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  "description": "Major changes involving spectrum escape scrutiny as debates rage over healthcare and tax cuts\n",
  "path": "/house-republicans-struggle-to-pass-budget-bill-as-democrats-seek-to-flip-key-votes/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-07-02T21:27:11.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "A Risk to Wi-Fi? | Broadband Breakfasthe Senate passed a bill requiring the FCC to auction 800 MHz of spectrum. It could raise $85B for tax cuts, but consumer groups say this could reduce access to Wi-Fi and rural broadband by selling unlicensed bands. The House could vote as early as July 2 or July 3.Broadband Breakfast",
    "_press event Wednesday morning_",
    "_on Tuesday_",
    "All Videos from Speeding BEAD Summit",
    "_Senate version removed those protections_"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, July 2, 2025 – House Democrats mounted a last-ditch effort Wednesday as they targeted four Republicans in a bid to flip the vote against President **Donald Trump** ’s budget reconciliation bill.\n\nA Risk to Wi-Fi? | Broadband Breakfasthe Senate passed a bill requiring the FCC to auction 800 MHz of spectrum. It could raise $85B for tax cuts, but consumer groups say this could reduce access to Wi-Fi and rural broadband by selling unlicensed bands. The House could vote as early as July 2 or July 3.Broadband Breakfast\n\nIn a _press event Wednesday morning_, House Democrats gathered on the East Steps of the U.S. Capitol, spelling out how the American public will be impacted by the passage of this bill. House Minority Leader **Hakeem Jeffries** announced, “every single House Democrat will vote ‘hell no’ against this one big, ugly bill. All we need are four House Republicans to join us.”\n\nAs of 5 p.m., Wednesday, Republican leaders were struggling to gain enough support to move forward on the bill.\n\nOne of the Senate bill’s most consequential tech provisions – a multi-year ban on states’ ability to regulate artificial intelligence – was stripped from the Senate version of the budget bill _on Tuesday_. But differences remained between the House and Senate versions, particularly on spectrum policy.\n\n\n\n_****FROM SPEEDING BEAD SUMMIT****_\n _****Panel 1: How Are States Thinking About Reasonable Costs Now?****_\n_****Panel 2: Finding the State Versus Federal Balance in BEAD****_\n _****Panel 3: Reacting to the New BEAD NOFO Guidance****_\n _****Panel 4: Building, Maintaining and Adopting Digital Workforce Skills****_\n\n All Videos from Speeding BEAD Summit \n\nWhile the House version of the bill passed on May 22 had a smaller target of identifying 600 megahertz of spectrum for the Federal Communications Commission to auction, and explicitly protected the 6 GigaHertz (GHz) band from counting toward the quota, the _Senate version removed those protections_.\n\n### _Broader debate over healthcare and tax cuts_\n\nThe spectrum provisions, which could reshape access to critical Wi-Fi and broadband frequencies, have received little public attention amid the broader debate over healthcare and tax cuts.\n\nIn an exchange with _Broadband Breakfast_ , Rep. **Benny Thompson** , D-Miss., appeared unfamiliar with the Senate’s proposal to auction additional spectrum.\n\n“I’ve not been focused on that,” the lawmaker said. “I’ve been focused more on the Medicaid [cuts] because they’re going to be disastrous for so many Americans.”\n\nOn the House floor Wednesday afternoon, over 100 Democratic representatives lined up to request the same thing: an amendment to the resolution before the House to protect against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides monthly financial assistance to low-income individuals and families to help them buy food.\n\nFollowing that, the House floor remained open for over two hours on procedural votes as Republican leaders struggled to gain enough support to move forward with debate on the bill.\n\nDemocratic leadership rallied throughout the day to blast the bill as a direct attack on vulnerable Americans.\n\n“Unimaginably, this bill is worse than when it left the House,” said Minority Whip **Katherine Clark** , D-Mass, speaking on the House steps Wednesday morning.**** “It cuts Medicaid by $1 trillion dollars, it kicks 17 million Americans off of their healthcare…. It hikes the cost of electricity, it hands a 3 percent pay cut to hardworking people of this country, and hands their children $5 trillion dollars in debt.”\n\nScreenshot of House Democrats gathered on the East Stairs of the Capitol from Minority Leader Jeffries on YouTube\n\n“We will continue to do everything in our power to stop this bill in its tracks,” Jeffries said.\n\n_Broadband Breakfast Reporter Cameron Marx contributed to this report._",
  "title": "House Republicans Struggle to Pass Budget Bill as Democrats Seek to Flip Key Votes",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T03:26:55.143Z"
}