Senate Spectrum Relocation Bill Fine-Tunes House Version
Senate legislation to streamline spectrum relocation for federal users makes minor tweaks to a House bill by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash. The bipartisan Senate bill (S-3490) was introduced late Tuesday by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. Both bills aim to establish a more orderly process for transitioning federal users off bands that would be reviewed by a three-member technical panel reporting to the FCC and NTIA.
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Most of the Warner-Wicker bill tracks the Inslee version that passed the House Commerce Committee. The Senate version seems to be aimed at cleaning up the underlying process, and it doesn’t refer specifically to any block or band, noted one lobbyist.
CTIA backs “both bills, recognizing, of course, that some compromise may be needed between here and the President’s desk,” said a CTIA spokeswoman. The Senate bill “will provide greater clarity and predictability in the spectrum relocation process,” said Jot Carpenter, CTIA government affairs vice president. “This will benefit both government and commercial users of spectrum since it builds on the framework established by Congress in the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act and lessons learned in the AWS-1 relocation process."
Warner’s bill adds a few provisions to the House version. Relocation plans would have to include reasonable costs for expanding capabilities of a relocation federal communications system. No one could be on the technical panel more than 18 months. Within 180 days of the law’s enactment, NTIA, consulting with the Office of Management & Budget and the Defense Department, would have to adopt confidentiality rules. And relocation plans would have to include “a presumption that commercial licensees shall be able to use eligible frequencies during the transition period in geographic areas where the Federal entity does not utilize those frequencies."
It also adjusts some language in the House bill. The Warner bill would give the NTIA 90 days for pre-auction release of approved relocation plans, up from 60 in the Inslee version. It removes language in the House version banning employees or consultants to federal or state agencies from joining the technical panel. It would give a dispute resolutions board 30 days to decide on conflicts, up from 28 in the House bill. And it provides more detail on federal entity relocation staff leads.
The Inslee bill had traveled alongside spectrum inventory legislation by House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., but in April the full House voted on only the Waxman bill, passing it 394-18. The Inslee bill meanwhile underwent revisions (CD April 13 p11), but an updated version hasn’t surfaced. An Inslee spokesman didn’t comment.
Meanwhile, Senate spectrum inventory legislation (S-649) is still held up by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Hill and industry officials. Coburn objected to the additional spending that would be required in that bill (CD April 22 p10).