Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced a bill Thursday to require the FCC to pair for commercial auction the 1755-1780 MHz band with the 2155-2180 MHz band. Stearns said the Efficient Use of Government Spectrum Act would bring more spectrum to the commercial market and raise $12 billion for the U.S. Treasury while offering the Defense Department protections for reallocation. Wireless groups hailed the bill, which they called an important step towards alleviating the spectrum crunch and bolstering the economy. The 1755 MHz band has long been a top target of carriers.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., appointed eight subcommittee members to a bipartisan federal spectrum working group Wednesday. Walden said the group is tasked with identifying the most efficient way to use government spectrum. “As the largest single spectrum user, the federal government could save taxpayers money and provide its own agencies better technology tools while simultaneously making more frequencies available to meet America’s exploding demand for mobile broadband services,” he said. Walden and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., will be ex-officio members of the working group. The group will be co-chaired by Reps. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and includes Reps. John Shimkus, R-Ill., Mike Rogers, R-Mich., Steve Scalise, R-La., Diana DeGette, D-Colo., John Barrow, D-Ga., and Donna Christensen and Del. D-Virgin Islands. CTIA commended the announcement and said it would work with the group to identify additional spectrum that can be brought to the commercial market.
The cybersecurity working group of the House Communications Subcommittee aims to finish its work by the end of the month or early April, multiple Capitol Hill officials said. The group has held several staff-level meetings this month with stakeholders from across the tech sector and, at minimum, plans to release recommendations for the subcommittee, Hill and telecom industry officials said. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., has said he formed the group to make recommendations on several cyberissues including Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), securing the supply chain and a voluntary code of conduct and best practices for network operators.
Network operators have enough incentive to protect networks from cyber attacks, major telecom industry officials said Wednesday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing. But legislators should remove barriers to information sharing, promote cybersecurity education and invest in research and development, they said. The witnesses said new mandates are unnecessary and potentially burdensome. “We don’t know what it is that you should be telling us to be doing,” said AT&T Chief Security Officer Edward Amoroso.
The next in a series of cybersecurity hearings by the House Communications Subcommittee is scheduled for March 7, the Commerce Committee said Wednesday. The hearing is at 10 a.m. in Room 2123, Rayburn Building. Also, Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., appointed six of his members to serve on a bipartisan Cybersecurity Working Group: Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., Doris Matsui, D-Calif., Bob Latta, R-Ohio, Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. Terry and Eshoo will lead the group and Walden will be an ex-officio member. “The threat [of cyberattacks] is real and the economic impact on businesses, especially smaller companies, is serious,” Walden said. “This threat is not a partisan issue."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., “compromised” on governance in negotiations with the House on spectrum legislation, the Senate Commerce Committee chairman said Tuesday. Rockefeller agreed to put NTIA in charge of deploying the public safety network, Rockefeller told reporters after Democratic senators’ weekly policy lunch. Rockefeller’s original spectrum bill, S-911, proposed setting up a federal entity called the Public Safety Broadband Network Corp. to govern the network. The corporation would have included federal, state, local, tribal, public safety and private sector members. Meanwhile, the House GOP bill had proposed a state-by-state approach involving a third-party administrator. The House-Senate conference on the payroll tax cut extension is expected to include spectrum auctions as a pay-for provision in the bill due by month’s end. Staffers from the House and Senate Commerce committees are separately negotiating the spectrum piece (CD Feb 7 p9). While not a conferee, Rockefeller has signaled he’s willing to compromise on the spectrum bill as long as the end result is a national network for public safety, a Commerce Committee spokesperson said. The House Commerce Committee didn’t respond to a request for comment. Committee Democrat Doris Matsui of California said she hopes “that any final deal will have a strong governance structure in place.” Matsui didn’t comment specifically on the NTIA approach cited by Rockefeller, but warned that “the lack of a strong governance structure could threaten the achievability of a nationwide public safety network.”
The FCC approved an order Tuesday rewriting the rules for the Universal Service Fund Lifeline program. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn found aspects of the order lacking, but both voted to approve the order as a whole. McDowell dissented in part and concurred in part. Clyburn issued a concurrence on one part of the order.
Claiming two-party collegiality still exists in tech politics, the GOP and Democratic co-chairs of the High Tech Caucus said they planned to sit together at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. “We are simply reinforcing that even in a highly polarized political environment we intend to put the issues most important to America’s innovators ahead of any political agenda,” said co-Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas. Democratic co-Chair Doris Matsui of California said, “The High Tech Caucus brings together leaders on technology issues from both sides of the aisle, and proves that these issues can, and must, transcend politics.”
Civil rights and “digital divide” erasure advocates gave mixed reviews to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s Lifeline reform proposals Monday. As expected (CD Jan 9 p7), Genachowski promised what he called “cost controls” and “a budget” for Lifeline and Link-Up, with most of his efforts focused on rooting out some 200,000 duplicate claims and building a database to prevent future “waste.” The draft order will circulate Tuesday, Genachowski said.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, may add spectrum auction authority to a larger spending package that’s to be voted on this week on the House floor, a Boehner spokesman told us Friday. Boehner is discussing using spectrum as a “pay-for” for a payroll tax extension, the yearly pay correction for doctors serving Medicare patients and other items in the package, the spokesman said. If the spectrum proposal goes straight to the floor, it would skip a vote by the full Commerce Committee that had also been expected for this week. The House Communications Subcommittee approved draft spectrum legislation on Thursday (CD Dec 2 p1) amid objections by Democrats.