Spectrum Commons and Digital Dividends Act of 2003

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton); and I want to congratulate him on his hard work and the work product that we debate here on the House floor today.

I particularly also want to congratulate and thank my friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), the ranking member of the subcommittee, and my dear friend, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the dean of our House and the ranking Democrat on the full committee, for the extraordinary cooperation that has been shown on this and so many pieces of legislation that our Committee on Energy and Commerce brings to the floor in the course of a year.

This is one of those rare occasions where the administration, the Democrats and Republicans are all on the same page. We all agree this is of vital importance to the national economy, to the advancement of important wireless technologies for the good of our consumers in America and for the good of the lead that our Nation has played in world telecommunications technologies and commerce.

This is one area where we can immediately begin to assist the Nation's economy in recovering, where we can immediately begin to do something to advance the cause of third-generation wireless technologies, the video and data links that are going to provide new services, equipment and products, built in America, made by American hands and used by Americans to advance the progress of their lives and their social contact with one another.

This is a good day for America, because we have come together and realized that all the handicaps, all the internecine battles that may have been fought between agencies and those in the private sector who wanted spectrum to begin to develop these new technologies, all of these fights about who is going to pay the relocation costs to get the spectrum made available to have these things happen in our country are now being resolved by this relocation trust fund, a concept that says the trust fund is going to be there to make sure the relocation costs are taken care of so the FCC can move these new and exciting technologies to the forefront so Americans can enjoy them and our economy can grow again.

This is a good day, but I want to point out to Members how without this kind of legislation things go wrong. We passed a bill on this House floor, again with the extraordinary bipartisan support of our friends on the Democratic side of our committee in this House and with the President's support, called E911. E911 is a concept that says when a person makes an emergency 911 call, it would be good to know where they are calling from; and when they are using a mobile telephone it would be certainly extraordinarily helpful if the person who received the 911 call could identify the location of the caller, because often the call is made in times of distress, an accident on the highway, a mugging in a park, a call of distress made by a citizen who is lost or in trouble on the highway and needs assistance, someone who has been seriously injured and cannot get help, cannot leave the automobile.

One of my dearest friends a few years ago was in an automobile accident in the middle of the night. His car got flipped off the road, and he landed in one of those wonderful Louisiana marshes on the side of the road and no one could see him on the highway. He spent the night there, crushed, bleeding, broken, until a garbage truck driver spotted him from the highway the next morning.

He nearly died. He went through incredible, horrible operations that might have been avoided if only E911 were in place, where he could have picked up his mobile phone in that car, called 911, and immediately somebody could have known where he was and an

ambulance could have come to his rescue.

That is what E911 is all about. E911 is literally taking the ``search'' out of ``search and rescue'' and making our mobile systems work much more efficiently so we can, in that first incredible hour where we can save lives and save limbs on the highway, we get to the person who has been injured, who made the call, and we rescue them. In that important 20 minutes when someone's child is being abducted, or a house is being broken into and somebody sees it on the highway and calls from a mobile unit, we can immediately identify that location.

When those kind of things are happening in our society, when we pass a bill to facilitate this kind of technology, and we find out that the funds that are derived from the telecommunications companies to pay for the deployment of this service are being diverted by State and local governments to other purposes, even when 911 is not deployed in our communities, we should get upset.

So today I take this opportunity to congratulate the House on moving forward on this Spectrum Relocation Fund and emphasizing how important it is to get the ball rolling on these new technologies and also call upon our colleagues at the State and local level to stop raiding those E911 funds. They are set up, like this relocation fund, to get that technology deployed.

In the E911 case, it is not just to get a technology that is going to enrich our entertainment values or satisfy our need for information exchanges and mobile services. In E911 it is going to mean somebody's life. It may mean someone you love survives. It may mean my friend would not have had to go through all of those operations and not have had to spend the night broken and wounded in the swamps of Louisiana waiting for rescue. That is how important it is.

So I hope, and I know my friends on the other side agree with me on this, we need to urge our friends at the State and local governments to take a good example from what we are doing on this relocation fund and make sure the funds that have been allocated to deploy E911 are used to deploy E911, not to cover deficit problems at a State or local government or divert it to other purposes.

E911 funds ought to be used to deploy E911. Americans ought to demand it. Any State and local government that is diverting those funds ought to be put on notice today that you are taking a chance on somebody's life when you do not deploy those services.

