Rosenworcel Backs Hill Giving FCC Temporary Authority to Issue 2.5 GHz Licenses

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel endorsed the Senate-passed 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (HR-5677/S-2787) and further congressional action to strengthen the FCC’s ability to combat illegal robocalls, according to letters to lawmakers the commission posted online Monday. S-2787 lead sponsor Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and other backers of the measure have restarted their push for House action on the bill, which would give the FCC authority for 90 days to issue T-Mobile and other winning bidders the licenses they bought in the 2.5 GHz band auction last year (see 2309220057). Senate Communications Subcommittee leaders voiced frustration last month with DOJ’s perceived reluctance to enforce existing anti-robocall statutes (see 2310240065).

“I am encouraged by” the Senate’s September passage of S-2787 and the filing of HR-5677 in the House, Rosenworcel said in letters to Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and three other lawmakers. “Expeditious action on these bills will give the Commission the authority to issue the remaining 2.5 GHz licenses.” Some lawmakers have pressed Rosenworcel to act on the 2.5 GHz under the FCC’s existing authority, but if the commission “were to expend funds to continue to process” those licenses while its general auction authority remains lapsed, “it would put the agency staff at risk of criminal penalties for violating the Antideficiency Act,” she said.

Rosenworcel said enactment of HR-5677/S-2787 “would provide the legal authority needed to resolve the immediate situation with these licenses, [but] it is only a band aid on the larger problem": “We need Congress to renew the Commission’s general spectrum auction authority as soon as possible. This lapse has delayed more than just the grant of remaining 2.5 GHz band licenses; it has slowed” the U.S.’ ability “to advance our historic leadership role on spectrum planning and development issues.” Talks aimed at reaching a deal on a spectrum legislative action have been stalled, with Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, circulating his draft Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2023 (see 2311220063) as an alternative to the House Commerce Committee-approved Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565).

Rosenworcel, meanwhile, emphasized to Rep. Eric Sorensen of Illinois and 35 other Democratic lawmakers that the FCC “would benefit from additional tools from Congress” to address robocalls, including giving the commission “its own authority to pursue” enforcement against bad actors in court independent of DOJ. That “would improve the chances of collecting the penalties we impose” given that the process “gets bogged down” since the FCC is required to send citations to DOJ “to litigate and collect these fines,” she told the lawmakers.

Rosenworcel repeated her call for Congress to legislatively reverse the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous 2021 ruling in Facebook v. Duguid, which backed a narrow definition of what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2104010063). She also urged lawmakers to authorize the FCC “to access Bank Secrecy Act information,” which “would help us identify more quickly the financial records of our targets without giving those targets suspected of scams a heads-up that they are being investigated.”