Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas is holding off on publicly endorsing or opposing the House Commerce Committee's reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), but he and some other fellow panel Republicans are already looking at potential changes if it emerges from the lower chamber as currently written. House Commerce hadn't yet tackled the reconciliation measure’s spectrum language Tuesday afternoon as panel members traded barbs about the legislation’s proposed Medicaid cuts.
House Commerce Committee Republicans found some success Monday in selling their Sunday night budget reconciliation proposal -- which would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through FY 2034 and tee up 600 MHz of bandwidth -- as effectively balancing the interests of major communications sector and military stakeholders. But lobbyists cautioned that the measure still faces an uncertain path unless House GOP leaders can win support from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others in the upper chamber. House Commerce set a Tuesday reconciliation markup session, which will begin at 2 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in an interview Thursday that “we are going to have [a restoration of the FCC’s lapsed] auction authority and a spectrum pipeline” in the coming budget reconciliation package, as talks appeared to be moving closer to a compromise headed into the weekend. Meanwhile, House GOP leaders are coalescing around a deal that would pair a 10-year renewal of the FCC’s auction mandate with a 450 MHz pipeline of airwaves that the commission can repurpose for 5G use, said several communications sector lobbyists who are closely monitoring negotiations.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Monday night called House Commerce Committee Republicans’ budget reconciliation proposal “encouraging” but stopped short of backing the measure. House Commerce’s proposal, which the panel will mark up Tuesday, would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through the end of FY 2034 and tee up 600 MHz of bandwidth for sale within six years of enactment.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, this week urged the wireless industry to rally behind his push to make a spectrum title part of the budget reconciliation package before Congress. Cruz was among the last of the speakers at CTIA’s 5G Summit on Tuesday (see 2505060036).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday “to guard the critical spectrum resources currently assigned to” DOD, which has proposed reallocating some military-controlled bands (see 2504040068). Cantwell said any DOD reallocation in response to congressional Republicans’ push for a spectrum pipeline as part of a coming budget reconciliation package would put “short-term corporate gain ahead of our nation’s long-term security.”
The U.S. is “poorly positioned to counter China’s effort to win the wireless future,” said new CTIA President and CEO Ajit Pai in a weekend opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. Carriers lack enough licensed spectrum to keep up with expected consumer demand, wrote Pai, who served as FCC chairman during the first Trump presidency. “Thanks to AI, 5G home broadband and other emerging technologies, traffic on wireless networks is expected to triple by 2029.”
Disruptive Analysis Director Dean Bubley said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s high-profile promise of a Golden Dome that will protect the U.S. from missile attacks, similar to Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, “should lead policymakers to rethink the wisdom or feasibility of clearing” the DOD-controlled 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use. DOD supporters’ concerns about repurposing the lower 3 GHz band are the main sticking point in talks to mandate a spectrum pipeline as part of a coming budget reconciliation package (see 2505020047). DOD in March proposed making 420 MHz from current military-controlled frequencies available for FCC auction while maintaining the Pentagon’s grip on the lower 3 GHz band (see 2504040068).
House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us in recent days that negotiations on potential compromise spectrum legislative language for a budget reconciliation package remain in flux. They emphasized it's still uncertain there will be a deal to obligate an airwaves pipeline as part of the measure. Their comments contrasted with the optimism that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., voiced in recent interviews about the prospects of a spectrum deal that would satisfy pro-DOD legislators, who have resisted reallocating military-controlled midband airwaves.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and other Democrats used a Thursday confirmation hearing for deputy commerce secretary nominee Paul Dabbar to restate their concerns about the Trump administration’s commitment to the Commerce Department doling out appropriated broadband and semiconductor funding. Cantwell and Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also emphasized their diverging views on repurposing DOD airwaves for commercial 5G use, an issue that’s been a major sticking point in negotiations to include a spectrum title in a coming GOP-sought budget reconciliation package (see 2504180027).