Frustration With FCC Broadband Mapping

Bipartisan interest is growing on Capitol Hill in using a year-end funding bill to force the Federal Communications Commission to take stock of the accuracy of its broadband data. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) is leading the effort. “I’ll be very frank: I’m going to try to stick something on the spending bill to make the FCC take another look at this,” said Sen. Wicker, the likely incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. He called the FCC’s mapping “fatally flawed.” And count Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in, too. Sen. Tester “would certainly be interested in addressing this issue during the appropriations process,” a spokeswoman said. Although Sen. Wicker has broad support in his frustrations, hitching an amendment could still be a heavy lift. Government funding expires Dec. 7, which gives Sen. Wicker and his allies little time to try to slip that in. Either way, Sen. Wicker plans to stay focused on his FCC frustrations as Commerce chair: “I would want to look at a way to get an accurate measurement so that we can distribute $4.5 billion in a way that’s meaningful.”