D.C. Memo: Cruz Fighting to Get FCC Auction Revenue in Reconciliation Bill
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Spectrum: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) yesterday said he’s pushing to restore FCC spectrum auction authority as a means of funding Republican priorities highlighted in the pending reconciliation bill. “I'll tell you on spectrum, I am fighting hard for spectrum to be part of the reconciliation bill that Congress is taking up — that we're going to use to secure the border, that we're going use to rebuild the military, that we're going to use to unleash American energy and that we're going to use to extend the 2017 tax cuts and make them bigger and bolder,” Cruz said at the Free State Foundation’s 17th Annual Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. The FCC lost its spectrum auction authority in March 2023. Spectrum auction revenue – projected to be in the many billions over 10 years – would be key to plugging holes in the budget plan central to the Trump administration’s economic agenda. “It's a big pay-for and that bill, you got to pay for a whole lot and spectrum auction is a big, big pay-for and it's profoundly important,” Cruz said. Democrats have spoken out by saying spectrum auction revenue should fund other priorities in lieu of tax cuts. House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) in January complained that Republicans were “considering using spectrum auction proceeds as a piggybank to fund their costly tax breaks for billionaires and large wealthy corporations.”
Free State Foundation’s 17th Annual Policy Conference
