The House Energy & Commerce Committee on Wednesday (July 13) unanimously approved — 52-0 — the Spectrum Innovation Act of 2022, a bill that would, among other things, extend the Federal Communications Commission’s auction authority and direct the government to find additional midband spectrum for 5G.
The vote means the bill, which incorporates several pieces of communications legislation favorably reported out of the Communications Subcommittee in June, has now been favorably referred to the full House for a vote.
The auction-related legislation included in the bill was the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act of 2022, which extends the FCC’s authority to auction spectrum to March 21, 2024.
The FCC’s authority to auction spectrum sunsets on September 30 and there are no other pieces of legislation pending to extend it, so the House and Senate need to approve the bill ASAP given the dwindling number of days in the legislative session.
With the FCC planning to launch its 2.5-GHz spectrum auction, extending its authority would make sure that effort does not run into trouble if it extends past September 30.
The bill was also amended to include $10 billion funding for next-generation 911, with that money coming from the FCC’s midband auction, as well as an ongoing public safety and security fund from future auction proceeds.
Per the legislation, the FCC's auction proceeds from its newly reauthorized authority will also go to help pay for the commission's congressionally mandated Secure and Trusted Networks Act program to rip and replace suspect network equipment and services, starting with ZTE and Huawei.
The FCC has not approved all of the requests it has gotten for funds to rip and replace that suspect tech. Congress set aside $1.98 billion of funding in legislation mandating the program, while the FCC said in February it had received more than $5.5 billion in funding requests.
Also added to the bill was the Simplifying Management, Access, Reallocation, and Transfer of Spectrum [SMART] Act, which would create an ongoing framework for facilitating spectrum sharing among federal and non-federal users.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the committee chairman, said he thought that collectively the bill would raise billions of dollars in spectrum auction proceeds to fund overdue policy priorities in a way that is budget neutral, since it is anticipated all of the spending will be covered by spectrum auction proceeds.
One possible snag is that while the bill allocates $10 billion for next-generation 911 (NG 911), the cost is estimated at more like $15 billion. But Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Next Gen 911 Caucus, called it “more than a hell of a start.”
“This is how we win the future, by coming together to solve our nation’s challenges in this committee room, under regular order, with input from members up and down the dais,” Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.), ranking member, said of the bipartisan, multipart bill. ▪️
