Jimm Phillips

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., is circulating a discharge petition (H.Res. 1119) in a bid to force a floor vote on her Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), which would appropriate $7 billion to keep the ailing FCC broadband fund running through the end of FY 2024. Clarke's petition will likely help ACP backers in their push to advance the funding proposal out of the lower chamber and amplify pressure on Congress to act before the program's current money runs out in the coming weeks, lobbyists told us. Advocates acknowledge they still face headwinds in the Senate, where leaders continue eyeing alternative vehicles for the appropriation. Congress approved the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package last month without ACP money (see 2403280001).

Advocates of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe funding for both priorities remains available this year, despite Congress having omitted funding in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package enacted last week (see 2403210067). Program backers acknowledge funding will be more difficult as the FY24 package was their best opportunity. They also admit appropriations politics will only prove trickier with Capitol Hill hunkering down for the 2024 election campaign.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., led filing of the Supporting National Security with Spectrum Act Friday as an alternative vehicle for allocating an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program after congressional leaders didn't agree to include the funding in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending bill (see 2403210067). Congress inched closer Friday to passing the minibus, which also didn't include stopgap funding for the FCC's ailing affordable connectivity program despite a strong push by the initiative's backers (see 2402210073).

Senate Commerce Committee Democrats and Republicans who back allocating an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and stopgap funding for the commission’s ailing affordable connectivity program used a Thursday spectrum-focused hearing (see 2403210063) to vent about the Hill's failure thus far to address either priority. The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending bill, which congressional leaders released early Thursday morning as an amendment to legislative vehicle HR-2882, as expected (see 2403190062) includes neither ACP nor rip-and-replace funding.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she hopes to soon file legislation on a five-year renewal of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority without language authorizing sales of specific bands, despite Republican criticism during a Thursday hearing about omitting an airwaves pipeline. Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., emphasized their 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) as an antidote to concerns about the Biden spectrum strategy, as expected (see 2403200001). The hearing also revealed clear divisions among panel Republicans about continuing to explore 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which has drawn opposition from DOD and top Capitol Hill allies (see 2403200061).

The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending bill released early Thursday morning doesn't include stopgap funding for the FCC's affordable connectivity program or the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, as expected. The measure allocates almost $390.2 million to the FCC for FY24 and $425.7 million to the FTC. It also includes $535 million for CPB in FY 2026, turning back House Appropriations Committee Republicans' attempt to end that entity's advance funding.

A Thursday Senate Commerce Committee hearing is likely to highlight stark differences between panel leaders’ competing proposals for a spectrum legislative package, including whether it should mandate sales of specific bands before NTIA completes studies of those frequencies in keeping with the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). Lawmakers’ apparent failure to reach a deal allocating additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403190062) as part of a FY 2024 still-unreleased “minibus” spending package also ratchets up the pressure for a spectrum bill to use future auction revenue to pay for multiple telecom priorities, officials and lobbyists told us.

Stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program is not included in an FY 2024 appropriations “minibus” package Congress is aiming to approve this week, several lobbyists told us Tuesday. The omission also makes it doubtful congressional leaders attached an additional $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, lobbyists said. Advocates of both programs were pushing for their funding in the minibus (see 2403150063) as recently as last weekend. The White House and Capitol Hill reached a deal on FY24 funding for the FCC and most other agencies over the weekend; they reached a final agreement on the bill Monday night.

Advocates of additional federal funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program were closely monitoring congressional negotiations Friday in hopes appropriators would reach a deal addressing both priorities as part of a second tranche of FY 2024 spending bills lawmakers want approved before midnight March 22. Rip-and-replace supporters voiced strong optimism that the next “minibus” package would include $3.08 billion to fully fund that program. ACP backers were, at least privately, growing less hopeful of a deal including their priority.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she's considering a clean FCC reauthorization bill that could pay for some of congressional leaders’ telecom priorities but wouldn’t necessarily mandate that the commission begin sales of specific frequencies. Senate Commerce plans a March 21 hearing on that and other spectrum policy issues, Cantwell told us Thursday ahead of a formal panel announcement. Cantwell's proposal would be in line with her pursuit of a slimmed-down measure (see 2403110066) drawing some elements of the stalled House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565).