House Communications Subcommittee leaders agreed to let the Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-Band) Act (HR-4855) advance to the full House Commerce Committee Tuesday, but there hasn’t been an agreement yet on the bill’s underlying language, subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., told us Monday night. HR-4855 would allocate most proceeds of the coming FCC auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band to fund telecom projects. It’s among 11 spectrum, media diversity and public safety communications measures the subcommittee plans to mark up Tuesday.
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
The “window” for Congress to “do something legislative” to address the FCC’s coming auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band “has closed” due to Congressional Budget Office recent scoring of the coming sale (see 2003030064), said Brattle Group principal Coleman Bazelon during a Friday FCBA event. The Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, meanwhile, set a hearing with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks that’s expected to have a major focus on the agency's C-band plans. The Senate Appropriations Committee said the hearing is aimed at reviewing the FCC’s FY 2021 budget request. Financial Services Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., billed it as focusing specifically on his concerns about the commission’s C-band plans (see 2002130053). The hearing begins 10 a.m. in 562 Dirksen. President Donald Trump’s administration proposes just over $343 million in funding for the FCC in FY 2021, including $11.3 million for its Office of Inspector General (see 2002100056). That’s just over a 1% increase from the amount appropriated for FY 2020 and 2 percent more than the $335.6 million the Trump administration proposed last year. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee plans a separate FCC budget hearing Wednesday (see 2003050068). CBO’s evaluation of the 5G Spectrum Act (S-2881) likely would have produced “a positive score” if done even a “month or two” earlier, Bazelon said. The office instead estimates enacting S-2881 would increase the federal deficit by a net $2.47 billion through FY 2030. S-2881 would set a graduated scale for amounts the FCC would be required to return to the Treasury from C-band proceeds, beginning with “not less than 50 percent” of the first $40 billion. CBO found the C-band auction will yield an average of $32 billion but produce only $15.4 billion in net proceeds. If the office had evaluated S-2881 earlier, its scoring would have been based on the annual baseline assumptions from February 2019, when the FCC’s C-band plans were far from certain, Bazelon said. The scoring of the auction this February factors in more certainty about the commission’s plans for the sale. Bazelon earlier co-wrote an economic analysis for the C-Band Alliance that said the FCC has authority to require companies buying licenses in a C-band auction to pay for clearing the band as a condition of their participation (see 2001160059).
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross downplayed any disagreement within the Trump administration on how much it wants to restrict Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei via U.S. trade rules. His Thursday exchange with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., came during a Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department’s FY 2021 budget request. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., questioned the agency's broadband coverage data collection.
FCC officials and nominees will testify next week at Senate Commerce Committee and House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearings, those committees said. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel will testify at House Appropriations Financial Services’ Wednesday hearing on the commission’s FY 2021 budget request. President Donald Trump’s administration proposes just over $343 million in funding for the FCC, including $11.3 million for its Office of Inspector General (see 2002100056). That’s just over a 1 percent increase from the amount appropriated for FY 2020 and 2 percent more than the $335.6 million the Trump administration proposed last year. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. in H-309 in the Capitol. Pai and Rosenworcel are also expected to testify at a to-be-announced Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the FCC’s approved plan for an auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band (see 2003030064). IG nominee Chase Johnson will be among three nominees to testify at a Wednesday Senate Commerce confirmation hearing. Trump nominated Johnson in January to lead the watchdog office (see 2001280056). Assistant Transportation Secretary-Transportation Policy Finch Fulton and NOAA Director-nominee Neil Jacobs also will testify. The panel begins immediately after Senate Commerce completes a 10 a.m. markup that includes the Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand (Access Broadband) Act. S-1046 and House-passed companion HR-1328 would establish the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth within NTIA (see 1904050059). Two other tech bills are on the agenda -- reauthorization of the 2006 Undertaking Spam, Spyware And Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers beyond Borders Act (S-3132) and the Industries of the Future Act (S-3191). The markup begins at 10 a.m. The session and confirmations hearing are in 253 Russell.
