UPDATE What are the chances of congressional passage of an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill to re-fund the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)? Opinions differ. The bipartisan bid by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, (D-NM), and other senators faced resistance from chamber leaders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other leaders are skeptical about including language that’s nongermane in the FAA package, reports Communications Daily. A different proposal to attach ACP money drew opposition during Tuesday night when Senate leaders gauged lawmakers’ support for amendments in the package.
However, NewStreet Research Policy Advisor Blair Levin thinks there’s hope of passage. If so, the measure would include $6 billion from spectrum auction proceeds to extend the ACP through the end of this year, Inside Towers reported.
During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the ACP last week, Inside Towers reported that Republican Senators opposed an extension without reforms, noting that verification of eligibility needs to be tightened. The amendment includes ACP reforms to do just that, such as eliminating the alternative verifier and deleting eligibility through the USDA’s Community Eligibility Program.
The amendment would preserve eligibility through the Free and Reduced School Lunch. It would eliminate the device subsidy and require the FCC to develop and implement anti-fraud controls.
Levin says that while uncertainty about the amendment remains, however “for the first time we think there is a material chance that an ACP extension happens,” he writes in a client report. The key points for investors are: the GOP co-sponsors J.D. Vance (R-OH); Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Steve Daines (R-MT) carry “significant weight” in the Republican Senate caucus, “suggesting to us a material chance of sufficient” GOP support for passage, writes Levin. He added the reforms, “were the kind necessary we thought likely to be necessary to break the log jam on reform efforts.”
If the amendment is attached to the FCC reauthorization in the House, it will force the lower chamber to vote on it and will likely pass the House as well, according to NSR.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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