WASHINGTON-If the chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee has his way, public safety will get money for interoperability from the sale of TV spectrum.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said he plans to offer an amendment to legislation to mandate a hard date to complete the transition to digital TV. There likely will be two bills passed by Congress dealing with the DTV transition, one that establishes a hard date and sets a timetable for auctioning the spectrum and one that deals with related issues not specifically tied to the budget. It is unclear which bill Upton plans to amend.
Upton testified at one of three congressional hearings Thursday on public-safety communications. All of the lawmakers were concerned about the fact that most of the time, differing public-safety agencies cannot communicate with each other. The problem was first highlighted in 1982 when an airplane crashed into the Potomac River.
“Congress should have been alerted in 1982 since it happened in their backyard,” complained Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), a former state policeman and constant champion of public-safety communications. “We wouldn’t have to wait for the 700 MHz spectrum sale.”
In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been encouraged widely by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
Congress is expected to consider a hard date for the DTV transition as part of the 2006 budget reconciliation process. Due to the focus on Hurricane Katrina, the budget reconciliation process, which usually occurs in September, was delayed by a month. Both the House and Senate Commerce Committees are expected to consider legislation in the next few weeks.
“We have been required to raise $4.8 billion by action of this committee,” said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. “The only possible way to do that is to pass the spectrum bill. We hope that will be part of the reconciliation process and become law. If it is not, there will be no funds for interoperability in the coming years.”
