House Science Seeks PCAST Report on Protecting Scientists' Spectrum Use
House Science Committee leaders asked the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to “prepare a report on strategies for protecting and enabling spectrum access and quality for science and operational applications” amid the push for NTIA to finalize…
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a national spectrum strategy (see 2111010061). “As demand for spectrum for mobile applications has increased drastically in recent years, spectrum-dependent scientific fields and operational functions such as weather forecasting are facing increasing threats,” said House Science Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, and ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., in a letter to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Eric Lander released Monday. Lander co-chairs PCAST. The proposed report “should influence” the federal government’s “position at international proceedings, such as the World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRCs), and in domestic proceedings” at the FCC. “A clear message from PCAST would also empower” OSTP and NTIA “to advocate for science spectrum needs more effectively,” the House Science leaders said. They recommended PCAST consider what “additional research is needed” to “strengthen our ability to detect and predict the conditions under which spectrum applications may be harmed by interference” and to “improve processes, technologies, and techniques to mitigate interference with both passive and active sensing.” The lawmakers also want PCAST to examine whether “the concerns of science spectrum users, including federal science and operational agencies” are “being acknowledged, and accommodated effectively in the federal spectrum management process.” They want to know if there’s “adequate agreement among federal agencies, the scientific community, and industry on how technical studies to evaluate potential spectrum interference should be conducted … such that ‘apples-to-apples’ analysis supports decision-making.” House Science has frequently criticized FCC spectrum policy decisions in recent years, including during a July hearing (see 2107200060). Johnson and Lucas wrote FCC commissioners in August to raise concerns about the commission’s rules governing of-of-band emission limits for the 24 GHz band amid worries about interference risks to weather data collected by federal satellites in the adjacent 23.8 GHz band. OSTP didn’t comment.