House Commerce Committee leaders are cautioning that the Communications Subcommittee’s planned Thursday spectrum policy hearing isn’t necessarily an indication that the panel will seek early action on an airwaves legislative package. Some lawmakers and lobbyists instead said the hearing is aimed at educating the subpanel’s crop of new members on the complicated dynamics at play in the spectrum legislative debate. New House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and other Republicans are eyeing using an upcoming budget reconciliation package to move on spectrum legislation (see 2501070069).
NCTA CEO Michael Powell and CTIA Executive Vice President Brad Gillen are among those set to testify Thursday during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on spectrum legislative issues, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday. House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and other Republicans are eyeing using an upcoming budget reconciliation package to move on spectrum legislation (see 2501070069). Other witnesses on House Communications’ hearing docket: Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis and the Trump administration's former acting NTIA Administrator Diane Rinaldo, now Open RAN Policy Coalition executive director. The panel will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency may struggle to make the deep cuts in the federal workforce it seeks, experts said during a discussion at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs late Monday. Moreover, Trump would face legal challenges implementing Schedule F, which would strip federal employees of civil service protections and facilitate replacing them with Trump loyalists, they said (see 2407110054).
The Wireless Infrastructure Association urged Congress Thursday to “reintroduce and pass” the 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act backed by Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. It would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority and proposes requiring NTIA to identify at least 2,500 MHz of midband spectrum the federal government can reallocate within the next five years (see 2403110066). Congressional GOP leaders are eyeing using a coming budget reconciliation package to address spectrum issues, including reauthorizing the FCC’s mandate (see 2501070069). WIA also urged NTIA to “accelerate” the national spectrum strategy. “We need to move beyond studies and get to solutions that meet industry needs while respecting critical government functions,” it said. WIA urged lawmakers to refile the American Broadband Deployment Act permitting package that the House Commerce Committee approved in 2023 (see 2305240069). The measure, which groups together more than 20 GOP-led connectivity permitting bills, drew unanimous opposition from House Commerce Democrats, and local government groups continued lobbying against the measure last year (see 2409180052). “A consistent permitting framework set at a national level, but flexible enough to accommodate local needs and interests, is the key to sustained success for wireless infrastructure deployment,” WIA said. The group “values and respects the need for local permitting processes; the reforms WIA proposes all build upon that premise, but with safeguards built in where the level of review becomes unpredictable, untimely, disproportionate, or unworkably opaque.”
The Senate Republican Conference ratified Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas Tuesday as Commerce Committee chairman, as expected (see 2411040049). Cruz said in a statement his top priority remains “pursuing policies that will create jobs and spur economic growth,” including by “expanding commercial access to electromagnetic spectrum.” Cruz is among the congressional GOP leaders eyeing using a coming budget reconciliation package to address spectrum issues, including restoring the FCC’s lapsed auction authority (see 2501070069). “I look forward to continuing to work with” Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., “and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find common ground and deliver results that will make a difference in the daily lives of the American people,” he said. The panel will have 15 Republicans during this Congress, including freshman Sens. John Curtis of Utah, Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Tim Sheehy of Montana (see 2412230014). There will be 13 Democrats, including three new party members (see [Ref:2501030050}).
Lawmakers and officials expect that long-standing DOD objections to repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and other military-controlled frequencies will remain a flashpoint in negotiations during the new Congress as GOP leaders eye using an upcoming budget reconciliation package to move on spectrum legislation. Observers eyed potential friction from Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., if she succeeds in her bid to become Senate Communications Subcommittee chair (see 2412180052) given her well-known disagreement with new Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on DOD spectrum issues.
Communications industry executives and former federal officials said during a Practising Law Institute event Tuesday they see a likely GOP-led budget reconciliation package next year as a potential vehicle for legislation that would reinstate the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. House Commerce Committee leaders and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have repeatedly attempted to reinstate the authority during this Congress only to have their efforts stall (see 2409170066).
The C-band relocation payment clearinghouse is in the final phase of its claims review, following the July 1 deadline for claims submission, it said in a docket 18-122 filing posted Monday. As of Sept. 30, it had finished reviewing all lump sum claims, all surrogate claims and most non-lump sum claims from earth station operators, as well as almost all claims from satellite operators, it said. Cumulatively through Sept. 30, it had received 4,518 claims with a total dollar value of $3.55 billion, and it's moving to its next phase: reconciliation of satellite operators' claims. The clearinghouse said after that, it will start final operations, including the final accounting and audit, with the expectation it ceases operations by June.