WASHINGTON-A Defense Department authorization bill headed to the Senate floor today would give Pentagon spectrum superior status over all government and nongovernment frequencies and force federal agencies and private-sector telecom licensees alike to pay to redesign or rebuild military radio systems if interference problems arise.
The Department of Defense authorization bill, unanimously approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 13, took industry lobbyists, federal agencies, telecom regulators and the White House by surprise last week. Once they learned of it, they expressed alarm.
“The administration is aware of this provision and has concerns,” said a spokesman for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
NTIA manages federal government spectrum and advises the president on telecom policy.
Government and industry officials said the provision on DOD spectrum, which is shared between federal agencies and private-sector licensees, has the potential to wreak havoc by effectively relegating to secondary status all nonmilitary communications users that share spectrum with the Pentagon.
On top of that, they said the measure-by legislative fiat-would mandate that nonmilitary spectrum users underwrite costs of constructing new communications facilities for the Pentagon if interference to DOD systems could not be corrected.
The Pentagon disavowed any responsibility for the controversial language in the DOD bill.
“It was not in the Defense package [sent to Congress]. We see it as an initiative of the Senate to address the allocation of spectrum that has affected the Defense Department in recent years,” said Susan Hansen, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
It is unclear what impact the DOD provision would have on land- and space-based wireless telecom systems. Spectrum sharing between government and nongovernment users is widespread throughout radio-frequency bands. But the precise frequencies and applications of military spectrum are kept deliberately vague to protect national security, though some policy makers are suspicious of that secrecy.
“The provision is written to ensure effective and responsible management of the spectrum and to protect national security and taxpayer investment in these DOD systems,” said Carter Cornick, a spokesman for Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who chairs of the Armed Services Committee.
Cornick added: “The committee is not reluctant to work with parties in this process. But there are some very important national security issues involved and substantial investment that needs to be protected.”
Cornick declined to say who inserted the contentious language into the DOD authorization bill.
The Pentagon has been seething ever since Congress in 1993 forced the federal government to transfer 235 megahertz to the Federal Communications Commission for commercial and private wireless licensing.
NTIA, which has been taking heat from the Pentagon over the reallocation, is more disappointed than angry about the 1993 legislation.
Larry Irving, head of NTIA, recently told the House telecommunications subcommittee the FCC has raised only $14 million from auctioning ex-government spectrum while the Pentagon has spent $1 billion relocating radio communications systems as a result of 1993 bill.
Spectrum pressures on DOD come at time when the Pentagon says the need for frequencies-for sophisticated, intelligent military radio applications-is even greater than during the Cold War.
In last year’s DOD authorization bill, a provision was included to require telecom carriers deploying former military spectrum to finance the relocation of Pentagon radio systems to other bands.
The DOD provision at issue-Prevention of Interference with Department of Defense Use of Frequency Spectrum-reads as follows:
(a) Compatibility with Defense systems-A non-Department of Defense entity operating a communications system, device, or apparatus or any portion of the frequency spectrum used by the Department of Defense, whether or not licensed to do so, shall ensure that the system, device, or apparatus is designed not to interfere with and not to receive interference from the communication systems that are operated by or for the Department of Defense on that portion of the frequency as of the date of the enactment of this Act.
(b) Costs of resign or rebuilding of military systems-If it is necessary for the Department of Defense to redesign or rebuild a communication system used by the department because of a violation of subsection (a) by a non-Department of Defense entity, that entity shall be liable to the United States for the costs incurred by the United States for the redesign or rebuilding of the Department of Defense system or, if the entity is a department or agency of the United States, shall transfer to the Department of Defense funds in the amount of such costs.
The provision would go into effect Oct. 1, 1999.
