House to Vote on 5G Sale Act Next Week to Allow FCC to Issue 2.5 GHz Licenses

The House will vote as soon as Monday on the Senate-passed version of the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (S-2787), as expected, the office of Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Friday night. The House Commerce Committee advanced identical companion HR-5677 Tuesday. HR-5677/S-2787 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. Spectrum policy observers view the measure as a stopgap to temporarily bring back a small part of the FCC’s lapsed auction authority after nearly nine months of stalled legislative talks on Capitol Hill related to a broader legislative package. The House will consider S-2787 under suspension of the rules, which speeds floor consideration of noncontroversial bills but requires a two-thirds majority for passage.