Senate Must Vote on Massive Spending Measure to Avoid Shutdown

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

The House passed a $1 trillion spending package on Thursday and sent it to the Senate. The Senate must act on it by midnight tonight, before funding for the federal government runs out.

The more than 2,200-page omnibus includes funding to reauthorize the FCC over two years ($333 million for the agency in fiscal 2019 and $339 million in fiscal 2020) and provisions to speed 5G deployment. If passed, the measure would create a spectrum auction deposit “fix” to allow the Commission to deposit upfront payments from bidders directly with the U.S. Treasury.

The legislation enacts key provisions from the Senate-approved MOBILE NOW Act (S. 19) to boost the development of next-generation 5G wireless broadband by identifying more spectrum – both licensed and unlicensed – for private sector use and reducing the red tape associated with building wireless networks.  

The omnibus appropriates $7.5 million to NTIA to coordinate broadband mapping across the federal government and also includes provisions to expand broadband internet by streamlining the regulatory and permit process for broadband infrastructure deployment.

And finally, the omnibus authorizes additional repack funds to address the shortfall in reimbursement expenses for broadcasters that need to change channels following the incentive auction. The new fund, to be allocated over two years, authorizes $600 million for the first year and $400 million for the second year. This is in addition to the $1.75 billion in the current reimbursement fund, which falls short by about half.

The current repack reimbursement fund is specifically for full-power television stations. In addition to those stations, the additional amounts specify funds for TV translators, low-power TV stations and radio stations impacted by the repack – supplemented by a fund so broadcasters can educate viewers about how to find their TV stations on new channels.

March 23, 2018

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.