Amendments Fight Delays Senate Markup of Improving Spectrum Coordination Act

The Senate Commerce Committee pulled the Improving Spectrum Coordination Act (S-1472) Tuesday night from the agenda for a Wednesday executive session amid objections to some proposed amendments to the measure, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. S-1472 would require the FCC and NTIA to update their spectrum memorandum of understanding, including to add language on a process for addressing interagency policy differences and instituting a resolution process. Senate Commerce leaders said they hope further revisions won’t significantly delay bringing the bill up again.

Commerce Republicans are, meanwhile, “discussing with our members up and down the dais the advisability of going forward with” the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act (HR-7783) proposal to reauthorize the FCC’s spectrum authority for 18 months, to March 31, 2024, panel ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in an interview after the markup session. House Commerce Committee leaders indicated Tuesday they fully back the plan (see 2205240057). Senate Commerce members are also examining whether to try for “a different time frame” for renewing the FCC’s remit, “or different tweaks to the language” (see 2205190068), Wicker said.

Wicker confirmed to us he requested Senate Commerce withdraw S-1472 from the Wednesday agenda. “Committee staff are just making a few more tweaks to the language that required additional time,” a panel GOP aide told us. A Thune aide to Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., characterized the situation as "disagreements over some of the amendments" proposed for S-1472. Lawmakers "just weren’t able to come to an agreement in time" to vote on the bill Wednesday, the aide said. Several lobbyists pointed to wireless industry concerns with language in proposed amendments to S-1472 that were slated to be considered in conjunction with the underlying bill. Those amendments included some related to balancing spectrum needs of federal and nonfederal users, lobbyists said. CTIA didn’t comment.

Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Democrats were on board with S-1472 and would have voted to advance the measure if it hadn’t been pulled from the Wednesday agenda. She and other Democrats previously objected to an unsuccessful Wicker bid to attach S-1472 (see 2105120065) to the Senate-passed Endless Frontier Act (S-1260). Cantwell pointed to Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., as objecting to moving forward on S-1472. The GOP "side had some issues" that need to be addressed, Cantwell said. Fischer’s office didn’t comment. Cantwell and Thune both noted interest in including S-1472’s text in a spectrum legislative package this year.

Commerce cleared the National R&D Strategy for Distributed Ledger Technology Act (S-4109) Wednesday on a voice vote. S-4109 would require the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and other federal entities to coordinate R&D efforts on distributed ledger technologies and their applications. The amended measure requires OSTP to develop a national R&D strategy for DLT and directs research work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation.

"So far, most attention to blockchain has focused on financial applications, such as cryptocurrencies," Wicker said during the meeting. "This focus overlooks its potential to transform our information systems to be more efficient, transparent, and secure across our supply chain, in government operations and more." S-4109 "would accelerate the impact of decades of publicly funded research in computing and cryptography," he said.