[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 171 (Tuesday, October 29, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6219-S6220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND 
  DRUG ADMINISTRATION, INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, 
  VETERANS AFFAIRS, TRANSPORTATION, AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 
                  APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.


                              Radio Waves

  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I want to talk for a few minutes about 
money, 5G, and radio waves.
  A radio wave is nothing more than electromagnetic radiation that 
moves through the air. That is all a radio wave is. Imagine a pond, and 
think of a radio wave as a ripple, or wave, in that pond. The wave kind 
of goes like this. It has a peak and a valley and then a peak and a 
valley. Eventually, it gets shorter and shorter. That is what a radio 
wave is. There are different kinds of radio waves. I don't know how 
many, but there are a bunch, and they are differentiated by the lengths 
of the peaks and the valleys.
  Remember? The radio wave is doing this. As it goes to the top and 
comes to the bottom, that is called a cycle.
  Frequency--you have heard that term before--is nothing more than how 
many cycles a radio wave goes through in one second. So we have out 
there--we can't see them, for they are invisible--thousands, millions 
of these radio waves that are, once again, going like this.
  Now, what does that have to do with 5G? So 5G is nothing more than a 
certain type of radio wave. I will come back and talk a little bit 
about the 5G in a second.
  When I make a cell phone call to the Presiding Officer, my voice is 
being converted into an electrical signal, as she knows. It is being 
sent to her phone through a radio wave. Once it gets my signal carried 
by the radio wave, her telephone converts it back into my voice. That 
is all a cell phone is.
  I say: Hello, Madam President.
  My voice is then converted into an electrical signal that is sent by 
a radio wave to her telephone. That is how a cell phone works.
  What is 5G? ``5G'' stands for ``fifth-generation wireless 
technology.''
  The very simple answer to ``What is 5G?'' is that it is an incredibly 
fast radio wave that can carry a huge amount of data. I mean, it is 
lightning fast. Even if you have fourth generation, it is 10-times 
faster than anything we have right now. Fifth generation's waves are 
going to be 10-times faster and will carry way more data, way more 
information. It is going to change the world, not just the United 
States of America. It is going to change the world. It is going to 
change space.
  You have heard about the Internet of Things. 5G is going to be able 
to hook up all kinds of devices that will be able to talk to each other 
simultaneously.
  Once we get 5G in America, I will be able to open my garage door from 
a half a mile away. The Presiding Officer will be able to set the timer 
on her coffee pot from here in the Senate if she wants to. Surgeons 
will be able to conduct surgery thousands of miles away from each other 
through the internet. We will have driverless cars. Do any of you ever 
get money out of an ATM? They are going to be gone. We will not need 
ATMs anymore. You will be able to get the money through a smartphone. 
Through 5G technology, farmers will be informed well in advance of when 
there are diseases encroaching upon their crops. We will not have to 
sign our names anymore. 5G will make possible what are called personal 
heat signatures. It is going to change the world.
  Remember, 5G is just a radio wave. Who owns that radio wave and the 
air that it goes through? The people of America do. Every country owns 
its own radio waves. If there is any doubt, the Communications Act of 
1934 says that the United States of America--you and I--own that radio 
wave and the ability to send that radio wave from my cell phone to the 
Presiding Officer's cell phone.
  You will not be surprised to learn that not all radio waves--I told 
you there were millions of them, billions of them--are made in the same 
way. There is a special kind of radio wave that is just perfect for 
fifth-generation wireless technology. This is called the C band. The C 
band is between 3.7 gigahertz and 4.2 gigahertz. That is the frequency. 
I think of it as being a certain type of radio wave that is perfect for 
C band that can be sent through the air to effectuate 5G. That certain 
radio wave and the air and the right to execute that service belongs to 
the American people, and the FCC is in charge of it.
  The FCC auctions these radio waves all the time. When those at a 
radio company or a television company or an internet company say, ``I 
need to use some of those radio waves,'' they go to the FCC. The FCC 
says: OK, we are going to auction that radio wave off because we 
believe in competition and because these radio waves belong to the 
American people, and so we want to get the best price.
  In the last 25 years, the FCC has conducted over 100 auctions of 
radio waves. The FCC doesn't call them radio waves. It calls them 
spectrum. You have heard the term ``spectrum auction.'' The FCC has 
done a public auction--over 100 of them--of these various radio waves, 
or bands of spectrum, and has brought in $123 billion for the American 
people. It has done an incredible job.
  Now we are about to assign the special radio waves for 5G. I don't 
blame them for trying. Yet there are three foreign-owned satellite 
companies, two foreign companies from Luxembourg--I love Luxembourg; it 
is a great country--and one foreign corporation from Canada--I love 
Canada--that have gone to the FCC and said they can do an auction 
faster than the FCC can.
  We need to get these 5G radio waves out to the wireless companies 
really fast. These three foreign satellite companies have said: If you 
will just give us those radio waves, we will auction them off for you, 
and we will do it a lot faster than you can.
  When I first read about this, I said: Am I reading this right? The 
FCC has held over 100 auctions. They have brought in $123 billion. We 
have these radio waves for 5G that the experts say are worth $60 
billion, and instead of auctioning them off and letting everybody 
fairly compete, these three foreign corporations want the FCC to give 
them the airwaves and let them auction them off, and the foreign 
companies get to keep the money. I am astounded. I said: Gosh, I 
couldn't ask for something like that with a straight face.
  But do you know what is even more incredible? The FCC is thinking 
about doing it. They are thinking about doing it. They are thinking 
about taking $60 billion that belongs to the American people and just 
giving it to this alliance of companies--two from Luxembourg and one 
from Canada--and saying ``Here. It is yours. Go auction it