Here today, this House, this Congress, this government says that if we have government spectrum that we can make available to important uses like this, we are going to set up a relocation fund to make sure nobody touches it.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman Nussle) of the Committee on the Budget, who helped make this suspension day possible for us by helping approve this bill. I want to thank the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), because the appropriators and budget chairmen have surrendered the right to control this money. This money is going to be in this fund to do what it was intended to do. They did the right thing when they approved this legislation.

I want to again thank the Defense Department and the head of our Committee on Armed Services, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), for working with us, because in so many cases the spectrum we are talking about is now under the control of the Defense Department. That is the spectrum that might make the new generation of wireless services available for Americans.

I want to thank all of them for working with us on this legislation. This is the best example of Democrats and Republicans, of government agencies, of the White House, of everybody agreeing that we can do something good for the American economy, great for telecom resurgence in this country, great for new consumer services, great for all who produce and develop and work for the technology companies that make these incredible products available to us in America and to people all over the world. This is a good day for this House and for this government and for this country, and I urge approval of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1320) to amend the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act to facilitate the reallocation of spectrum from governmental to commercial users, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1320, bipartisan legislation called the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act, otherwise known as the spectrum relocation trust fund bill. I introduced this legislation with my good friend, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns), along with the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Boucher), the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Bass), the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Pickering), the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Whitfield), and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).

Lately the subcommittee has been focused on the ailing telecommunications sector. Clearly the commercial wireless industry has not been spared from the wreckage, and we have been searching for ways to restore some hope. In my view what we need to do is get new, valuable spectrum into the hands of the commercial wireless carriers so that they can bring new, advanced wireless services to the consumer. That would be good for the wireless carriers, good for the equipment manufacturers, good for the consumer, and certainly great for the economy.

In the current context, the government already has identified the 1710 to 1755 megahertz band for relocation from the government to the private sector. This spectrum, mostly encumbered by DOD, is considered valuable ``beachfront property'' due to its suitability for commercial, mobile advanced wireless services like 3G. However, the road to relocating government entities to comparable spectrum is unpaved and filled with potholes. This bumpy road creates massive uncertainty in the process and depresses interest in participating in the auction in the first place.

H.R. 1320 would pave that road, establishing a spectrum relocation fund and procedures to ensure a timely, certain and privately yet fully funded relocation of Federal incumbents to comparable spectrum. H.R. 1320 requires the FCC to notify the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, NTIA, 18 months before conducting an auction of relocated spectrum. The purpose of that notification is so that the NTIA, after review by the Office of Management and Budget, can provide the Commission with an estimate of relocation costs for a particular band and a time line for relocation. That information is critical because under the legislation, an FCC auction of relocated spectrum is only valid if the auction yields proceeds of at least 110 percent of the estimated relocation costs.

The proceeds from auctions of eligible reallocated bands are deposited into a spectrum relocation fund which is an OMB-administered separate fund at the Department of Treasury. If any agency has any transferred money remaining when relocation is complete, the agency is required to transfer the money back to the spectrum relocation fund right away. Unexpected auction proceeds are then transferred to the Treasury no later than 8 years after the proceeds were initially deposited into the spectrum relocation fund. All the while, H.R. 1320 provides tight fiscal controls and congressional oversight, as it should, of the use of the spectrum relocation fund.

Finally, the bill exempts the telecommunications development fund, TDF, from the Federal Credit Reform Act, the practical application of which has prevented TDF from making loans without first obtaining budget authority on an annual basis. The provision in H.R. 1320 will significantly enhance

the TDF's ability to make loans to worthy development projects focused on rural and underserved areas. I appreciate my good friend, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns), for his attention to this issue. I am pleased that the provision in fact is incorporated into the bill.

As such, the bipartisan bill represents a win-win-win. That is good news for the private sector which craves certainty in the process and the consumer who craves the benefits which new services enabled by additional spectrum will afford them. That is good news for government agencies who know that they will be made whole when they relocate to comparable spectrum and the taxpayer who will not have to pay a dime to relocate government agencies and will know that there is tight fiscal oversight in that regard. As I indicated, all of this is great news for the economy.

I should also add that we worked very closely with the administration to get where we are today and that the bill enjoys the administration's support, including the Department of Defense, the OMB and NTIA. I want to especially thank Assistant Secretary of Commerce Nancy Victory and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Stephen Price, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), my good friend from the great State of Michigan, ranking member (Mr. Dingell), and certainly the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), in addition to the majority and minority staff for their efforts to get us where we are today. I urge an ``aye'' vote on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record three statements in support of this legislation: the first by the administration in their statement of administration policy; second, a strong letter of support by the Chamber of Commerce; and, third, a letter of strong support by the CTIA.

