Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) has scheduled a full committee hearing on February 19, to discuss the lapse in the FCC’s auction authority. Titled, “America Offline? How Spectrum Auction Delays Give China the Edge and Cost Us Jobs.” The hearing will examine “the critical role of spectrum policy in driving the U.S. economy, maintaining the U.S.’s technological edge over China, and strengthening national security,” according to the announcement.
“This hearing will expose how the ongoing lapse in auction authority and the lack of a clear commercial spectrum strategy have cost America jobs and weakened our global standing,” Cruz emphasizes. “We can no longer allow Pentagon bureaucratic inertia to hold back innovation and economic growth.”
That’s presumably a reference to the military holding onto mid-band spectrum the wireless industry would like to either share or solely use for 5G and beyond. Congress allowed the FCC’s spectrum auction authority to lapse, for the first time ever, in March of 2023, Inside Towers reported.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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