Public safety communications could come up at a Sept. 13 hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, a committee spokeswoman told us Friday. The hearing is about the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and will focus on what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done on homeland security, the spokeswoman said. “It is entirely possible that public safety communications will come up,” because committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., “cares deeply about that issue, and clearly that is an issue we have not mastered yet,” she said. Lieberman supports reallocating the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, and voiced disappointment that reallocation wasn’t included in the debt ceiling package (CD Aug 3 p13). “I think he probably would like to see public safety communications become a part of the overall legislative package” compiled by the joint select committee on deficit reduction, the committee spokeswoman said. Scheduled witnesses for the hearing are Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller and National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen. The hearing is to begin at 10 a.m. in Room 342, Dirksen Senate Office Building.
The FCC was expected Friday to answer House Commerce Committee questions about the commission’s December net neutrality order, agency and committee spokespeople said. The committee last month sought more details on how the commission developed the controversial rules (CD July 29 p15). The committee’s deadline was Friday, and an FCC spokesman said the agency planned to deliver the response on time. A committee spokeswoman said the commission was “cooperating and we expect a response today.” The agency’s letter was not public by our deadline.
Three Commerce Committee members will be on Congress’s joint select committee on deficit reduction. Late Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he appointed Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass. On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, selected House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., chose Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. The lawmakers’ presence on the committee may increase the chances that spectrum is part of final legislation, lobbyists and industry analysts said.
The FCC’s decision won’t be political on whether LightSquared poses an interference threat to GPS systems, Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a news conference after Tuesday’s open meeting. The agency is looking for an answer that will let both GPS and LightSquared thrive, and isn’t taking sides, agency officials said later at a briefing for reporters. The commission hasn’t decided whether more testing will be needed, and it isn’t setting a deadline to make a decision, the officials said. “There’s no timetable” for making a decision “other than we're trying to work as quickly as we can,” said Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan. At the officials’ briefing, held at FCC headquarters, the staffers spoke on the condition they not be identified by name and only would have agreed-upon comments attributed to them.
The man behind the FCC’s new website was appointed federal Chief Information Officer, the White House said Thursday. The Obama administration said it will appoint Steven VanRoekel to replace Vivek Kundra, the first CIO for the White House. VanRoekel, a former Microsoft executive, became the FCC managing director in 2009 but left this summer for a job at USAID. At the FCC, VanRoekel led the effort to improve FCC transparency. He also headed the reworking of FCC.gov, though not everyone was happy with the results (CD June 6 p2). “Steve is the right person to continue our efforts to make the government more efficient and more responsive to the America people,” said Jacob Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “There were many candidates interested in the position from inside and outside the government,” an administration official said. “VanRoekel stood out because, like Kundra, he is an innovator who understands the power of IT to help the government do more with less and is focused on delivering results in a timely way. Both are critical in the current budget environment.” TechAmerica praised the White House for quickly filling the vacancy left by Kundra’s departure. The Business Software Association also applauded the selection of VanRoekel.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., praised and slapped the FCC in the same statement about commission process. “The Commission has come a long way on process recently, but I am afraid it still has a ways to go,” the House Communications Subcommittee chairman said Wednesday. Of the FCC’s report this week on broadband speeds (CD Aug 3 p2), Walden said the FCC “selected a commercial vendor through open, competitive bids; used a transparent process to partner with stakeholders; and leveraged its technical expertise.” That resulted in “a path-breaking study helpful to all broadband consumers,” Walden said. “Just as important, the Commission recognized the limits of its work and declined to make conclusions where its data were too limited.” But Walden criticized FCC process leading to a controversial rule on program carriage (CD Aug 2 p10). “The FCC based these rules on a four-year old Notice of Proposed Rule Making that did not provide the text of a single proposed rule and did not clearly indicate a standstill rule was on the table,” Walden said. “Regardless of one’s position on the merits of the ruling, this needlessly opens the order to challenge and weakens the FCC’s credibility.” Walden’s subcommittee is considering FCC process reform legislation that would include a rule requiring the FCC to publish proposed rules before adopting them. Walden hasn’t yet introduced a bill, but circulated a draft in June. The FCC didn’t comment.