Statement of Administration Policy

(ThIs statement has been coordinated by OMB with the

concerned agencies.)

The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R.

1320, which would create a spectrum relocation fund. The

Administration believes that the fund will serve as

an important spectrum management tool to streamline the

process for reimbursing government users, facilitate their

relocation to comparable spectrum, and provide greater

certainty to auction bidders and incumbents. This legislation

will also expedite the opening of spectrum to commercial use

for new services and technologies for consumers.

The Administration is pleased that H.R. 1320 closely tracks

the Administration's proposal to create a spectrum relocation

fund. The Administration urges quick action by the Congress

to establish a spectrum relocation fund to make the spectrum

management process more effective and efficient.

pay-as-you-go scoring

H.R. 1320 would affect direct spending. The Budget

Enforcement Act's pay-as-you-go requirements and

discretionary spending caps expired on September 30, 2002.

The Administration supports the extension of these budget

enforcement mechanisms in a manner that ensures fiscal

discipline and is consistent with the President's budget.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. It is good legislation, a win-win. I look forward to getting it to the President's desk and working with the other body as well to make sure this bill happens.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to begin by first thanking my good and great friend, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), for that wonderful opening statement and to the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), to the great Member of Congress from the State of Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the dean of the entire House of Representatives, for his wonderful work on this legislation, and to all the Members who participated in the formulation of this excellent piece of legislation. I want to thank all of them for their help in putting this bill together today.

The goal of this legislation is to establish a policy mechanism that may assist the Federal Government in reallocating airwave frequencies from the Federal Government to the Federal Communications Commission. Ensuring the best use of such frequencies for the public is a vital function of both the National Telecommunications Information Agency and the Federal Communications Commission. The bill we bring to the House floor this morning proposes the creation of a fund derived from FCC auction revenue to pay the military and other Federal users for moving out of particular bands of frequencies. Establishing such a mechanism when and if the FCC chooses to license certain government frequencies through auctions may bring greater certainty to the process and may also speed along the availability of certain frequencies. In addition, one issue that we will need to continue to focus on is the necessity of ensuring that the money raised is spent wisely and with adequate oversight. We have returned to an era of Federal budget deficits for as far as the eye can see and, as a result, this is a very important issue.

The bill does contain improved oversight and reporting provisions to guard against cost overruns by Federal entities that seek to use money in the Spectrum Relocation Fund, but this process will likely need ongoing review as the bill is implemented.

I want to commend the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), and the gentleman from Louisiana (Chairman Tauzin) for their work in this area.

Second, it is important to note that today's bill puts in place a new policy for Federal spectrum reallocations. It does so through establishing a Federal fund derived from auction proceeds to compensate the Federal users for the costs associated with moving out of their current frequencies.

One issue that arose during the committee consideration of this bill is that this new policy is only operative in circumstances when an auction actually occurs. I think it is important to recognize that in the future certain frequencies utilized by Federal entities may be reallocated by the Federal Communications Commission, yet not licensed through auctions. They may be for public safety, noncommercial uses, shared frequencies, or unlicensed use such as the so-called WiFi technologies. In other words, in order to ensure the highest and best use of such frequencies for the public, the FCC may seek to allocate or assign such frequencies without auctions.

In recent years it has become evident that one of the telecommunications sector's economic bright spots has been unlicensed applications such at WiFi. Ensuring that we have a policy in place to permit the Federal Communications Commission to continue to promote unlicensed spectrum is important. But in addition, retaining the historic flexibility for the Federal Communications Commission to allocate frequencies for both commercial and noncommercial use is something we should safeguard, even as we put in place a new policy to compensate Federal users for the costs of moving out.

We do not want the absence of an articulated policy for unlicensed use, shared use, public safety use, or noncommercial use to be construed as compelling the FCC to use auctions whenever it intends to move a Federal user to another frequency band.

I am pleased that the legislation contains a provision that I authored in this policy area. First, the provision safeguards the FCC's historic authority to allocate frequencies as the public interest is deemed to be best served. Second, it also directs the National Telecommunications Information Agency to develop reports on various policy options to compensate Federal entities for relocation costs when such entities' frequencies are allocated by the commission for unlicensed public safety, shared or noncommercial use.

Finally, I believe that when the Federal Communications Commission does decide to proceed with auctions as a means of granting licenses for use of the public's airwaves the public deserves to reap the benefits of the sale of licenses to its airwaves. These benefits should not only manifest themselves in the offering of new commercial services or the temporary infusion of cash into the Federal Treasury as under current law.

