Congress is “really close” to passing spectrum legislation as part...

said. Spectrum is likely to be part of House-Senate conference negotiations over the payroll tax cut legislation, Chopra said. The CTO “is very, very, very hopeful that we will finish the job on spectrum and do so in short order,” he said. Chopra sees “bipartisan agreement” on voluntary incentive auctions, he said. Chopra supported FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in seeking flexibility for the commission to shape auction rules, because the FCC is the expert agency on spectrum, he said. There’s growing consensus to provide about $7 billion for the public safety network, he said. President Barack Obama “in no way wants a public safety system that doesn’t take advantage of” the latest communications technology, Chopra said. The White House prefers the Senate’s approach to spectrum legislation, Chopra said. S-911, agreed to by members of both parties in the Senate Commerce Committee, tackled the White House’s major goals “with absolute beauty,” Chopra said. “Even on the House side,” which has its own proposal, “there’s a lot of agreement, just a lot of tactical maneuvering,” he said. Chopra said he has read the upcoming White House privacy report but it’s still being evaluated by agencies. The report “calls on the industry to promote voluntary industry-consensus standards activities that can be enforceable,” he said. On the continuing debate over online copyright legislation, Chopra said the White House does not support censorship but believes there should be tools to combat Internet piracy.