Senate Commerce Eyeing May 1 Markup of Draft Cantwell-Lujan Spectrum Bill

The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing a May 1 vote on the to-be-filed Spectrum and National Security Act from panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., lobbyists told us. A general notice on the Senate Commerce markup session was online Wednesday night but the committee hadn’t formally announced its agenda. It wasn’t certain Wednesday night whether the Spectrum and National Security Act would actually be part of the meeting. The executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. There are five other telecom and tech-focused bills on the docket: the Rural Broadband Protection Act (S-275), Network Equipment Transparency Act (S-690), Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S-1291), Create AI Act (S-2714) and Future of AI Innovation Act (S-4178).

A draft summary of the Spectrum and National Security Act indicates the bill would mirror some elements of a Cantwell proposal for a five-year renewal, through Sept. 30, 2029, of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority that she got the Congressional Budget Office to evaluate earlier this year. The measure mandates the FCC auction off portions of the upper 12 GHz band in three years, the draft summary said.

The draft legislation wouldn’t authorize sales of other specific bands but directs NTIA and “co-leading agencies” to conduct feasibility assessments of some frequencies. The legislation would mandate the federal government study the 7 and 8 GHz bands “to determine whether more Federal spectrum can be made available for non-Federal use, for shared or exclusive use,” the draft summary said. An assessment of the 37 GHz band would eye it for federal and non-federal use. The measure would require NTIA to establish “national testbeds for dynamic spectrum sharing” and implement a framework for “public-private sector spectrum coordination,” the summary said. It would mandate the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy develop a national spectrum research and development plan.

The Spectrum and National Security Act would allocate “short-term funding” for the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program and $3.08 billion to fully pay back Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program participants, the draft summary said. The legislation would also include money for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and “provides funding for tech hubs, R&D for spectrum technologies, and a grant program to prepare minority students to participate in the telecommunications and spectrum workforce.”