WASHINGTON-Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) earlier this month asked President Clinton to help resolve a dispute over whether the Federal Communications Commission violated the 1997 budget law by licensing vacant frequencies to a paging carrier rather than a Southern California public-safety agency.
“Unless the president personally intervenes, law enforcement and emergency response activities throughout Los Angeles County are jeopardized by the FCC’s continuing failure to follow the law,” said Harman.
Harmon is said to be a contender for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination of electoral vote-rich California.
Last year’s budget bill authorized the FCC to grant waivers to public-safety agencies that demonstrate a need for unused frequencies.
FCC Chairman Bill Kennard recently wrote Harman, but did not shed much light on the matter because of rules that forbid him from discussing a restricted proceeding.
Dan Phythyon, chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, said the license request from South Bay Regional Communications Authority has a high priority. South Bay has been seeking the 400 MHz channels for the past three years.
“The FCC has been extraordinarily inattentive in the handling of South Bay’s petition,” Harman commented in the letter to Clinton.
“Worse, it appears that your agency violated its own rules, and potentially the law, when it awarded the requested frequencies to a paging company that did not even ask for them.”
