Jimm Phillips

A bipartisan bid aimed at attaching $6 billion in stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to the FAA reauthorization package appeared likely to fail Thursday amid opposition from Senate leaders (see 2405080047). Amendment co-sponsor Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, conceded in an interview Thursday he and other backers appear to lack the necessary votes to hold up consideration of the FAA package. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and amendment co-sponsor Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., separately confirmed to us that chamber leaders still resisted allowing a floor vote on the proposal because they view it as nongermane to the FAA package.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said Thursday night he has secured commitments from chamber leaders to move forward on allocating $6 billion in stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program amid last-minute talks to pass an FAA reauthorization package. The Senate was still voting Thursday night on passing an amended version of the FAA Reauthorization Act (HR-3935) that doesn’t include the ACP/rip-and-replace language Lujan and others sought, as expected.

A new bid by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and other senators to attach stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and additional money for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to the FAA Reauthorization Act (see 2405070083) faces resistance from chamber leaders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other leaders are skeptical about including nongermane language in the FAA package. A previous proposal to attach ACP money drew opposition during a Tuesday night “hotline” that Senate leaders ran to gauge lawmakers’ support for amendments in the package.

Reps. Ben Cline, R-Va., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, renewed concerns with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about NTIA’s implementation of the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. Their comments came during a Wednesday House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing. Cline faulted NTIA for previously rejecting the Virginia Office of Broadband’s BEAD Volume 2 application because that office “declined” to use the program to regulate broadband prices. Conservative groups previously latched onto the Virginia BEAD issue, which stemmed from NTIA’s requirements on participants offering a low-cost connectivity option (see 2403070065). “It’s been nearly five months since NTIA approved Louisiana’s [BEAD] plan, which was submitted at the same time as Virginia,” Cline said. “There are no outstanding issues,” so the Commerce Department should “commit to approving” Virginia’s application given it follows language in the authorizing 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act barring rate regulation. Raimondo declined to commit to approving the Virginia proposal but said NTIA approves state plans that comply with the rate regulation ban. “I will look in on Virginia” after the hearing, Raimondo said. “What I can promise you is we aren’t regulating” broadband prices. “We are not telling any state, including yours, ‘If you don’t provide [service] at X dollars, we’re not going to give you the money.’ But the statute requires us to have low-cost options” as a requirement for BEAD funding, she said. Gonzales noted prospective BEAD participants in his southwest Texas district worry “about their potential ability to participate” in the program “due to the large size of the [service] areas” and the low-cost option requirement. “My job in implementing this $42 billion is to make sure every American has access everywhere,” Raimondo told Gonzales. “We’re working very closely with” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) “using our maps to figure out who's not covered and providing subsidies to companies so that they” can cover rural areas.

Congressional Republicans’ recent renewed interest in ending federal funding for NPR is a major issue in a memo from House Commerce Committee GOP aides and in written testimony from witnesses ahead of a Wednesday Oversight Subcommittee hearing on recent claims of pro-Democratic Party bias at the public broadcasting network (see 2405010081). Several Republican lawmakers filed legislation or are eyeing crafting measures aimed at ending NPR’s federal funding (see 2404190060), including the Defund NPR Act (HR-8083). The Commerce Oversight hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and four other senators joined forces Tuesday night to file an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill that would allocate $6 billion to the FCC’s affordable connectivity program for FY 2024 and $3.08 billion to fully fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. Senate leaders were still in talks Tuesday night on what amendments to the FAA package they would allow floor votes on in hopes of securing a time agreement to speed consideration of the measure.

The House Appropriations and Commerce committees postponed a pair of hearings scheduled for this week on the FCC's FY 2025 funding request (see 2404300068), the panels' spokespersons separately confirmed Friday. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and the other four commissioners were set to testify at a Tuesday Communications hearing on the budget proposal. Rosenworcel was to appear at a Wednesday Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee panel. Neither of the committees announced makeup dates for the hearings Friday. Rosenworcel's brother, Brian Rosenworcel of the band Guster, announced the death of their father, Elliott, Thursday night. House Appropriations, Commerce and the FCC didn't comment on whether the hearings' delay was in response to the news.

Top Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565) backers Sens. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Thursday they plan to press forward with an amendment to the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act that would appropriate $7 billion in stopgap funding for the ailing FCC broadband program (see 2405010055) despite opposition from Senate leaders. ACP stopgap funding advocates used a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing that day to implore that Congress act while critics raised objections about what they said was a lack of clear information about the program's efficacy.

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a lead GOP co-sponsor of the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), confirmed Wednesday he will push hard for an amendment to the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act that would appropriate $7 billion in stopgap funding to keep the ailing FCC broadband program running through the end of the fiscal year. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935).

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Wednesday she's talking to a range of lawmakers seeking potential changes to an amended version of her draft Spectrum and National Security Act after the panel pulled Cantwell’s bill and 12 others from a planned Wednesday markup session Tuesday night (see 2404300072). The potential for the spectrum bill to make it into the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act “got precluded weeks ago,” Cantwell told reporters. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935). Lawmakers are still eyeing other vehicles for allocating stopgap money to keep the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program running through the remainder of the year. Those proposals include a bid from Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, that would attach an amendment to the FAA package appropriating ACP $7 billion (see 2405010055).