Jimm Phillips

The Senate Commerce Committee pulled the Endless Frontier Act (S-1260) from its planned Wednesday executive session (see 2104230076), a committee spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., viewed the recently refiled, $112 billion measure as a linchpin for a coming legislative package aimed at countering Chinese competition in tech R&D (see 2104210070). Commerce decided to pull S-1260 from its markup session after committee members filed more than 230 proposed amendments, aides said. The delay was needed to allow more time “for some consensus” to develop, Senate Commerce ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told reporters. A “pause was needed,” but that doesn’t reflect any real hesitations among senators, lead S-1260 GOP sponsor Sen. Todd Young of Indiana said during a Washington Post webcast Tuesday. “There are additional things they would like to add to this legislation or amend.” Reaching a bipartisan consensus often requires lawmakers to “crowd in as many good ideas as you can” to ensure “the best possible work product,” he said. “All of this will be aired” via the committee process. A Young spokesperson said it’s likely Commerce brings S-1260 back up for a vote after a one-week chamber recess, expected to end May 10. House Science Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, opposed S-1260 in an Issues in Science and Technology opinion piece Tuesday, suggesting her National Science Foundation for the Future Act (HR-2225) as an alternative. She singled out S-1260’s proposal to create a Technology Directorate within NSF as a concern, saying “the goal should not be to wall the directorate off from the rest of NSF, but to make it a productive partner with rest of” NSF. “There is also a big risk in creating a ‘shiny new object’ that gets the attention of policymakers to the detriment of NSF’s fundamental research mission,” Johnson said. “I am particularly concerned by” S-1260’s “authorization of $100 billion over five years just for this new directorate, at an agency currently funded below $9 billion per year, without an overall authorization for NSF and its mission to advance fundamental research across all areas of science and engineering.” House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., also criticized S-1260 Tuesday. The bill, “which tries to beat the Chinese Communist Party at their own game of expansive government subsidies,” is “not how we will win the future,” she said. “I share the goal of increasing America’s global competitive edge, but creating new, duplicative multi-billion dollar programs is not the answer.”

President Joe Biden during his ongoing speech to Congress Wednesday night said he's putting Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of leading the push to include $100 billion for broadband in an infrastructure spending package. He said she's capable of getting that part of the plan across the finish line. The money is part of Biden's larger $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal.

Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella and Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association Senior Vice President Ann Wilson cited the need for President Joe Biden’s administration to revisit the FCC’s November vote to reallocate 5.9 GHz for Wi-Fi and cellular vehicle-to-everything (see 2011180043), at a Tuesday hearing. The issue itself barely factored into the Senate Commerce Surface Transportation Subcommittee hearing. Only Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., mentioned it. The auto industry “would have the opportunity to move forward right away” to deploy dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies if FCC reallocation were unspun and an industry-led sharing plan implemented, Bozzella said. The order “doesn’t respond to the interference questions that have been raised.” Wilson hoped for “efforts made to have the [FCC] reconsider” its decision, given implications for auto safety technologies. American Center for Mobility CEO Reuben Sarkar said the FCC decision makes DSRC “obsolete” and means cellular V2X technologies will need further upgrades. 5G technology “has the potential to bring order of magnitude faster speeds” and other benefits, but full capabilities are “still years away.” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the Biden administration plans to examine ways to equitably address 5.9 GHz (see 2103250071).

Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi and three other top Senate GOP leaders proposed allocating $65 billion for broadband Thursday as part of a $568 billion “framework,” countering infrastructure proposals from President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats (see 2103110060). Biden’s $2.3 trillion plan proposes $100 billion for broadband (see 2103310064).

House Communications Subcommittee members of both parties largely agreed during a Wednesday hearing that to secure U.S. leadership on 5G technology, Congress must fully fund work on speeding adoption of open radio access networks, and that agencies should return to a unified spectrum policy approach during President Joe Biden’s administration. Tech policy bipartisanship was also evident as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and others of both parties introduced, as promised, a revised version of the Endless Frontier Act. It appears to be back on track (see 2104140069) for swift action after earlier GOP misgivings.

