House Armed Services Eyes Anti-Ligado NDAA Tweaks; Inhofe Preps Bill
The House Armed Services Committee is eyeing potential legislative language to insert into the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act to intervene against the FCC’s approval of Ligado’s L-band plan during a coming full committee markup after deciding against pursuing related amendments at the subcommittee level, committee aides told reporters. The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced its NDAA version earlier this month with language to bar DOD from using its funding to comply with the FCC’s Ligado order without further review by the secretary of defense and the National Academies of Science and Engineering (see 2006110026).
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Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., is readying the Ligado-focused Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary (Retain) for GPS and Satellite Communications Act for filing as soon as this week, communications lobbyists said. The bill would require Ligado to pay for the costs of any GPS user whose operations are hurt by the company’s L-band use, lobbyists said. Inhofe wants to sign on a substantial number of co-sponsors for the measure before he files it, lobbyists said.
“GPS and satellite communications doesn’t only impact our military -- we rely on it for so much of our day to day lives, which is why we need to take steps to protect not just DoD from the harmful decision, but all agencies, private entities and consumers too,” Inhofe said in a statement. “When Ligado’s effort to repurpose spectrum causes interference in the infrastructure of those systems, as tests have shown it will, consumers and taxpayers can’t afford the burden of updating countless systems. That cost should only be borne by the responsible party: Ligado. With all the money they are paying their lobbyists, they should be prepared to pay this.”
Inhofe “doesn’t need to worry about interference from Ligado; the spectrum experts at the DOD, the NTIA and the FCC all agree on that,” a company spokesperson emailed. “Ligado will honor each and every license condition imposed on it by the FCC.” The proposed legislation “could slow down 5G and cost jobs, but it won’t change the fact that DOD is using its influence to take spectrum that does not belong to it,” the spokesperson said.
House Armed Services staff is “looking at a couple narrow possibilities” for addressing Ligado via NDAA amendments, a Democratic committee aide said during a Friday conference call with reporters. There will be a more "fulsome discussion" of the issue at the full House Armed Services level, a GOP aide said. The committee believes the GPS implications of the Ligado plan are “100% within” its jurisdiction, despite others’ claims, the aide said. The House Communications Subcommittee asserted its authority during a briefing last week seen as aimed at warning off House Armed Services from also addressing Ligado in NDAA (see 2006190061).