Jimm Phillips

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., voiced greater optimism Tuesday night about the prospects the committee will be able to advance a trio of FCC nominees Wednesday, including new pick Anna Gomez and incumbent Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. The pair's confirmation would bring the FCC to a 3-2 Democratic majority more than two years into Jessica Rosenworcel's chairmanship. The Senate Commerce executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune of South Dakota predicted “some Republican support” for advancing Democratic FCC nominee Anna Gomez and incumbent Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in the Commerce Committee Wednesday. At least three of the 13 panel GOP members were believed to be seriously considering voting for Gomez as of Tuesday afternoon, communications policy lobbyists told us.

The House Rules Committee will decide Tuesday whether to allow floor votes on a slate of tech and telecom amendments to the chamber’s version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-2670), including several requiring the State Department to do more to address the security of international telecom infrastructure and internet freedom. House Rules’ meeting on HR-2670 amendments will begin at noon in H-313 in the Capitol. The House is expected to vote on the measure later this week.

The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General plans to publish a “management alert” about NTIA’s “reliance on tribes’ self-certifications of their broadband status to determine their eligibility for grants under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program,” Assistant IG-Audit and Evaluation Arthur Scott said in a Monday memo to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson we obtained Tuesday night. OIG plans to release the alert Wednesday, officials said. TBCP is one of several federal broadband programs congressional Republicans have focused on since December as part of ramped-up scrutiny of the government’s connectivity spending.

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote Wednesday on three FCC nominees and commission inspector general candidate Fara Damelin, as expected (see 2306270067), the committee said Thursday. Incumbent Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and new pick Anna Gomez got copious questions from Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and other panel Republicans, but none of them indicated the same level of negativity that ex-nominee Gigi Sohn faced during her often-fractious year-plus confirmation process. Committee Democrats, meanwhile, probed Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr on controversial statements he made since becoming a commissioner during the Trump administration.

House Communications Subcommittee members made the future of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program a major focus of its Wednesday commission oversight hearing, as expected (see 2306200075), but the panel didn’t result in a clear sense of whether Commerce Committee GOP leaders will back additional funding for the initiative. Subpanel Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and others haven’t committed themselves as either for or against further ACP funding (see 2305100073). Democrats strongly defended the program and urged its extension.

Senate Commerce Committee Republicans are likely to barrage FCC nominee Anna Gomez with questions during a Thursday confirmation hearing to pinpoint her positions on communications policies the commission might act on under a 3-2 Democratic majority, but won’t go as negative as during ex-candidate Gigi Sohn’s February panel (see 2302140077), lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. Gomez will get a far friendlier reception from Senate Commerce’s Democratic majority, but officials say they will be eyeing questions from three caucus members who were undecided on Sohn in the weeks before her March withdrawal (see 2303070082).

The FCC’s administration of its affordable connectivity program and other broadband initiatives won’t be the sole focus of a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing with commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and other commissioners, but it’s likely to be the item with the most bearing on future policymaking, observers said in interviews. The panel is happening a day before two of the commissioners -- Republican Brendan Carr and Democrat Geoffrey Starks -- appear before the Senate Commerce Committee for a joint confirmation hearing with new FCC nominee Anna Gomez (see 2306150068). The House Communications hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told us he doesn’t plan to seek amendments to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act involving his push to delay a deal on a spectrum legislative package until after DOD completes a study of its systems on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band (see 2305170037). The 175-member House-side Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, backed restoring the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority for an indeterminate amount of time, in its FY24 budget proposal.

The Senate Commerce Committee plans a confirmation hearing June 22 on FCC nominee Anna Gomez, along with renominated Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, despite a GOP push to split up the trio, panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, told us Wednesday. The panel is unlikely to formally notice the hearing until Thursday. Supporters of shifting the FCC to a 3-2 Democratic majority are hopeful the move will set the Senate on a course to confirm all three nominees before the chamber begins its August recess. The House Communications Subcommittee is also to hear from FCC commissioners next week, setting its first commission oversight hearing of this Congress for June 21.