President Joe Biden’s administration isn’t ruling out technologies or ISP models as it looks to implement $100 billion in broadband money in its $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan (see 2103310064), Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Senate Appropriations Committee members Tuesday. Some Appropriations Republicans said during a Tuesday hearing they favor addressing broadband affordability in an infrastructure package. Senate GOP leaders noted their interest in a bid by Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and others to craft a counterproposal to the Biden plan (see 2104140069).

Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted President Joe Biden’s proposed $100 billion broadband request Monday in selling the administration’s overall $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal (see 2104140069). Biden, meanwhile, discussed the plan with 10 members of Congress who are former governors or mayors. “The world runs online,” but “millions of Americans, many of whom live in rural America, do not have access to broadband,” Harris said during a speech in Jamestown, North Carolina. “If they do, it is not affordable.” Biden “and I are determined to make sure that every person in our country can access broadband and afford it,” Harris said. Biden told reporters he’s “prepared to compromise” on aspects of his proposal, including its scope. “I’m prepared to see what we can do and what we can get together on” in a compromise, he said. “It’s a big package, but there are a lot of needs.” Lawmakers participating in the meeting included Senate Commerce Committee member John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and House Appropriations Committee ranking member Kay Granger, R-Texas. “We’re quite open to a range of mechanisms for agreed-upon legislation moving forward,” including “smaller packages” or “pieces being peeled off,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. “In terms of what the package or size looks like, we’re just not quite there yet.” Some industry officials have also been meeting with lawmakers in hopes of allocating some infrastructure money for 5G-specific uses, lobbyists told us. Microsoft President Brad Smith backed Biden’s proposal Sunday but issued cautions in a USA Today opinion piece. “A challenging conversation awaits about how to pay for all this,” he said. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., wrote in USA Today that “a bipartisan infrastructure bill is possible if Democrats are interested in working with Republicans on traditional infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and even modern infrastructure like broadband, if done correctly.”

Senators in both parties continued to emphasize the importance of communications sector interests in an eventual infrastructure spending package Thursday, as talks continued on the scope of such legislation. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said during a Communications Subcommittee hearing that she’s going to push for local media outlets to receive some funding in a final infrastructure bill. Committee ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi and other Republicans said they’re committed to including broadband language in a planned counterproposal to President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package (see 2104140069).

Lead GOP Endless Frontier Act sponsor Sen. Todd Young of Indiana indicated after a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing that fellow Republicans are unlikely to support a floor vote on the bill by the end of the month, as hoped by lead Democratic sponsor Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Senate Commerce Republicans raised a litany of concerns Wednesday about a to-be-filed revised version of the measure (see 2104130068), but most committee members appeared interested in some increase in science and tech research funding.

National Emergency Number Association officials urged its members during a Tuesday event to lobby lawmakers to modify next-generation 911 language in the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-1848) and pass the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-2351). Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., touted HR-2351 during the NENA event as necessary to “support and maintain the men and women of our 911 dispatcher community, who serve as our first emergency line of support.” The refiled measure would change the federal government's classification of public safety call-takers and dispatchers to "protective service occupations" (see 1904050054). NENA Government Affairs Director Dan Henry emphasized that the group backs HR-1848’s proposed $15 billion in NG-911 funding but seeks changes to some elements of the associated policy language, including broadening its definition of “commonly accepted standards,” clarifying its interoperability requirement and limiting the scope of a proposed NG-911 Advisory Board within NTIA (see 2104080003). “Both of the parties are hoping for a bipartisan solution here,” Henry said. He wants members to meet with House Commerce Committee lawmakers, as well as Senate Commerce Committee members, because a Senate-side companion to HR-1848 hasn't been filed.