I have proposed in H.R. 1396 that the public should also enjoy the dividends that can be reaped by reinvesting auction money into a Digital Dividends trust fund. This fund would generate interest, and that interest could be used in the form of grants to promote educational technology projects, public safety telecommunications initiatives, software R&D, teacher training, and digitizing for online access the important cultural assets held in our Nation's libraries and museums, among other initiatives.

Investing surplus auction revenues in this manner is a wise investment. It supports the educational infrastructure of our country. It will help to better prepare our citizens for an information-rich, knowledge-based economy. An educated citizenry is indispensable to our democracy. Educating citizens so that they possess the necessary digital skill set that they will need in order to compete in a modern global economy will make us a more secure, more productive country for the generations to come.

Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Chairman Tauzin), the gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Upton), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), and all of the Members who have helped to construct this very progressive legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns), the principal cosponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I would add to that litany of saints which was just uttered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns). I would also like to add the names of David Schooler, who is counsel to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and the Democrats on the committee, and to Colin Crowell on my staff, who participated in the drafting of this legislation right from its inception.

During the course of the actual drafting of the bill, his first son Gavin was born, while balancing those two important responsibilities. Both of them have come out extremely well over the last month. I think our country for the future is much brighter because of the work of Colin for our Nation over this past year.

I hope that the other Members of this great Chamber deem fit to pass this important legislation today, which will help us become stronger economically while not undermining the defense of our Nation at all.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 1320, the ``Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act,'' to ensure that consumers benefit from the tremendous technological advances in commercial wireless services.

I had several concerns when this bill was first introduced, and I commend Chairmen Tauzin and Upton for working with me to address my concerns.

It is important that the Committee on Energy and Commerce, whenever it creates a direct funding mechanism to achieve a policy goal, ensure that both the Committee and the congress maintain full and effective oversight abilities. I am comfortable that the substitute before us achieves that goal.

First, it directs that both the Comptroller General and the Energy and Commerce and Appropriations Committees receive reports on the preliminary and final cost estimates for all relocations. The Committees and the General Accounting Office (GAO) will also receive reports on an annual basis regarding adherence to cost estimates and proposed timelines. These materials, taken together, will permit the Congress to closely monitor the spending inclinations of the Department of Defense and other agencies as they relocate to new spectrum.

Also--this is particularly important--if an agency ever exceeds its spending estimates by 10 percent, it has to justify that increase both to the relevant Committees and to the GAO. In addition, the government agency in question is prohibited from spending the additional request for 45 days while the Congress examines the reason for the cost overrun.

Thesxe provisions are not perfect, but they represent a good faith effort on the part of the Energy and Commerce leadership to exercise effective oversight over the relocation process. I am pleased that Chairman Tauzin, Subcommittee Chairman Upton, Subcommittee Ranking Member Markey and I will be working with the GAO throughout the process to ensure that its work is thorough and its oversight is effective.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to passing this legislation and to bringing the next generation of wireless services to America's consumers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1320, and I would like to thank Chairman Upton, Ranking Member Markey, Chairman Tauzin, and Ranking Member Dingell, the dean of the House, for the opportunity to work with them on this beneficial legislation, of which I am proud to be an original cosponsor.

I am pleased that our House leadership has moved this bill to the floor in a timely manner. This is good, consensus legislation.

The Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act is a reasonable, effective effort to allow American consumers to more quickly benefit from the ambitious rollout of wireless technologies that America's wireless industry is planning in the near future.

By freeing up federal spectrum for the market, consumers who are coming to depend on mobile communications will greatly benefit.

Wireless technology increases economic efficiency and productivity, increases convenience and connectivity for individuals and families, and is ready to be a major growth sector of the technology economy.

I would like to point out some key aspects of this bill that make it deserving of support by all in this House. Number 1 is filling national security needs.

This bill has a sustainable and predictable funding mechanism to ensure DOD does not have to cut corners with their communications.

Robust communications are especially critical to our modern military's ability to get its job done, and DOD, and all other federal agencies should be fully, 100 percent compensated for spectrum relocation costs.

Number two is the Congressional oversight of the spectrum auction and relocation process to be led by the Commerce Committee and the GAO.

While the Department of Defense may be the most essential federal agency and one with a great tradition of heroism and honor--waste, fraud, and abuse do occur there. That is no particular criticism of DOD, just the federal government in general.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to suspend the rules and pass this consensus legislation.