The House Oversight Committee is considering whether to investigate an...

meetings around the time large donations were made by LightSquared executives, largely to Democrats. The committee received and is reviewing a request by Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, to look into the matter, said a spokeswoman for Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Turner, an Oversight Committee member and chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, at the subcommittee’s hearing Thursday urged Oversight to investigate (CD Sept 16 p1). Meanwhile, the House Commerce Committee “has not scheduled a hearing” about LightSquared, a spokeswoman said. “The FCC has recently put out a request for further testing,” she said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and ensure the FCC does its job to address interference concerns.” In a written statement late Thursday, LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja disputed allegations against LightSquared. “Any suggestion that LightSquared has run roughshod over the regulatory process is contradicted by the reality of eight long years spent gaining approvals,” he said. “It’s also ludicrous to suggest LightSquared’s success depends on political connections. This is a private company that has never taken one dollar in taxpayer money.” The LightSquared political action committee has $10,600, Ahuja said. Founder Philip Falcone “has given to candidates in both political parties in the last eight years, with two thirds of his contributions going to Republicans because of the founder’s free market philosophy,” Ahuja said. Ahuja himself “gave $30,400 in contributions to both parties in late 2010,” he said: “It’s difficult to charge that LightSquared has undue political influence when it was denied the opportunity to testify” at Thursday’s Armed Services Committee hearing “or even be allowed a one-on-one meeting” with the committee chairman before the hearing, “as the GPS industry was given.” The FCC won’t “permit LightSquared to begin commercial service without first resolving” GPS interference concerns, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in letters this month sent to various members of Congress. The letters were dated Sept. 8 and released Friday. “The current interference concerns are significant, and we have taken them very seriously,” Genachowski wrote. “The FCC has proceeded in an open, thorough, and fair way, and we will continue to operate in this manner.”