The House sponsors of last year’s Universal Service Fund overhaul bill support the FCC acting on the industry USF agreement brokered by USTelecom. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., no longer plans to move USF legislation, aide Brad Schweer told us Wednesday. He said that Terry “will now be encouraging the FCC to produce details that reflect suggestions” proposed by the industry group. Terry’s former co-sponsor Rick Boucher agreed that the commission should move forward on its own.
President Barack Obama signed debt limit legislation Tuesday afternoon. It gives Congress 14 calendar days to assign members to a joint select committee that this fall may look at spectrum and other areas to reduce the national deficit (CD Aug 2 p1). The Senate voted 74-26 to pass the deal Tuesday, after the House agreed 269-161 to the compromise Monday. Earlier, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., lamented that the debt limit deal didn’t include reallocation of the 700 MHz D-block to public safety. “I am disappointed that the debt compromise reached [Sunday] does not include provisions that will better allow first responders to communicate with each other and hope the special committee will consider it in its recommendations,” Lieberman said. “Despite this temporary setback, we still must fulfill the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation and pass legislation dedicating the D Block spectrum to first responders.” Public safety is “not going away” until it gets the D-block, said former Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials President Dick Mirgon in an interview Tuesday. The Alliance plans another public safety fly-in before Sept. 11, he said. The Public Safety Alliance was disappointed that Congress missed the “opportunity” presented by the debt limit bill, but the issue is “not dead” and the group is still optimistic about passing a bill before Sept. 11, Mirgon said. To meet that goal, the House Commerce Committee must set the public safety network as its highest priority and “make it happen,” he said. Passing public safety spectrum legislation by Sept. 11 is looking “less likely,” Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeff Silva wrote investors Tuesday. Passage later this year “is not necessarily out of the picture, though substantial challenges remain,” he said. “Even if the deficit-reduction super committee fails to include public safety/incentive auction language in legislation … it is still possible spectrum provisions could be woven into stopgap funding (continuing resolution) before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 in order to pay for extended unemployment benefits and/or other programs not included in the debt relief bill."
Get ready for a busy autumn on spectrum legislation after Sunday’s debt limit compromise by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama, Hill and industry officials said. The debt limit agreement had no spectrum provisions. Auctions may still be an attractive option for a joint select committee set up by the proposal to find $1.5 trillion in additional savings from 2012 t0 2021 by mid-November, the officials said Monday. The House was expected to vote Monday night on the debt compromise, with a Senate vote to follow.
Sen. Mark Kirk, D-Ill., offered a debt limit amendment to authorize voluntary incentive auctions and speed reallocation of government spectrum for commercial use. Under the proposal, the FCC could share proceeds from incentive auctions with the licensee who relinquishes spectrum. Kirk would direct $13 million of the revenue to the Spectrum Relocation Fund with the purpose of establishing a Federal Spectrum Reallocation Commission. The rest of the incentive auction revenue would go to the U.S. Treasury for deficit reduction. The new commission would have hearings on Commerce Department recommendations for federal spectrum to be reallocated and then make its own recommendations. The commission would be composed of nine members appointed by the president, and private sector representation would be required. The Kirk amendment also limits the FCC from placing conditions and other restrictions on auction licenses. “By creating a Commission similar to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to keep the Federal government from squatting on the spectrum, the Kirk amendment would provide the telecommunications industry with a certain path forward to reliably clear spectrum for wireless advancements,” he said. “The amendment would ensure that we maximize deficit reduction and retain our global leadership in technological innovation.” The bill “raises interesting possibilities and opportunities to free additional spectrum for commercial mobile use,” said CTIA Vice President Jot Carpenter. NAB is still reviewing the amendment, a spokesman said. A debt amendment earlier this week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also authorizes voluntary incentive auctions (CD July 27 p2).