Senate Commerce Committee privacy negotiations are at a standstill, Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday. “We continue to be hopeful, but at this point, there isn’t any path forward,” Thune said, blaming trial lawyers for continuing to move the goalposts on what constitutes an acceptable compromise. “We’re at loggerheads,” Wicker said. “The issues are what the issues have been all along,” including a private right of action and federal pre-emption. “One of the actions that drew attention to this issue to begin with was the California law, which does not have a private right of action,” he said: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act “doesn’t have a private right of action. The bipartisan Washington state law doesn’t have a private right of action. So I don’t know why it’s become a cause celebre for federal data privacy legislation.” It’s a nonstarter for Republicans, but Democrats are insistent, Wicker said. “At some point, a decision is going to have to be made: Do we have a federal standard or not? Consumer groups, small businesses, providers and all sorts of employers and employees across the nation are going to soon see the benefit if not the necessity of having a nationwide standard.”
Senate Commerce Committee leaders floated additional telecom supply chain security bills Wednesday to build on fixes included in the recently passed Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998). Later in the day, the Senate passed the Secure 5G and Beyond Act (HR-2881/S-893). The bill would require the president develop a strategy for ensuring security of 5G networks and infrastructure (see 1903270065).
DOJ Antitrust Division Competition Policy Section Chief David Lawrence noted the FCC cited “remarkable efficiencies” in T-Mobile’s proposed purchase of Sprint as among the reasons the commission approved the deal in October (see 1910160058), speaking at a Tuesday Incompas event (see 2003030064). Lawrence temporarily transferred to the commission as head of its T-Mobile/Sprint Transaction Task Force (see 1806270068). FCC engineers found “real complementarities between” the T-Mobile and Sprint networks, and the commission’s order approving the deal requires the two carriers to build out their combined network “to a tremendous swath of the country,” Lawrence said. He wouldn’t discuss DOJ’s separate review of T-Mobile/Sprint, saying the agencies’ merger reviews are usually very similar and “tend to be very long” and “very thorough.” Lawrence noted a belief that good antitrust policy “puts competition in control.” That approach is especially important to the telecom sector because it’s now “really at the heart” of the U.S. economy, he said. It's "the goose that lays the golden eggs,” with 5G now poised to “be the next golden egg,” Lawrence said. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled last month against states’ challenge to T-Mobile/Sprint (see 2002110026). The California Public Utilities Commission will vote on the deal April 16 (see 2002240053).
House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., expressed some doubt about reaching a deal on legislation to allocate proceeds of a coming FCC auction of spectrum of the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band (see 2002070044), amid ongoing talks with committee Democrats. Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., finalized plans for a hearing on his concerns with the FCC’s plan for the C-band auction.
Commerce Department Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director Earl Comstock is leaving effective Friday, communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed Comstock’s impending departure Monday (see 2003020028). Ross noted Comstock had committed to “serve for three years.” Officials and lobbyists noted overarching controversy over his tenure, including his role in the department’s public disagreement with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on 5G goals (see 1906120076). Comstock’s exit could provide a new opening for President Donald Trump’s administration to attempt to nominate a permanent replacement for former NTIA Administrator David Redl, though there appears to be little time left to feasibly advance a nominee through the Senate confirmations process, given the presidential campaign cycle, lobbyists said. Redl left abruptly in May, with some saying his disagreements with Comstock were a factor (see 1905090051). Work to find a permanent successor has been hindered by concerns about Comstock’s influence at Commerce (see 1908090070). Several officials pointed in December to Treasury Department acting Deputy Assistant Secretary-International Affairs Edward Hearst as a potential successor (see 1912160049), but he now appears to be out of the running because of objections to his tenure at Treasury, lobbyists said. Doug Kinkoph is acting NTIA administrator (see 1912230065). “The relationship between Earl and the NTIA was unprecedented and odd to be sure," said Gigi Sohn, Benton Institute senior fellow. "So are a lot of things about how this administration works.”
Commerce Department Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director Earl Comstock is leaving the department, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed Monday. “I value his wise counsel, his deep policy expertise, his innovative thinking and leadership, and I thank him for his service to the American people,” Ross said in a statement. Comstock's positions on spectrum policy have conflicted with goals of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.