Republicans Uncertain About Rip-and-Replace's Chances in Lame Duck Despite New Push

Congressional GOP leaders are doubtful about lawmakers' chances of reaching a year-end deal on an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program even as some Democrats are softening their insistence that the funding move in tandem with stopgap money for the FCC's lapsed affordable connectivity program. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas and nine other Republicans wrote congressional leaders Monday to press for rip-and-replace funding in a bid to highlight the issue amid the lame-duck frenzy.

The rip-and-replace “shortfall will threaten our national security and pose a serious risk of broadband and cellular outages for all Americans" if Congress doesn't approve more funding “before the end of the year,” Daines and the other Republican lawmakers said in a letter to House and Senate leaders. They noted several “recipients of previously deployed funding would have to shut down their networks” absent additional funding, “leaving many rural and remote areas of the country without” broadband access.

The GOP members expressed a preference for the Daines and Pfluger-led Supporting National Security with Spectrum Act (HR-9340/S-4049), which would allocate additional money and authorize the FCC to reauction the 197 AWS-3 licenses that Dish and affiliated designated entities returned to the commission last year (see 2403220056). Other signers included House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

Several communications policy lobbyists told us they have noticed Capitol Hill shift significantly in favor of prioritizing only rip-and-replace funding during the lame-duck session. The lobbyists said Democrats are beginning to recognize Republicans’ success in the Nov. 5 election has made it more challenging to move ACP in tandem with rip-and-replace. Lobbyists see the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation, a potential FY25 appropriations omnibus measure and possible anti-China and AI legislation as options.

Wicker told us Tuesday he doesn’t favor using NDAA as a vehicle for moving rip-and-replace funding but stopped short of indicating he would object to such a move. “It needs to get done, but” the measure can’t “become an omnibus catch-all,” Wicker said: “There are better ways to do it.” Wicker previously ruled out using NDAA to pass a Senate Commerce Committee-approved version of his Proper Leadership to Align Networks for Broadband Act (S-2238) that included S-4049’s language after Democrats successfully attached ACP money (see 2407310048).

Latta and Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., were also doubtful about moving on rip-and-replace during the lame-duck session. Thune told us allocating that money remains part of “the broader conversation,” but it’s unclear whether lawmakers will reach a deal given questions about whether GOP leaders will insist on another continuing resolution to extend appropriations past Dec. 20. Latta said he and other lawmakers have “been discussing” rip-and-replace money, but “everything’s still up in the air.”

Democrats Softening?

Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and some other congressional Democrats who were already pushing to decouple rip-and-replace money from the ACP funding push before the Nov. 5 election are hopeful but not yet certain that there’s momentum in favor of that position. “I’m agnostic about how we get” rip-and-replace money, but there’s more bipartisan support for that spending compared with ACP, Hickenlooper told us last week.

House Communications ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said it “was difficult” to advance more ACP money even before Republicans won the election, so it makes sense to move rip-and-replace funding separately absent a sudden “change of heart.” Appetite for that program is “an entirely different matter because most people are supportive” of it, she said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., stopped short of backtracking her support for tandem ACP and rip-and-replace funding but emphasized “you’ve got to talk to more people and see what they’re willing to do” during the lame-duck session. “The issue is what you can get done that helps us on national security,” she told us. Cantwell has been eyeing how to advance her Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207), which would use some future FCC spectrum auction revenue as an offset for ACP and rip-and-replace funding (see 2409170066).

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who led the push in Senate Commerce to attach ACP funding to S-2238, said he still supports allocating money to both that program and rip-and-replace but is “flexible” about legislative strategy for doing that.

The Competitive Carriers Association, a leader in lobbying for rip-and-replace money but that also backs ACP, believes if getting only “rip-and-replace funded is what’s in the realm of the possible, then we support that,” said CEO Tim Donovan in an interview. “We’re going to continue to need to have ongoing talks” about ACP funding and a potential USF revamp, but “I don’t see a strong path for that getting supported alongside rip-and-replace right now.” CCA highlighted the funding push Tuesday in response to a Senate Privacy Subcommittee hearing on recent Chinese hacking incidents, including those against U.S. telecom companies (see 2411190073).

National Lifeline Association lawyer John Heitmann said he would prefer Congress fund both ACP and rip-and-replace during the lame duck, but the group doesn’t “oppose Congress moving rip-and-replace on its own.” Both funding priorities “need to be done” and NaLA is “very much a proponent of” revamping ACP’s structure and rules if that will ease the path toward its restoration, Heitmann told us.