President Trump thanked the chairmen of two Senate committees for brokering a deal with GOP Sens. Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Deb Fischer of Nebraska on a provision in his massive tax-and-defense “Big Beautiful Bill” to auction a portion of the government-owned spectrum for commercial use.

Mr. Trump said Friday that a deal has been reached to move forward with the auction, though he did not say what Mr. Rounds and Ms. Fischer received in return or how the auction would now be structured. Representatives for the two senators did not immediately return requests for comment.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump thanked Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation and Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi Republican and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, for helping strike the deal.

He said the auctioning of the spectrum is “serious power for American leadership on 6G.”

The House version of the bill included a provision that would open up 600 MHz of spectrum. That raised alarms among national security hawks who warned that it could encroach upon important military and intelligence frequencies. Mr. Rounds, a senior Senate Armed Services Committee member who was among the fiercest critics, had said using the spectrum for commercial purposes would make it hard for the armed forces to use those frequencies for radar.

Under the deal, the Defense Department will preserve the lower three bands – 3.1 to 3.45 GHz band and 7.4 and 8.4 GHz bands, which will be exempt from general auction authority and the spectrum pipeline, according to the Senate Commerce Committee. In exchange, the wireless industry regained the authority to auction the spectrum. 

Ms. Fischer on Thursday told The Washington Times that preserving the lower three bands was critical for her support. She also said she wanted specific language in the provision that the Federal Communications Commission “would understand.”

“We will have the world’s greatest networks and ensure the highest level of national security for future generations of Americans,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Biden did nothing on Spectrum for years, but thanks to ’THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL,’ my administration will beat all expectations and show the world the path forward.”

• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.