House Lawmakers Plan To Debate New 'Spectrum Pipeline Act' Draft
House lawmakers unveiled a discussion draft Monday of legislation called the Spectrum Pipeline Act, four pages of legislative text that wireless industry observers told us is a good start but will need more substance. That measure and the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act (S-887/HR-1641) are slated for discussion Wednesday during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on improving federal spectrum systems, scheduled for the same morning as a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on wireless broadband deployment barriers.
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The Pipeline discussion draft “directs the FCC to produce a series of reports for the Commerce committees of the House and Senate,” said the GOP memo for the House hearing, also released Monday. “The reports, which are designed to mimic the FCC’s existing processes in preparation for an auction, will include draft service and auction rules for an auction, relocation plans for incumbent Federal users in the specified frequencies, and specific timelines for the proposed auctions. In addition, the reports will discuss the balance between licensed and unlicensed spectrum. The discussion draft is intended to provide for an ongoing discussion of appropriate frequencies for action and a statutory framework for thoughtful deliberation between the agencies, the [FCC], and the Congress.”
The legislative draft text leaves blank spaces on its third page where it would specify bands of frequencies to be addressed. It also leaves blank the deadlines that Congress would set for the FCC in producing reports, if the measure were enacted. A GOP committee aide said it’s a staff draft for now. The draft and memo don't name the offices that wrote the draft, but it’s a bipartisan development, the aide and another House staffer assured us.
“The version right now leaves all the important things out -- meaning what spectrum and when,” said Roger Entner, an analyst for Recon Analytics who has done research for CTIA. “It will help to establish the will to do this.” Entner predicted the text would evolve with congressional hearings, but “I think the substance will not change,” he said.
The Pipeline Act draft is a good start but stops short of being a comprehensive solution, agreed a wireless industry lobbyist, saying it’s nice to see actual legislation. “The key to passage of anything is a bipartisan bicameral agreement on the need to free up federal spectrum while at the same time raising meaningful federal revenue.”
“That’s kind of the key,” said Armand Musey, president of Summit Ridge Group, of the discussion draft’s blank spaces. “This could be any one of the government frequencies.”
Musey suspects Hill staffers didn’t assemble the draft in a vacuum and that the momentum of any legislative effort may depend on the behind-the-scenes negotiating among staffers on which frequencies they hope to target. Musey also acknowledged that the Congressional Budget Office scoring may be a factor that “totally depends” on how much affected government agencies accept the scoring methods as credible. Spectrum is “particularly hard to value in the context of a government agency,” he said. “It does seem like the government is getting increasingly serious.”
Industry officials say carriers have been working with Congress on what bands could be auctioned off after the FCC’s broadcast TV incentive auction scheduled to happen in early 2016. One commonly discussed band is 1780-1850 MHz (see 1509150057). The Federal Spectrum Incentive Act is a bipartisan bill that would allow federal agencies to recoup a portion of the profits from sale of any spectrum they give up, but several industry observers and lobbyists told us earlier this year that the 1 percent figure in the bill may be too low to truly incent federal agencies to relinquish spectrum (see 1504240061). Lobbyists affiliated with the wireless industry demand for spectrum didn’t see the size of the figure as a problem because they believe its size could evolve with additional congressional hearings and debate, a sentiment backed by its House sponsors.
The House hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday in 2322 Rayburn. Witnesses include, according to the GOP memo, Philip Berenbroick, government affairs counsel for Public Knowledge; Jeff Reed, Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee member and founder of the research group Wireless@Virginia Tech, where he's a professor; and Dennis Roberson, a former Motorola chief technology officer who’s now vice provost and computer science research professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Senate hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in 253 Russell, with witnesses including PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein; NTIA Associate Administrator Douglas Kinkoph; Gary Resnick, mayor of Wilton Manors, Florida; Cory Reed, senior vice president at Deere & Company; and Bruce Morrison, a vice president at Ericsson. Senate Commerce has outlined a goal for eventual spectrum legislation, and this is its second hearing on that broader topic.