President Joe Biden plans to sign the Inflation Reduction Act budget reconciliation package (HR-5376) Tuesday, the White House said Monday. The bill, which the House passed Friday 220-207, includes a carve-out in the 15% minimum corporate tax language that allows companies to deduct from "taxable income” the value of spectrum licenses bought after Dec. 31, 2007, “and before the date” of the measure's enactment. The Senate passed it Aug. 7 (see 2208080062). The Wireless Infrastructure Association "applauds Congress for prioritizing America’s 5G leadership" via HR-5376 "by continuing tax policies that have stimulated billions of dollars of investment in America’s wireless networks," said President Patrick Halley. "Companies that acquire spectrum licenses do so at a high cost. By avoiding what would have amounted to a 15% tax on wireless broadband deployment, Congress is ensuring that more capital will remain available for investment in next generation wireless infrastructure.”

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, backed the FTC’s exploration of a privacy rulemaking (see 2208110068). He spoke Friday in support of the FTC posing questions about “physical, mental and reputational harms” caused by social media data practices. Schatz, one of the Senate Commerce Committee’s original negotiators on recent privacy legislation, welcomed the FTC “scrutinizing discrimination in the algorithms that Americans interact with every day and that pose significant risks when used negligently or maliciously.”

The House was expected to vote Friday night on the Inflation Reduction Act budget reconciliation package (HR-5376). The bill includes language that under a proposed 15% minimum corporate tax allows companies to deduct from "taxable income” the value of spectrum licenses bought after Dec. 31, 2007, “and before the date” of the measure's enactment. The House voted 219-208 to proceed to debate on HR-5376. The Senate passed it Aug. 7 (see 2208080062).

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., filed the Grant to Rapidly Invest and Deploy (Grid) Broadband Act Wednesday in a bid to incentivize building a nationwide middle-mile broadband backbone along the existing U.S. electricity grid. The measure would direct NTIA to issue competitive cost-shared federal grants to encourage broadband buildout on the electric grid. It would require grant recipients to use the funding to improve cybersecurity and smart grid technology on their electrical grid infrastructure, and increase middle-mile capacity. "It’s a triple win solution for consumers because it leverages existing rights-of-way and private sector ingenuity and investment to deliver cleaner electricity, stronger cybersecurity, and more accessible broadband services," Cantwell said in a statement. Her office cited support from the Edison Electric Institute, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Public Knowledge, Utilities Technology Council, Washington Public Utility Districts Association and Wireless ISP Association.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., ranking member Sam Graves, R-Mo., Highways Subcommittee Chair Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and ranking member Rodney Davis, R-Ill., urged the FCC Monday to issue waivers requested by proponents of cellular-vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band asking to be able to deploy as fast as possible (see 2112140070). "We are writing to express our support for transportation stakeholders to have authority to operate" C-V2X technology in the 5.9 GHz band, the House Transportation leaders said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "An increasing number of public and private transportation stakeholders are seeking waivers to operate this technology, and we ask that you act expeditiously to grant their requests. Investment in and deployment of C-V2X within the 5.9 GHz band is critical to improving transportation safety and will clearly advance the public interest." A recent spike in deaths from motor vehicle crashes means "it is imperative that regulators use every tool at their disposal to reduce the growing death toll on our roadways," the lawmakers said. "C-V2X technology has the potential to save lives -- but only if regulators allow it to do so."

The Senate passed a revised version of the Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation package as a substitute amendment to the earlier scuttled Build Back Better Act (HR-5376) with language that allows companies to deduct the value of “qualified wireless spectrum … in computing taxable income” under a proposed 15% minimum corporate tax. A qualified frequency holding would be exempt if it’s used “in the trade or business of a wireless telecommunications carrier” and the carrier acquired the spectrum license after Dec. 31, 2007, “and before the date” of HR-5376’s enactment. The Senate voted 50-50 Sunday along party lines on the measure, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaker in its favor. HR-5376 now heads back to the House, which is expected to take it up Friday. The HR-5376 “technical fix” means the wireless industry “will be able to keep the favorable tax treatment it enjoyed when it obtained the bulk of its current spectrum holdings,” New Street’s Blair Levin said in an email to investors. “Spectrum acquired prior to 2007 has already been fully amortized” for tax purposes and frequencies “acquired after the law's enactment will be acquired with the understanding of the new tax treatment.” The U.S. “wireless industry applauds this important technical fix which preserves the industry’s ability to maintain America’s 5G leadership and help close the digital divide,” CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a statement before HR-5376 passed. Baker and several Senate Commerce Committee Republicans raised concerns last week that an earlier version of the corporate tax language would include spectrum assets and could hurt U.S. wireless carriers (see 2208020076). The corporate tax “remains bad policy, but at least one unintended consequence averted” because of the spectrum carve-out, tweeted American Enterprise Institute Nonresident Senior Fellow Daniel Lyons.

NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield urged Congress Thursday via the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture and Commerce committees to “take prompt action in addressing current concerns about our nation’s communications supply chain by providing greater flexibility in meeting broadband deployment program requirements, facilitating increased domestic production of communications equipment, and ensuring that smaller broadband providers do not suffer disproportionate impacts from supply chain concerns.” It “takes more than increased funding and commitment to community to deliver on the promise of broadband for those still waiting to be connected,” Bloomfield said in a letter to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and their GOP ranking members. “Broadband networks cannot be built when broadband network supplies cannot be obtained, and the already-high costs of deploying networks will become even higher if there is a shortage of supplies.” Many “policymakers have rightly focused on supply chain security in recent years, but there is increasing concern as well about supply chain resiliency,” which has “the potential to undermine national objectives to connect as many Americans as possible in the coming years under these new programs,” she said. “New initiatives launching in the next few years have significant potential to exacerbate these strains in the current supply chain.“ Bloomfield said NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program “will only realize its full potential if work begins now to clear bottlenecks and encourage increased production.”

House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui and Rep. Anna Eshoo, both D-Calif., led a Friday push with eight other Democrats for Biden administration officials Friday to use Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding to collocate broadband and electric vehicle charging infrastructure buildouts. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, which gets $5 billion in IIJA, "requires state agencies deploying EVs to have a connected charger network to facilitate data collection, accessibility, and reliability," the lawmakers wrote Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. "These connectivity requirements for EV charging infrastructure often require broadband access, which can be sparse in remote areas. To meet the 97 percent reporting standards of the NEVI Formula Program, stakeholders and agencies must address the broadband access challenges in rural and underserved communities." Digital equity "disparities exist in areas where access to broadband is non-existent or unaffordable and disproportionately affects rural areas and communities of color," the lawmakers said: IIJA "acknowledged these disparities and provided $65 billion for broadband expansion, including grants for internet service expansion in unserved and underserved areas."

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., filed the Proper Leadership to Align Networks (Plan) for Broadband Act Thursday to require the Biden administration to develop a national broadband strategy the GAO recommended in late May. Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., filed the House companion. The GAO believes a national strategy is needed because 15 federal agencies administer more than 100 broadband connectivity programs, causing some overlap (see 2206010068). The bill says the national strategy must “support better management of Federal broadband programs to deliver on the goal of providing high speed, affordable broadband” to everyone in the U.S., “synchronize interagency coordination among” federal broadband programs, coordinate on approving grants “of an easement, right of way, or lease to, in, over, or on a building or any other property owned by the Federal Government for the right to install, construct, modify, or maintain” broadband infrastructure and “reduce barriers, lower costs, and ease administrative burdens for State, local, and Tribal governments to participate in Federal broadband programs.” The strategy would be due within one year of the measure’s enactment, with the White House submitting an implementation plan 120 days after the strategy’s release. “A national broadband strategy will ensure our agencies are synchronized and manage these programs effectively to make sure that more Americans gain access to high-speed broadband," Wicker said. The bill “will help improve coordination between federal agencies and local and Tribal governments to deliver on the funding we made available to build high speed, affordable broadband,” Lujan said. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr praised lawmakers for filing the legislation. “This is a vital bill that would fill a key gap in the federal government’s approach to broadband infrastructure spending,” he said. "The lack of a national coordinating strategy coupled with the absence of performance and accountability measures will result in wasted dollars and families stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide."

Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C., introduced legislation Wednesday he said will “restore patent eligibility” for innovative inventions across various fields. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act is aimed at addressing patent eligibility confusion, and Tillis’ office said the bill would help strengthen U.S. positions in 5G, blockchain, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. The bill resolves concerns about the patenting of “mere ideas,” the “mere discovery of what already exists in nature, and social and cultural content that everyone agrees is beyond the scope of the patent system.” Computer & Communications Industry Association Patent Counsel Josh Landau said CCIA appreciates Tillis’ understanding “that this is a complex area of patent law and that it will take time to get it right. We have concerns about the expansion of eligibility the bill contains, and look forward to working with Senator Tillis to improve the bill."