Senate Democrats Eye Other Vehicles for Spectrum Legislation
The Senate could take up spectrum in an omnibus bill this year if the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction fails to reach a deal including spectrum, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a public safety press conference Tuesday. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and other lawmakers said they would support that approach. Schumer and other members of Congress urged the super committee to include D-block reallocation in its recommendations.
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"We're going to fight for it to be in the omnibus” if the super committee fails to reach a deal or reaches a deal but doesn’t include spectrum, Schumer said. “We've got two opportunities this year” to give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, “and we're going to do everything we can to see that that happens.” Talking to us afterward, Schumer clarified: “There will be an omnibus and there will be a tax extenders bill, and again all of those will need revenues, and so those are other places we'll look” if the supercommittee fails, he said.
Rockefeller would “support anything that gets [D-block reallocation] into law,” he told us before senators’ policy lunches Tuesday. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said reallocation supporters would “use whatever vehicle is moving in the Senate” to pass the legislation. The Senate will also look at D-block legislation “as an up or down” vote, she said.
House and Senate lawmakers rallied Tuesday for D-block reallocation to be included in the super committee recommendations. Speaking at the press conference were: Schumer, Gillibrand, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., and House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.
Senators said they're in the dark on whether D-block is going to make the super committee’s proposal. “Since it brings in so much revenue, I imagine it’s something they're actively looking at,” Schumer told us. Gillibrand said she didn’t know if it was. Eshoo said: “One would assume that they would look at it,” given the amount of revenue that could be raised through auctions. Spectrum auctions were included in recent Democratic and GOP super committee proposals, but disagreements on other issues threaten success of the joint committee process. If the super committee fails, some industry lobbyists believe spectrum could be included in a deal to mitigate an automatic, across-the-board budget cut known as a sequester (CD Nov 15 p1).
Super committee member Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., “remain[s] hopeful that if there’s goodwill on both sides [and] an appropriate spirit of compromise on both sides, then people of goodwill can do what’s good for the country,” he told reporters Tuesday. The super committee is “working very, very hard,” said Kerry, who also chairs the Senate Communications Subcommittee. “A bunch of us were here all weekend [and] there are meetings still taking place.” All of the super committee members “understand” that time is running out, he said. Kerry declined to discuss specifics.
D-block, governance and unlicensed spectrum remain areas of disagreement between Democrats and Republicans in the House Communications Subcommittee, Eshoo said. Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who supports a D-block auction, promised Eshoo she could offer a reallocation amendment at markup, she said. Democrats will vote the spectrum bill out of committee even if the reallocation amendment loses because they have been given a “guarantee” that they may offer the amendment again on the House floor, Eshoo said. Eshoo is still trying to change Walden’s mind on D-block. “I believe in conversions,” she said. “I predict that by the time the bill is taken up and we vote on it, there will be enough votes to pass [D-block reallocation] through committee. And if I'm wrong, we will win it on the floor."
It’s “essential” that legislation provide spectrum for unlicensed use, Eshoo said. But Eshoo said she doesn’t know if she has the votes to get this into the GOP-led bill. More than 125 wireless and tech companies in a letter Tuesday urged super committee members to provide spectrum for unlicensed use. “Maintaining access to unlicensed spectrum in the TV bands is critical to innovators, consumers, businesses, and the U.S. economy,” they said. “Overturning the FCC’s bipartisan decision to designate this spectrum for Super Wi-Fi threatens tens of billions of dollars in additional investment that our economy desperately needs.”