The whirlwind start of the Trump administration is entering its second act. Cabinet confirmation hearings and hundreds of executive orders are now eclipsed by the daunting deliberations on budget reconciliation and the extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. Amid all of this, and the continued turbulence from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency-led review of federal spending, the case for increased privatization of various economic sectors has become clear.
Political and media attention is plagued by polarized mudslinging and endless virtue signaling of Trump and Musk’s dramatic attempts to cut government spending. Sure, programs such as The United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) do tremendous good for humanity and are not to blame for America’s looming debt crisis. But calling advocates of smaller government heartless or blatantly evil is hardly the way to shift the discourse in Congressional budgeting season.
Nonetheless, endless department audits and social media posts — the preferred method of Musk and the Trump administration’s reform so far — is an unsustainable political strategy for the White House. It may grab headlines now — how American taxpayer dollars were spent on “Sesame Street in Iraq”, for example — but such media moments will not produce true legislative change. With narrow Senate and House majorities, Republican leadership will ultimately need to orient their caucuses’ efforts away from TV cameras and to the negotiating table.
As a starting point for addressing government inefficiency and overreach, lawmakers could find common ground in the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and 5G networks. Technological advancements in large language models, encryption and wireless internet promise to expedite daily work tasks in a myriad of sectors, to protect our cybersecurity and to enhance digital communication. Yet, as many would suspect, the government lives in the past — owning 60%of spectrum usable for wireless internet and phone calls while lacking the capacity to rapidly innovate this connection for new AI and web3 software.
In short, the government cannot adapt quickly enough to market forces. This is no surprise. Just as price controls don’t work and socialized healthcare doesn’t work, government-dominated broadband spectrum casts America’s to the shadows of our competitors, namely China with the concerning global growth of Huawei.
Demand for spectrum access is skyrocketing. Telecommunications are essential to modern everyday life, from personal phone calls or text messages to emergency broadcasts about natural disasters or safety concerns. Technology used for manufacturing, agriculture, transportation and aerial drones employ spectrum. Yet the government continues to cling tight to unused broadband, despite its potential. It's a prime example of federal overreach and a missed opportunity for economic growth.
In the reconciliation process, Congress might consider auctioning off commercial licensing of spectrum currently owned by the Department of Defense. Broadband auctioning takes what's precious out of the hands of the federal government.
This will not be without trepidation. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) has raised concerns with the “critical national security capabilities” reliant on government-owned spectrum, highlighting the need to balance our intelligence and defense interests with auction proposals. Much as states have restricted Chinese firms’ ownership of farmland, concerns with “who” purchases the broadband will likely arise. But stipulations on domestic ownership and other user privacy guarantees should not delay the urgent need to offload this critical technology from dilatory bureaucracy.
If the Trump administration’s light touch approach to artificial intelligence and energy is anything to go off of, the president is surely likely to sign a budget with expanded spectrum auctioning into law. The powers now rest with Congress to evaluate proposals for a secure, effective process and pass them into law.
