Sen. Blackburn Wants More Spectrum in Reconciliation

NASHVILLE, June 2 2025 – Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is looking for a larger pipeline of licensed spectrum as the Senate takes up a sweeping budget bill this week.

The bill, officially dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and narrowly passed by the House, would reinstate the Federal Communications Commission’s ability to auction off spectrum, which expired in March 2023. With the reauthorization would come a mandate to sell 600 megahertz of exclusive-use spectrum for mobile or fixed broadband, a pipeline the wireless carriers have been pushing to get included. It’s expected to raise about $88 billion to help pay for tax cuts.

“I told Ted Cruz, who has the gavel at Commerce, ‘We need 1,200 [megahertz],’” she said. “We don’t need six, we need 12.”

Blackburn spoke at the Fiber Connect conference in Nashville.

That would line up with a bill the Texas Republican introduced last Congress with now-Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., which would have restored FCC auction authority and mandated 1,250 megahertz of licensed spectrum.

Opponents to any sort of pipeline have also signalled they want to see the House language changed. Lawmakers aligned with the Defense Department have been concerned a large quota could lead to military spectrum being vacated, which they say would be time-consuming and costly.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said at the Politico Security Summit last month that she “personally could not accept” the House bill as-is. She said she wanted language that would do more to prevent any kind of auction of certain military airwaves rather than just preventing them from counting toward the bill’s pipeline.

The bill currently would prevent the Defense Department’s lower 3 GHz band from counting toward the 600 megahertz goal. It would do the same for the unlicensed 6 GHz band used for Wi-Fi.

The wireless industry has long been eyeing part of the lower 3 GHz band, and protecting it was proposed by DoD in a compromise plan earlier this year. But it evidently did not satisfy lawmakers like Fischer and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who has voiced similar concerns.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the top Democrat on Cruz’s committee, has also panned the House bill, saying it would “punch a gaping hole in our defenses.” The reconciliation process will allow Senate Republicans to avoid the filibuster and pass the bill without Democratic support, provided the party is able to agree on the spectrum provision and numerous other points of contention.

For its part, the wireless industry was happy with 600 megahertz and urged Congress to move the bill forward quickly after it passed the House. The cable industry, consumer groups, and smaller wireless ISPs have called on the Senate to add language protecting the Citizens Broadband Radio Service.

The shared low-power band has been attacked by the mobile industry, which prefers higher power, exclusive licenses. AT&T proposed clearing it and selling it off last year, and the DoD endorsed a similar idea as part of its compromise plan.