Outreach News - 6/8/11

Senate Commerce Committee Passed D Block Legislation This Morning

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation voted 21-4 this morning to move S. 911 the Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act to the full Senate for consideration. The bipartisan Rockefeller-Hutchison draft to reallocate the D block of spectrum to public safety was offered as an amendment to S. 911. Prior to its adoption, nearly 20 amendments were accepted en bloc out of the 80 that had been filed. Several amendments of interest include:

· Senator Warner (D-VA) to require an audit of current public safety spectrum use;

· Senator Klobuchar (D-MN) to require NHTSA to study of the cost to deploy Next Generation 911 systems and to require the FCC to make recommendations to Congress on laws and regulations necessary to promote NG 911 deployment;

· Rubio (R-FL) to require rural and urban representation on the board of directors for the corporation and to encourage public safety to enter into public-private partnerships with commercial providers to speed up deployment of the nationwide network and make it more cost effective;

· Senator Ayotte (R-NH) to prohibit the corporation that will govern the network from providing broadband services directly to the public; and

· Senator DeMint (R-SC) to revise the requirements for the corporation by requiring that the chairman of the board be a non-federal member and clarifying that a quorum for the board consist of six non-federal members.

It should also be noted that the revised draft of the Rockefeller-Hutchison bill includes language requested by the wireless industry to preempt state and local zoning authority over cell tower facilities.

Senator Blunt (R-MO) offered and withdrew an amendment to require the FCC to auction the D block and use the proceeds for deficit reduction, while encouraging the winner of a D block auction to work with public safety to allow their use of the spectrum.

In their opening statements, Senator Rockefeller and Senator Hutchison, chair and ranking member, discussed the imperative of passing this legislation to ensure that the final recommendation of the 9/11 Commission is fully addressed and to protect the country well into the future.