Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is getting close to a deal on his top priority for reconciliation.
Cruz will release the much-awaited text for his committee’s portion of the GOP party-line bill today. He has struck an initial agreement with Republican military hawks on spectrum auctions that’s been months in the making.
The auctions would likely raise tens of billions of dollars for the government and allow telecom companies to strengthen their wireless platforms. Republicans are hoping to raise as much money as possible because that revenue would go toward reducing the debt impact of the overall bill.
GOP Sens. Mike Rounds (S.D.) and Deb Fischer (Neb.), who were the leading holdouts, said the agreement with Cruz would protect the national security frequencies they care about.
That could include the lower 3GHz band controlled by the Defense Department and parts of the 7GHz and 8GHz bands, which are used by the intelligence community. Rounds said the agencies have “indicated” they’d approve of what’s being discussed.
But the “fine print,” as Rounds put it, will be key here. The GOP hawks opposed the protections to the lower 3GHz band in the House-passed bill. They said the language wasn’t strong enough.
President Donald Trump and the wireless industry want to make 600 MHz of spectrum available for auction. Cruz supports that goal but we’ll have to see how the carveouts sought by the hawks affect getting to that level.
AI. While there has been progress on spectrum, there hasn’t been as much on whether to include the moratorium on state AI laws that was in the House bill.
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) oppose the provision outright and Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) declined to say whether he supports the policy. Instead, Curtis said the Byrd Rule, which requires policies in reconciliation bills to have a direct impact on spending or revenue, “would take care of it.”
Cruz has declined to say whether the AI moratorium would make it into today’s text. But his thoughts on its compliance with the Senate rules aren’t too encouraging for the provision’s backers.
“It will surely be challenged under the Byrd Rule and it’s not clear if it would survive,” Cruz said.
