Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has scheduled and canceled at least four markups for bills to reauthorize spectrum auctions. Cantwell has no one to blame but herself and her shambolic handling of the process.
“Spectrum” refers to radio frequencies that can send wireless data across space. The Federal Communications Commission was created in the 1920s (as the Radio Commission) to manage these frequencies and ensure that radio broadcasts did not bleed into one another. They did this by granting licenses for each frequency in a geographic area. That didn’t make for a terribly competitive marketplace, but it did allow basic functionality.
Now, these frequencies carry far more than just radio broadcasts. Improved technologies allow us to harness spectrum beyond analog radio to enable television, GPS, satellite transmissions, cell phones and WiFi. Much of the internet economy depends on the spectrum being available to the private sector.
Spectrum makes it into the hands of the private sector through competitive auctions for licenses to use specific frequencies. The auction system enables market forces to determine the best use of the spectrum. Since their inception, auctions have raised more than $230 billion for the Treasury, offsetting the tax burden on Americans.
The FCC’s auction authority ran out in 2022, when Cantwell began as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. Auctions have not been reauthorized. The House of Representatives agreed on reauthorizing auctions under the Democratic majority of 2022 and the Republican majority of 2023. Cantwell has rejected each of these attempts and a counteroffer from Commerce Republicans.
This isn’t a partisan issue. The disagreements are over which bands to auction, what unused Defense frequencies will be privatized, and what to do with the proceeds. The failure to negotiate a compromise is all Cantwell’s.
Each bill she has scheduled a markup has differed widely on what bands would be available, where proceeds would go, and who gets a seat at the negotiating table. For example, Cantwell insisted on including funding for “middle mile” broadband infrastructure. In the latest version proposed in June, there was no mention of the middle mile. Instead, the bill prioritized funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which ran out of funding in May. It also tried to establish an agreement between Cantwell, the White House and the Defense Department in which DOD wouldn’t have to relinquish any bands to the private sector.
Hours before the markup was scheduled, Cantwell canceled the meeting. In a statement to CQ Roll Call, she said this was due to opposition from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who did not think the auctions were enough to meet the ACP funding gap and planned to offer amendments to change ACP eligibility.
Since when does the minority party get to veto the majority when it has fewer votes on the committee? The only reason not to bring up the bill would be because not all Democrats supported it.
The Commerce Committee’s latest markup, on July 31, involved plenty of productive bipartisanship and resulted in the passage of no fewer than 32 bills concerning AI, revenge porn, the ACP, and lithium batteries, among others. Spectrum was absent. It seems the ACP wasn’t the holdup after all. Only Cantwell stands in the way.
Whatever you think about the best course for spectrum management, under Cantwell’s leadership, the Commerce Committee’s process has become a Mickey Mouse operation. If spectrum auctions ever resume, we will need a hard reboot that actually brings stakeholders together for productive collaboration, frees up a new pipeline of frequencies for future auctions from DOD, and involves compromise from the majority party. The internet economy depends on it.
