House Homeland Security Unveils Bipartisan Bill to Reallocate D-Block
A push to give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety gained steam Thursday. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., introduced bipartisan legislation (HR-607) with Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and five others. President Barack Obama called for D-block reallocation in a speech the same day. (See separate report in this issue.) But key members of the House Commerce Committee said they support a commercial D-block auction.
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Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, plans to introduce her own public safety bill (CD Jan 31 p2) in “the next week or so,” a Senate Commerce Committee GOP staffer said Thursday. The draft bill also would give the D-block to public safety. The bill is a comprehensive spectrum bill that also aims to increase available commercial spectrum, encourage more efficient use of government spectrum and reduce the national deficit, the staffer said.
The King bill would assign a single licensee for the full 20 MHz of public safety broadband spectrum. The bill pays for the public safety network by pairing spectrum bands at 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz and putting them up for auction. The King bill doesn’t authorize voluntary incentive auctions, as in the relocation bill by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
"Allocation of the D Block to public safety will ensure that our Nation’s first responders have sufficient spectrum to develop a wireless broadband network,” King said in a written statement. “Public safety officials must have access to new technologies to perform increasingly complex duties. These technologies must have adequate and dedicated spectrum that is managed and controlled by public safety to ensure that the technologies will be more secure and reliable than those in commercial systems."
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., supports a commercial auction of the D-block, the House Communications Subcommittee chairman told reporters. “My view is it’s been proposed to be auctioned, it’s a $3 billion asset [and] it’s already been scored,” he said. “And so it becomes a little problematic if suddenly that asset’s given away.” Walden knows that King disagrees, he said. But the two Republicans share “the concern about the need to make sure that public safety has an interoperable network,” he said. “The question is how do we pay for that and what spectrum do we have now, how is that being used [and] where are the chokepoints?"
"We all share the same goal of creating a nationwide, interoperable public safety network,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich. The committee last year voiced bipartisan support for a D-block auction as recommended in the National Broadband Plan, he said in a written statement. “I hope the President’s upcoming budget will shed light on how these proposals will produce the revenue he is proposing to spend and still achieve our public safety, wireless broadband, and deficit reduction priorities. When it comes to broadband, the answer is not simply more federal dollars with federal strings attached.”
Meanwhile, Rockefeller applauded Obama’s support Thursday for D-block reallocation. “The best way to honor the bravery of our police, firefighters, and first responders is to provide them with vital and necessary communications resources,” he said. AT&T applauded the King bill. “Reallocating the D-block spectrum to public safety is the only option that will ensure that both first responders and consumers have state-of-the-art wireless broadband communications during times of need,” said Executive Vice President Tim McKone.
Hutchison Bill Revealed
The Hutchison bill, still being drafted, would reallocate the D-block to public safety, Commerce GOP staff said. The bill would provide at least $20 billion in federal money through NTIA to build the network -- $4 billion in grants for rural or high-cost areas and $16 billion to $28 billion in interest-free loans for network deployment nationally. NTIA could immediately borrow at least half of the $6 billion needed to fund the grant and loan programs. The $6 billion would be offset by auctions authorized in the bill.
The comprehensive spectrum bill would also direct the FCC to auction 90 MHz of spectrum in two years, including reallocation of 50 MHz of government spectrum, Commerce GOP staff said. It would require auction of the 1675-1710 MHz spectrum, the 1755-1780 MHz band, the AWS-2 H-block and J-block, and the AWS-3 band. It would also reallocate and auction for commercial use the 3550-3650 MHz band identified by NTIA. The bill would authorize voluntary incentive auctions by the FCC, Commerce GOP staff said. It would authorize 120 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use. And it would extend the FCC’s spectrum authority until 2018.
The bill includes several proposals to encourage spectrum sharing by federal agencies, including financial incentives for sharing, Commerce GOP staff said. And it would direct NTIA to identify 100 MHz of federal spectrum to share with nonfederal bodies for wireless broadband.
The bill would order a spectrum inventory by NTIA and the FCC and streamline the spectrum relocation process. And the bill would convert certain wireless licenses to a flexible use license, direct the FCC to update experimental license rules, and change lower tower siting procedures to lower deployment costs.