Jimm Phillips

The Senate Commerce Committee is again postponing a planned markup of the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207), a spokesperson confirmed Monday night. The Tuesday meeting would have been Senate Commerce’s fourth attempt to vote on S-4207, which in a revised form unveiled last week would renew the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority for five years but mandated no sales of specific bands. S-4207’s prospects of getting bipartisan support had appeared doubtful Monday, but the bill’s backers were continuing that afternoon to court a handful of Republican holdouts to back it.

The House Appropriations Committee continued debating Thursday afternoon the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2025 funding bill, which increases the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million and decreases the FTC’s annual funding to $388.7 million (see 2406050067). Communications policy lobbyists said panel Democrats might attempt removing riders from the measure that bar the FCC from using funding for implementing its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders, but they hadn’t sought votes on such amendments at our deadline.

Aides to Senate Commerce Committee supporters of the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) say revisions that the Commerce Department and military leaders endorsed Tuesday night will sway enough Republicans to ease the bill's path forward in the chamber. Senators told us much will depend on the language in a new substitute version of S-4207 that was still under development Wednesday afternoon. The bill would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority for five years, allocate $7 billion to the expired affordable connectivity program during FY 2024 and fully pay for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program.

A Senate Commerce Committee spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon the panel remains on track to mark up the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) Wednesday, but negotiations between leaders signaled the situation remained extremely fluid, lobbyists told us. Senate Commerce postponed two May markups of S-4207 amid strong opposition from top committee Republicans (see 2405010051). The measure would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through Sept. 30, 2029. It would lend the commission more than $10 billion in FY 2024 funding for the expired affordable connectivity program and fully pay for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The Senate Commerce meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.

The Senate Commerce Committee is postponing a planned Wednesday vote on the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207), a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday night. That marks the third time the panel has postponed consideration of S-4207 since early May amid continued stumbling blocks in talks aimed at garnering GOP support for the measure. S-4207 would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through Sept. 30, 2029, allocate money to the expired affordable connectivity program and fully pay for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program.

The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee advanced its FY 2025 funding bill Wednesday with language that would couple an increase in the FCC’s annual funding with riders barring the commission from implementing GOP-opposed net neutrality and digital discrimination orders. The subpanel advanced the funding bill on a voice vote, but Democrats vowed to fight the FCC language and other riders when the measure reaches the full House Appropriations Committee. The measure also proposes cutting the FTC’s annual funding for FY25 from what lawmakers allocated the agency via a March FY24 minibus package (see 2403280001).

Congressional leaders haven't reached a consensus on how to resurrect the FCC's expired affordable connectivity program. In interviews this week, lawmakers pointed to a range of options, including an expected third attempt at a Senate Commerce Committee markup next week (see [2405310070]) of the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207). The FCC formally shuttered ACP Friday after supporters on Capitol Hill failed numerous times at allocating stopgap funding (see 2403280001).

The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing additional changes to the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) in hopes of jump-starting its prospects as a viable vehicle for resurrecting the FCC’s expired affordable connectivity program, lobbyists said in interviews. Committee leaders are hoping further revisions will allow them to raise S-4207 during a potential mid-June meeting, lobbyists told us. Senate Commerce pulled S-4207 from consideration twice last month, including fully postponing a May 16 executive meeting (see 2405160066). The Biden administration and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel made a final call Friday for Congress to keep ACP running as the program’s time expired.

House Republicans pushed back during a Friday Communications Subcommittee field hearing in Bakersfield, California, against calls for Congress to allocate stopgap funding to the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program and the rollout of NTIA’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment program. ACP supporters believe they made progress last week toward securing a path that keeps the program funded in FY 2024 despite proposals attaching funding to the FAA Reauthorization Act (HR-3935) failing in the Senate (see 2405100046).

Backers of stopgap funding for the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe they made progress last week toward their goal of firming up the initiatives even as a bid attaching funds to the FAA reauthorization legislation appeared all but dead. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., emerged from the chamber Thursday night touting commitments from leaders to move forward on allocating the proposed money even as the body voted 88-4 to pass the FAA Reauthorization Act (HR-3935) without funding language he and others sought (see 2405070083).