[[Page S6220]]

off'' even though they have never conducted a spectrum auction in their 
lives. Do you know how much $60 billion is? I did the math. And our FCC 
is thinking about doing it.
  What I find really incredible is that the President just issued this 
Executive order--well, he did it a little while ago--buy American and 
hire American. I was so proud when I saw this Executive order--buy 
American and hire American. It doesn't mean we don't love our world's 
neighbors, but America first. And what is our FCC thinking about doing? 
They are thinking about giving our spectrum to three foreign companies 
and letting them keep the $60 billion. Talk about swampy.
  These are also foreign companies. Now, I don't mean that in a 
pejorative sense, and I love Luxembourg, and I love Canada. They had a 
French company in here too. The French company has bowed out, at least 
for a while. But our job is not to maximize profits for foreign 
corporations; our job is to help our people.
  This 5G has national security implications. Before we give away these 
5G airwaves to a foreign corporation, we need to know whom they are 
going to give it to. What if they give it to China? What if they say 
``Well, we will conduct our own auction'' and they give it to Huawei?
  There is another reason that this whole approach is foolhardy. 5G is 
going to be great for the cities. That is where it is going first. But 
what about the people who don't live in the city? What I would like to 
see us do and I am encouraging the FCC to do is to hold a public 
auction, take some of that $60 billion they are going to get, and use 
it for rural broadband to make sure the people who live in rural areas 
get taken care of as well as the people who live in the cities because 
our wireless technology companies are going to have to be encouraged. 
They make a whole lot more money selling in a city than they do out in 
the rural areas.
  Remember, this foreign corporation group says they can do an auction 
faster, even though they have never done an auction in their lives. 
They say: We can do it faster, and we have to beat China. So give us 
the radio waves. We will do a quick auction. We get to keep the $60 
billion, but we will get it out there.
  There is just one problem: All those wireless technology companies 
that didn't get to bid--every single one of them is going to file suit 
if we don't do a public auction. So we are going to have this tied up 
in court for 20 years. We are going to be so far behind China. China is 
going to have lapped us several times. We are going to think we are in 
first place, but we are really going to be in last place.
  I have held hearings--not because of anything that I did or any 
competence on my part. I am chairman of the Financial Services and 
General Government Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, and 
the only reason I got the job is seniority, OK? Nonetheless, I got it, 
and the FCC is under my jurisdiction. I have been holding hearings, and 
I am going to hold more hearings.
  So far, the only reason that anybody can give me to take these 5G 
airwaves and give them to a foreign corporation is that they think they 
can do it faster, despite the fact that we will have litigation and 
despite the fact that they have never done an auction before.
  The best way to resist temptation, in my opinion, is a proper 
upbringing, a strong set of values, and witnesses. We need to have a 
public auction of this internet, of the 5G radio waves. Everybody needs 
to compete. If we don't want a foreign company to get control of it--
and I don't--we can put it in the bid specs. Huawei need not apply. Not 
personal, but as long as you spy for China, you can't work here.
  We need a level playing field. We need to have competition. 
Competition is a moral good. Everybody needs to get an equal bite at 
the apple. This doesn't need to be done in a backroom, swampy deal. I 
am not saying that anybody's brother-in-law is going to get taken care 
of here. I am not saying that, but it sure looks swampy. And we need to 
do it exactly like we have done for the 100 past broadband spectrum 
auctions.
  I am saying that not only to our Senate colleagues here, but I hope I 
am speaking clearly enough to the FCC. Do the right thing. Don't give 
away $60 billion that belongs to the people of America to two companies 
in Luxembourg and one other one in Canada. It is wrong.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I am going to speak on another matter in 
just a moment, but I want to thank my friend the Senator from 
Louisiana.
  There are a number of subjects that are debated on this floor that I 
may know a little bit about, may not know much at all about, but on the 
subject he was just addressing, the question of spectrum and the 
challenges and the threats around 5G--I can still claim this--I am 
proud of the fact that I spent a longer time in business than I have in 
politics. My whole career was spent in the business of mobile 
communications, wireless communications. I spent the last 3 or 4 years 
on the Intelligence Committee in a bipartisan way looking at both the 
challenge and the opportunity in 5G, and let me assure you that some of 
the items the Senator from Louisiana has raised in terms of the 
security threats that will be posed if we end up with the wrong vendor 
in 5G are an enormous problem.
  I don't always agree with this President. On this item, he is right. 
My hope is that he will stick to his guns and not trade that away in a 
trade negotiation with China.
  I also know that getting spectrum aligned the right way has been one 
of our challenges because other nations have been able to, frankly, in 
Asia and elsewhere, align spectrum better, so the underpinnings are 
better positioned than we are. So how we do this is 100 percent right.
  Let me also say that whether it is Louisiana or Virginia, one of the 
issues I hear the most--I am not talking far world; I am talking small 
towns and midsize cities in Virginia, and I am sure the same is the 
case in Louisiana--the issue is--Democrat, Republican, and 
Independent--when am I going to get broadband in an accessible way?
  If we don't make sure that we think this through on spectrum and 
recognize the national security implications and also recognize that if 
we roll out 5G and leave, in my State, 18 percent of the population 
behind who doesn't even have broadband, their ability to compete in the 
21st century is going to be dramatically undermined.
  So I hope I will have a chance to visit with my friend the Senator 
from Louisiana and see if we might be able to work together on some of 
these issues.
  For a while, at least before the FCC auctioned off that spectrum, it 
was left in other hands, and suffice it to say that I know how much 
that spectrum is worth.
  I thank my friend the Senator from Louisiana for his comments.

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