Spectrum Vote Seen as Imminent on Capitol Hill

Congress could try to pass a payroll tax extension bill this week, because the House and Senate go on recess next week and don’t return until Feb. 27. The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the payroll tax extension without offsets. By statute, Congress must finish its work by month’s end. A broadcast lobbyist predicted the whole process would wrap by the end of the week, but a telecom industry lobbyist said there might not be enough time before recess. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has discussed keeping the Senate in Washington next week if necessary. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House should skip recess, too, if necessary.

Spectrum negotiators are “rounding third base” after making “real progress” in a meeting Monday night, a wireless industry lobbyist said. The talks included staff from the offices of Reid, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and for the chairmen of the House and Senate Commerce committees, the lobbyist said. While specific details on a deal are unclear, it looks like each side will have to make compromises, the lobbyist said. The two sides are mostly agreed, but there still appears to be some disagreement on governance of the public safety network, a broadcast lobbyist said. It appears the negotiators may reduce “by a hair” the $3 billion relocation fund sought by the House for broadcasters, the lobbyist said. But the current deal includes the House’s contour protections for incumbent broadcasters, the lobbyist said.

House Republicans floated a payroll tax proposal this week stripping offsets including spectrum auctions, a Boehner spokesman said Tuesday. However, under that plan, spectrum auctions would still be in play to pay for separate legislation on unemployment insurance and the so-called Medicare “doc fix,” the spokesman said. Removing the tax extension, those two programs would still cost enough for Congress to need spectrum auctions as a pay-for, a telecom lobbyist said. However, it’s unlikely that the Senate will go along with the House GOP plan to separate the payroll tax extension from unemployment and Medicare, a wireless lobbyist said. Those pieces are important to Democrats, so it’s more likely that Congress will pass one big package -- or nothing at all, the lobbyist said.

President Barack Obama signaled Tuesday that he wants one large package rather than the House approach. “Congress needs to extend that tax cut -- along with vital insurance lifelines for folks who've lost their jobs during this recession -- and they need to do it now, without drama and without delay,” Obama said. “Do it before it’s too late. And I will sign it right away."

House Democrats plan to support the GOP bill when the House votes Wednesday, Pelosi said Tuesday afternoon. “We continue to call upon the conferees to resolve the remaining issues -- extending unemployment benefits and ensuring seniors can continue to see their doctors under Medicare -- by February 17.” After the House passes its bill, the Senate will likely add the Medicare and unemployment items, telecom and broadcast lobbyists predicted. That move would necessitate the return of spectrum and other offsets to the bill, they said.

Lobbying of payroll tax conferees continued this week. “As Congress now negotiates a payroll tax bill, additional radio spectrum should be part of any final legislation,” T-Mobile USA CEO Phillip Humm wrote in an op-ed Tuesday for Politico. “Congress should support meaningful competition by preserving the Federal Communication Commission’s existing authority to hold spectrum auctions in a way that ensures a fair contest among bidders of all means.” Humm said big carriers are lobbying to strip that authority from the FCC. “This attempt to alter the FCC’s successful auction regime should be thwarted because it raises a genuine concern that the largest carriers are trying to tilt the rules in their favor,” he said. “Dangerously, if left competitively unchecked, there is nothing to bar them from hoarding large amounts of spectrum in future auctions."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., sent a letter Monday to conferees urging them to include the Senate spectrum bill, S-911. “I urge you to resist attempts to curtail funding because that would result in rural or mountainous regions being left out of the network,” Gillibrand said. “I encourage you to allow public safety to keep their narrowband spectrum until they are able to convert to the national interoperable broadband network. Lastly, the final language should protect taxpayers from impropriety by creating an independent, non-profit to build and maintain the network at a national level instead of relying on [a] mishmash of private companies with different goals and abilities.”

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley urged no giveback of 700 MHz narrowband spectrum in a Feb. 9 letter released Tuesday by the Public Safety Alliance. Under the House bill’s language, “Maryland would face a significant and detrimental budgetary impact,” O'Malley wrote. O'Malley also rejected the House’s governance plan. “Congress would yield the weighty responsibility of providing guidance, support, and processes for our police, firefighters, EMTs and other rescue workers to an unknown person or corporation, without a clear vetting process to ensure fair representation,” the governor said. “Unfortunately, through the 800 MHz rebranding efforts, a project that has been plagued with problems and is years behind schedule, we have seen the flaws of an Administrator model.” In addition, O'Malley said the bill should provide more than $6.5 billion for the public safety network.