Senators Eye More Oversight with FirstNet Authority Reauthorization

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2026 – Lawmakers appeared inclined Wednesday to increase oversight of the First Responder Network Authority as part of legislation that would reauthorize the agency.

The FirstNet Authority oversees FirstNet, the nationwide first responder network owned and operated by AT&T under a contract with the Commerce Department. FirstNet Authority will sunset in February 2027 unless Congress reauthorizes it.

There’s broad support for reauthorization, but some disagreement on whether that reauthorization should include changes to FirstNet's structure. House lawmakers circulated a draft bill Wednesday that would strengthen Commerce’s authority over the FirstNet Authority, something former board members have opposed.

Recent findings from the Commerce Department’s inspector general “make clear that the current governing structure has not provided consistent performance oversight,” Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said during a Senate hearing Wednesday.

AT&T being the lone bidder on the FirstNet contract and subsequently building out the network was “an achievement, but it should not be confused with a blank check,” she said. “In fact, the scale and importance of the public safety assets AT&T now operates makes stronger oversight more essential, not less.”

Sens. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, also said they wanted more transparency into vendor contracts related to FirstNet.

Scott Agnew, AT&T’s president of FirstNet public sector mobility, emphasized to lawmakers that FirstNet Authority investments were “specific to FirstNet, specific to the FirstNet elements. They are not for AT&T to run their network.”

AT&T was eligible for up to $6.5 billion – from spectrum auction proceeds – in federal funding to construct the network, which finished in 2023, and Agnew said the FirstNet Authority had also committed another $8 billion to further investments. That additional FirstNet Authority cash comes from the FirstNet subscriber fees paid to AT&T.

AT&T is supposed to pay the agency a total of $18 billion from those fees over the course of the 25-year contract, which was inked in 2017. Much of that money will then be invested back into FirstNet.

“These aren't sites that are economically viable for AT&T,” Agnew said. “These are where public safety needs it.”

AT&T preempts commercial traffic across its network to favor FirstNet users, but can use excess FirstNet spectrum capacity for its commercial network under its contract. The new investments Agnew described include a physically separate network core for FirstNet, direct-to-device satellite service for FirstNet users via AST SpaceMobile, and FirstNet Fusion, a platform for making communications devices interoperable.

Cory Davis, vice president of Verizon Frontline, the carrier’s public safety offering, told lawmakers FirstNet Authority spending and infrastructure should be opened up to carriers other than AT&T. 

“If FirstNet Authority funds a tower,” he said, “all public safety providers should be able to take advantage of that tower, not just one commercial carrier.”

T-Mobile also offers a similar service aimed at public safety users, called T-Priority. Public safety groups aligned with the companies wrote a letter to lawmakers last week urging them to allow for more competition for FirstNet Authority spending.

“In very stark terms, the first responders today who have chosen other communications services that better meet their needs (which represent a majority of the market) see no direct benefit from Congress’s work creating the Authority or from the billions of dollars it is allowed to spend with minimal oversight,” Davis argued in his written testimony.

House reauthorization draft

Also on Wednesday, House lawmakers circulated draft text of legislation that would reauthorize FirstNet through September 2037. The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee is planning a hearing on the bill on Wednesday, Feb. 4.

The bill, led by Reps. Neal Dunn, F-Fla., and Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., would formally place the FirstNet Authority under Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, specifying that “Any action taken by the First Responder Network Authority shall be subject to the approval of the NTIA.”

It would also broaden the definition of FirstNet and of interoperability, and require the FirstNet Authority and AT&T to submit more reports to NTIA and Congress.

After hearing of a draft that included similar provisions, former FirstNet Authority board chairs wrote a letter urging the current board to push back the changes last week.

“We doubt that we need to mention the unacceptability of these changes to public safety,” they wrote. “To put the fate of public safety communications in the hands of Federal bureaucrats and political appointees would ensure that that public safety communications would return to pre-9/11 conditions, endangering the lives of our nation’s first responders and putting America’s communities at risk.”