Pickering Expects $10-15B for Broadband in Senate COVID-19 Bill
There’s “emerging consensus” the next Senate-side COVID-19 aid bill will include funding to bolster E-rate and other broadband initiatives, Incompas CEO Chip Pickering said Thursday. Some GOP lawmakers voiced growing interest in including broadband funding in coming pandemic legislation since House passage last month of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act. HR-6800’s broadband funding includes an $8.8 billion Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund and $5 billion for E-rate (see 2005130059). President Donald Trump’s administration recently narrowed the scope of their desires for a fourth major aid measure (see 2006050058).
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Trump barely mentioned anticipated plans for increasing rural broadband connectivity, during a Thursday roundtable meeting, despite earlier expectations (see 2006160049). The administration is believed to be preparing a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal that will have funding for 5G infrastructure and rural broadband deployments. Trump said the administration addressing rural broadband is “very big for the Middle West,” saying it’s a “very big factor” in the region’s communities. The administration has “started the process already” and “you’re going to be very happy with it,” he responded to Nebraska Department of Economic Development Director Tony Goins.
House Democratic leaders said Thursday they plan to merge several infrastructure proposals into a combined $1.5 trillion Moving Forward Act measure. The bill will include $100 billion for broadband projects, “which will get us to 100 percent coverage” across the U.S., House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey said during a news conference. House Democrats earlier this year proposed $86 billion for broadband (see 2004300058). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters she aims to have the chamber vote on the measure before the July 4 recess. Pickering said during an Incompas webinar it will likely remain difficult for Congress to enact a broad infrastructure bill the rest of this year.
Conversations with senators and their staff indicate there will likely be $10 billion-$15 billion in overall broadband funding in that chamber’s next COVID-19 bill, though that figure “is still fluid” and “undecided” by leadership, Pickering said during the webinar. The Senate is likely to take up the measure in July, before the presidential nominating conventions. He believes there’s likely to be a “fairly significant difference” between the coming Senate bill and HR-6800 that Capitol Hill negotiators will need to discuss.
The Senate’s proposed funding is likely to include at least a $2 billion “one-time expansion” of E-rate funding and “additional” money for the Lifeline program, Pickering said. There’s likely going to be funding to reimburse communications companies for lost revenue and other costs of participating in FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s Keep America Connected pledge (see 2006180002). He hopes that fund will include at least $5 billion. Pickering believes the Senate will likely “take a strong position against codifying” the KAC pledge, which he believes is likely unconstitutional.
Pickering believes the Senate bill will include about $2 billion to fund replacing gear now in U.S. networks from companies determined to threaten national security, in keeping with the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998). That meets the amount the FCC is seeking (see 2003230066). He expects the Senate bill will also include funding to implement the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act broadband mapping law (S-1822). The FCC sought $65 million.
The bill will likely include language from the Utilizing Strategic Allied Telecommunications Act, Pickering said. HR-6624/S-3189 would require the FCC to direct at least $750 million, or up to 5 percent of annual spectrum auction proceeds, to create an NTIA-managed open radio access network R&D fund to spur movement to open-architecture, software-based wireless technologies (see 2001140067). It’s also likely to include language to remove “regulatory barriers” to broadband deployment, Pickering said. He later highlighted the Streamlining the Rapid Evolution and Modernization of Leading-edge Infrastructure Necessary to Enhance (Streamline) Small Cell Deployment Act, S-1699 aims to implement a “reasonable process and timeframe guidelines” for state and local small-cell consideration (see 1906030068).
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., filed his Rural Connectivity Advancement Program Act, which some lobbyists said could be included in a COVID-19 measure. Thune’s bill would set aside 10 percent of the net proceeds from FCC spectrum auctions through Sept. 30, 2022, for broadband buildout. It would require the FCC use the set-aside money to address broadband connectivity gaps in high-cost rural areas. CTIA, the Fiber Broadband Association, National Association of Tower Erectors, NTCA and USTelecom were among those praising the bill.