.” Manchin told reporters he backs an “enormous” infrastructure package that he would like to see lawmakers pay for partly via “adjustments” to tax cuts enacted in 2017. He suggested instituting a value-added tax to help fund an “infrastructure bank.” Some Democrats floated using budget reconciliation without GOP buy-in (see 2103160001).
House Commerce Committee members divided on broadband and next-generation 911 language in Democrats’ Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act during Monday's hearing. Republicans indicated they may not support HR-1848 without significant changes. A similar partisan divide was on display last week during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on federal connectivity programs (see 2103170068).
House Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., pressed the FCC to “take a more measured approach to the 5.9 GHz band” during President Joe Biden’s administration due to ongoing concerns about the commission’s November vote to reallocate the frequency for Wi-Fi and cellular vehicle-to-everything (see 2011180043). Some House Armed Services Committee members, meanwhile, emphasized during a Friday hearing the need for solutions to ensure DOD is able to maintain spectrum superiority over other nations for warfare purposes, while also allowing for telecom companies to gain access to more frequencies for commercial use.
Senate Homeland Security Committee leaders said they’re interested in pursuing a major overhaul of the federal government’s cyberattack response process following the Russia-linked SolarWinds hack and other recent incidents, during a Thursday hearing. Panel Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also want a clearer sense of what federal official should ultimately be deemed responsible if hackers infiltrate government networks as happened in the SolarWinds incident.
Senate Commerce Committee members delivered the opening salvos in what’s expected to be a vigorous debate over what Congress should include in a broadband title in coming infrastructure legislation, during a Wednesday hearing, as expected (see 2103160001). Committee Republicans cited lingering concerns about the speed of federal work to improve broadband coverage data, after an FCC announcement that it believes improved broadband coverage data maps won’t be available until at least late 2022 (see 2102170052).
Senate Commerce Committee members are expected to spar over the size and scope of a hoped-for broadband title in coming infrastructure legislation during a Wednesday hearing on federal connectivity programs (see 2103150054). Lawmakers more broadly are sizing up the prospect that an infrastructure spending package of the scope envisioned by President Joe Biden and some congressional Democrats may move only if they advance it using the same budget reconciliation mechanism that just enacted the American Rescue Plan Act without GOP buy-in (see 2103110037).
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she doesn’t believe reports President Joe Biden plans to nominate Columbia Law School’s Lina Khan for an FTC seat (see 2103090057) mean the administration is prioritizing filling that commission’s slots at the expense of the FCC's. Cantwell and other Democrats have pressed Biden to name a permanent FCC chair and a Democratic nominee to fill a vacant seat to establish a 3-2 majority (see 2102050064). “I wouldn’t read one” nomination announcement as coming at the expense of ushering in a Democratic FCC majority, Cantwell said. “All of the information age issues are voluminous” and require good nominees at the FCC and FTC, she said. She hadn’t received official word. Cantwell told us she also hasn’t recommended anyone for the FCC chair or vacant seat. “I’d be happy with” retaining acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel as permanent head, but she hasn’t recommended Biden choose her at the expense of other candidates, Cantwell said.
Congressional Democrats refiled a pair of multibillion-dollar broadband funding proposals Thursday -- the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act (HR-1783) and Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act amid a rising push for infrastructure spending legislation, as expected (see 2103030063). The proposals' return came ahead of President Joe Biden’s Thursday night speech marking the one-year anniversary of widespread pandemic-related shutdowns, which some expect will include an unveiling of his plans for an infrastructure spending package. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act package (HR-1319) earlier in the day, with emergency broadband money (see 2103110037).