The House Communications Subcommittee plans a May 25 hearing on...
The House Communications Subcommittee plans a May 25 hearing on creating an interoperable public safety network, the Commerce Committee said late Tuesday. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in Room 2322, Rayburn House Office Building. A markup in the…
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Senate Commerce Committee scheduled the same day may not happen because Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has a scheduling conflict, Hill and industry officials said. The committee never circulated an agenda for the markup, but it had been expected to include the public safety bill (S-911) by Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. While S-911 would give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, House Commerce Committee members have either supported a commercial auction or refused to take a position. While the Rockefeller bill may have GOP support from Hutchison, it may “still be a heavy lift to pass a bill on the Senate floor and enact it into law this Congress, given all the difficult technical, political, commercial, budgetary, and operational issues that must be resolved,” Stifel Nicolaus wrote investors Wednesday. “The planned AT&T/T-Mobile merger is a further complication, as it would eliminate T-Mobile as a spectrum buyer and lower AT&T’s need -- thus reducing auction projections.”