“It’s telling that, even after the FCC decided—in a divided vote—to give away $15 billion to foreign operations, those companies still aren’t happy. . . . People say appetites grow by indulgence, and it’s true: These foreign satellite firms want all four feet and their snout in the taxpayer trough. The FCC shouldn’t be helping them.”

WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) released the following statement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a party-line vote to pay foreign satellite companies up to $14.7 billion to stop using the section of radio waves known as the C-band.

“We still don’t know how the chairman arrived at his $15 billion gift. Why not surrender $14 billion to the foreign satellite giants, who don’t even own the airwaves they’ve been using? Why not $16 billion? We’re in real need of transparency here. Shelling out billions for airwaves we already own is no way to handle taxpayer money—especially when taxpayers want those dollars to support rural broadband.

“If the foreign satellite firms have it their way, Americans won’t see auction money go to broadband deployment. We learned that lesson in the 1930s when power companies wanted to leave rural America in the dark. People in rural American, though, are just as American as anyone else.

“It’s telling that, even after the FCC decided—in a divided vote—to give away $15 billion to foreign operations, those companies still aren’t happy. I suppose they’re angry their plan to scarf up all proceeds from the potential $70 billion auction didn’t work out. People say appetites grow by indulgence, and it’s true: These foreign satellite firms want all four feet and their snout in the taxpayer trough. The FCC shouldn’t be helping them.”