Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Madam President.

In my view, these changes are reckless, unnecessary, and unwise, and in any event they were made without debate by Members of this body and specifically contrary to the manner in which this very same legislation was reported out of the Senate Commerce Committee.

I am glad to see the passage of a couple of pieces of legislation just now, including the TRACED Act, which will help us fight damaging robocalls. This is good legislation. I am also supportive of S. 1822, the Broadband DATA Act, which will require much needed updates to our broadband maps. These are good pieces of legislation. I am glad they are passed.

I am also very supportive of the legislation that is the subject of the immediate unanimous consent request; that is, the Commerce Committee's reported version of S. 1625, the United States 5G Leadership Act.

This is an important bill. It would help us identify Huawei equipment posing an espionage risk in the United States. It will ban the use of Universal Service Fund dollars to purchase the equipment and help reimburse small companies for the costs associated with ripping and replacing vulnerable equipment.

This is an important bill, and it received careful consideration during the Senate Commerce Committee's markup on July 24, 2019.

The version of this bill that passed the committee was supported unanimously by Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the aisle. That version required $700 million to be set aside in a fund to help reimburse companies for Huawei equipment replacements. The bill specified that the source of this funding was to come from the proceeds of spectrum auctions. This was a smart and good and carefully tailored pay-for that did not add to our out-of-control Federal spending.

As currently written, the bill contains a reference to a reimbursement fund and assumes there will be reimbursements, but the bill does not specify how much funding is allocated, nor does it specify the source of these funds. I can only assume this means the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will default to authorizing new funds rather than using the smart pay-for that the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously and wisely agreed to in July.

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Mr. LEE. Madam President.

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Mr. LEE. Madam President, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Commerce Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 1625 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

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Mr. LEE. Madam President.

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Mr. LEE. Madam President, where I come from in Utah, $700 million is a lot of money. Seven hundred million dollars is something we ought to worry about where we are going to get it.

It is not unreasonable for us to request that the House of Representatives agree to the language we unanimously, on a bipartisan basis, passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee.

In my mind, it is unfortunate that we are allowing the House of Representatives' unreasonable, unwarranted demand--a demand the chairman of the Commerce Committee himself acknowledges is one they shouldn't object to--to rule the day and prevent this legislation from becoming law.

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