DeMint Raises Deficit Concerns Prior to Public Safety Markup
The price of public safety legislation is a major concern for Senate Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim DeMint, R-S.C., going into Wednesday’s markup of S-911 in the Senate Commerce Committee. While the bill by Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, promises to send $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury, the bill’s cost could be an issue for other budget hawks as well, telecom industry lobbyists said. Meanwhile, public safety pushed back against a campaign to add language requiring interoperability across the 700 MHz band.
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"DeMint’s main concern is that this is a spending bill that directly increases the deficit by $2.8 billion and takes more than $14.5 billion off the table for deficit reduction,” a Senate aide said. DeMint supports cutting other government spending to pay for it, the aide said. DeMint also believes the private sector might make “more productive” use of the 700 MHz D-block than public safety, the aide said.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., wants to raise more revenue for the government by auctioning the 700 MHz D-block. The D-block is estimated to be worth about $2.8 billion, a Blunt spokeswoman said. “Senator Blunt has a long history of working on this issue, and his amendment will ensure that public safety officials have access to additional spectrum while raising revenues by auctioning the D Block and providing incentives” for public-private partnerships, she said.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a member of the “gang of six” on debt reduction, wants to make sure that the corporation set up to build and maintain the public safety network is run as efficiently as possible, a Senate aide said. He’s concerned because the corporation would not have any profit motivation under the bill’s current language, the aide said. Warner declined to comment after Tuesday’s Senate policy lunch when asked how he'd vote on the bill, saying only that he'll “work through the markup” and that he had some amendments.
While the Rockefeller legislation would send money to the U.S. Treasury, deficit reduction is not the bill’s primary focus. David Taylor, managing partner of Capitol Solutions, expects “several committee members to pay close attention to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the budgetary impact of this bill.” A committee aide said the CBO report is expected to be formally requested after Wednesday’s markup (CD June 7 p12).
In Congress, “there is an element that doesn’t like any federal spending,” said Creative Government lobbyist Lisa Sutherland, a former Republican staff director on the Senate Commerce Committee. “But I think overall, most members will agree that this is an important national priority, and first responders are worthy of the investment."
Rockefeller and Hutchison “recognize the current budget environment in which we are operating, which is why they propose to dedicate $10 billion or more of spectrum auction proceeds directly for deficit reduction as part of this legislation,” a Public Safety Alliance spokesman told us by email. “Additionally, a major focus of this legislation is to provide spectrum and funding to enable public safety to become more efficient and effective in their communications systems by migrating to broadband to allow immediate data and video capabilities and, in longer range, mission-critical voice; all on one system/network.” An amendment likely to be offered by Hutchison would direct public safety to give back old, unused spectrum after they move to the new network, the spokesman said.
Interoperability Push
Interoperability remains a key issue for others. Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Mark Begich, D-Alaska have an amendment to require broadband device interoperability across the entire 700 MHz band. In a letter Tuesday to Commerce Committee leaders, former 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton supported the Rockefeller bill but said they feared “that first responders utilizing the D block public safety network may not be able to communicate on other networks should the D block go down in an emergency.” Kean and Hamilton urged the committee “to examine how this type of interoperability can be achieved through this or other legislation.”
The Wicker/Begich amendment won support from the Rural Cellular Association and the Connect Public Safety Now Coalition, which includes RCA, Sprint Nextel and MetroPCS. “To ensure that smaller carriers will bid in future auctions, interoperability must be assured,” RCA President Steve Berry said in a letter Tuesday to Rockefeller. “Without this assurance, competitive carriers will be significantly less likely to put their capital resources at risk at auction because of the uncertainty about whether they will be able to use the spectrum if licenses are won.”
But public safety strongly opposes the Wicker/Begich amendment, according to a staff level analysis of the amendments by the public safety community. “Such a requirement may stop, stall or otherwise delay or permanently jeopardize the current and future developments of public safety broadband networks within [the] 700 [MHz] band,” the report said. Before any such mandate, the Alliance wants to see a study about whether requiring interoperability across the 700 MHz band is feasible, it said.