Bill to permanently reauthorize the FirstNet Authority reintroduced in the House

A bill that would permanently authorize the FirstNet Authority was reintroduced yesterday in the House of Representatives by Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Tex.) as the entity charged with building and maintaining a nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) awaits its FCC license renewal and a potential sunset in 2027.

When Congress passed legislation that established the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), the law included a sunset provision that would become effective 15 years later, unless Congress took further action. Fletcher’s bill—H.R. 3366, the “FirstNet Reauthorization Act”—proposes to take such action, seeking to make the FirstNet Authority’s authorization permanent.

“Our first responders rely on FirstNet to communicate with each other when our community needs them the most,” Fletcher said in a prepared statement. “I am glad to introduce this legislation to make FirstNet permanent and ensure first responders have the communication tools they need to stay safe and support communities in times of need.”

Fletcher introduced the same legislation in the last Congress with former Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.). That bill was introduced in February 2022 but failed to advance without being the subject of a subcommittee hearing.

This permanent-reauthorization proposal comes as the FirstNet Authority continues to await an FCC decision on the spectrum-license renewal application for the 20 MHz of 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum—an application that was submitted more than 8 months ago. The FirstNet Authority’s 10-year Band 14 spectrum license technically expired last November, but the airwaves can continue be used to support public-safety communications as the FCC considers issues related to the matter.

In March, FirstNet Authority contractor AT&T claimed that it has completed the five-year network buildout, although FirstNet Authority personnel continue to evaluate whether the carrier giant has met all of its initial buildout obligations that were in the 25-year contract that was signed in March 2017. As of the end of March this year, FirstNet was providing about 4.7 million connections to 25,000 agencies, according to AT&T.