Wicker 'Close' to Consensus on FY 2019 Funding Challenge to MF-II Data
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us Wednesday he's “close to getting a consensus” on a proposed amendment to FY 2019 federal spending legislation that would force the FCC to revisit its Mobility Fund phase II broadband-service coverage…
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data. He's waiting “for sign-off” from enough fellow lawmakers to allow it to advance. “We want to prohibit [the FCC] from distributing” $4.5 billion in MF-II funding “based on their flawed map,” said Wicker, likely the next Senate Commerce Committee chairman. He repeatedly has criticized the FCC's broadband mapping tactics this year (see 1810040055). “Everybody, including” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “knows that the map is far from accurate,” Wicker said. “So far from accurate that we don't even need to head down that road.” Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., another critic of the FCC's mapping practices, “would certainly be interested in addressing this issue during the appropriations process,” a spokesperson said. Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., members of Commerce and the Appropriations Committee, are also looking at Wicker's proposal, aides said. The MF-II data challenge process recently ended (see 1811270051).