Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, locked down support Wednesday from a pair of top Armed Services Committee Republicans for the panel’s spectrum budget reconciliation package language after strengthening the original proposal’s exclusion of the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential FCC auction or other reallocation (see 2506060029). Cruz’s office also reemphasized his view that the revised proposal’s language to encourage states to pause enforcement of AI laws no longer threatens jurisdictions’ eligibility for the enacted $42.5 billion in BEAD funding (see 2506230043) in the face of Democratic assertions to the contrary.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said Tuesday that it’s “time to have a real conversation and update the 1992 Cable Act,” a revamp that would likely take aim at retransmission consent, must-carry and network non-duplication rules, lobbyists said. The lawmaker announced plans to revisit the statute during a Media Institute event, saying it was part of a broader “modernization” of U.S. media laws, in tandem with the FCC Media Bureau’s move to seek comment on relaxing national broadcast-ownership limits (see 2506200052).
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Saturday cleared a revised version of Commerce Committee Republicans’ budget reconciliation proposal for a freeze on enforcing state-level AI rules in a way that backers claim doesn't directly threaten funding from NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program (see 2506060029). However, Senate Democratic aides told us they believe it would still put all states’ BEAD allocations at risk. The measure is an apparent alternative to language in the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR-1) that would impose a 10-year federal preemption of such laws (see 2505220064).
Nextlink Internet Chief Strategy Officer Claude Aiken and 23 officials from other Texas-based WISPA member companies urged the state's GOP senators, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, to “consider the importance of shared spectrum, particularly” the 3550-3650 MHz citizens broadband radio service band, as the chamber moves forward on a budget reconciliation package that Republicans want to include airwaves legislative language. Cruz led a Senate Commerce reconciliation proposal for an 800 MHz pipeline of reallocated spectrum that would exclude some DOD-controlled bands but doesn't address CBRS (see 2506060029).
The Senate Finance Committee's portion of the chamber’s proposed budget reconciliation package, released Monday night, omits language from the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act (HR-1873/S-674) that Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and others were seeking. The measure would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow broadband grants enacted via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and American Rescue Plan Act, including NTIA's $42.5 billion BEAD program, to not count as gross income (see 2503050073). Moran said during an Incompas event in March that the reconciliation process was “probably the only possibility” for moving S-674, given that the forthcoming legislative package aims to extend tax cuts enacted during the first Trump administration (see 2503110058).
The Senate confirmed Republican Olivia Trusty to the FCC Tuesday on a largely party-line, 53-45 vote, as expected (see 2506130065). The vote covered only her nomination to finish the term of former Democratic Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, which expires June 30. The chamber planned to vote Wednesday to confirm Trusty to a full five-year term, which will begin July 1. Lobbyists expect the Senate to approve her for the additional term by a similar margin. Once sworn in, Trusty will shift the FCC to a 2-1 Republican majority. The simultaneous resignations earlier this month of Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington and Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks left the agency without a quorum and in a 1-1 tie (see 2506060051).
The offices of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., continued sparring Monday over panel Republicans’ proposed spectrum language for the chamber’s budget reconciliation package. The proposal, which Cruz released earlier this month, would renew the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through Sept. 30, 2034, and mandate an 800 MHz pipeline of spectrum for licensed sale (see 2506060029). The measure proposes excluding the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands from potential reallocation. Cantwell repeatedly criticized Republicans’ proposal last week as inadequately protecting DOD-controlled airwaves (see 2506120084).
If Congress authorizes the full-power licensed use of the upper C-band, an FCC auction appears unlikely before 2026 at the earliest, industry experts told us. The conventional wisdom is that it takes about a year between the initial preparation stages and an auction. But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has promised to move quickly on spectrum and had put a notice of inquiry on the agenda for his first meeting as chairman, they also said (see 2502050057).
Lawmakers and lobbyists told us they expect the Senate will hold confirmation votes on Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty as soon as this week, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., filed cloture on her Thursday night (see 2506120097). Thune previously indicated he was likely to move up Trusty in confirmation priority after Republican FCC commissioner Nathan Simington abruptly departed the commission earlier this month (see 2506040073). Simington’s exit and the simultaneous departure of Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks left the commission in a 1-1 tie and lacking a quorum.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., continued Thursday to criticize panel Republicans’ proposed spectrum language for the chamber’s budget reconciliation package (see 2506060029). She argued during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event that the spectrum proposal would leave DOD and aviation stakeholders more vulnerable to China and other malicious actors. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui of California and 30 other chamber Democrats also urged Senate leaders to jettison language from the reconciliation package that would require governments receiving funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD program to pause enforcing state-level AI rules.