Spending Bill Lacks Money for FCC Rip-and-Replace Program

A bill that would free up more money for the Federal Communications Commission suspect tech rip-and-replace program — mandated by Congress — did not make it into the $1.7 trillion must-pass omnibus appropriations bill, according to an unhappy Competitive Carriers Association. The fact that the bill did extend FCC auction authority for a few more months, though, was some solace. In the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks legislation, Congress mandated, and the FCC fully supported, a program for compensating providers with 10 million customers or fewer for removing and replacing network technology the agency has concluded is a potential national security threat — a list that started with Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei and has since expanded. The proposed cap on reimbursing providers of advanced telecom services for the reasonable costs of removing, replacing, and disposing of equipment had been for providers with 2 million customers. Now, the cap is 10 million. (The FCC in July 2021 voted to extend the reimbursement program to larger players.) Congress set aside $1.98 billion of funding in the legislation mandating the program, while the FCC said in February it had received more than $5.5 billion in funding requests. The FCC may not approve all of those asks, but it will clearly need more money than Congress set aside.