WASHINGTON-As the Bush administration shifts gears from overseas battles to domestic issues and the president’s 2004 re-election bid, key personnel changes and political shakeups could delay or derail timely action on major spectrum management and wireless policy initiatives.
Last week, the Commerce Department said Michael Gallagher, deputy head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the key government go-between on contentious spectrum issues pitting the wireless industry against the Department of Defense, will become an adviser to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans.
Commerce Department spokeswoman Lisa Camooso said Gallagher’s new title is deputy chief of staff for policy and counselor to Evans. Gallagher is credited with doing much of the heavy policy lifting at NTIA to advance third-generation mobile-phone, ultra-wideband and Wi-Fi initiatives.
Gallagher made his mark at NTIA by acting as an honest broker who helped turn nasty wireless disputes between industry and DoD into policies delicately balancing national security and economic interests.
Jack Zinman, a special adviser to NTIA chief Nancy Victory, is said to be a candidate to replace Gallagher. Gallagher is taking over for Mike Meece, who is leaving the Commerce Department for the White House, where he will be special assistant to the president and deputy director of public liaison.
Gallagher’s surprise move raises questions about Victory’s future at NTIA. Victory and Gallagher had strained relations that have only worsened in recent months, according to industry and government sources. Victory is the target of an ethics probe by the Commerce Department’s inspector general.
The Bush administration has proposed a Commerce Department reorganization that would roll NTIA into the Technology Administration. While lawmakers initially expressed skepticism about the plan, TA spokeswoman Connie Correll last week said the initiative is gaining acceptance on Capitol Hill. Correll said the Bush administration likely will send proposed legislation to Congress after lawmakers return from a week-long Memorial Day break. Victory’s stature and political clout would be diminished under the proposed reorganization.
Industry and administration sources said the Commerce Department reorganization plan would eliminate many senior NTIA positions, a prospect Correll vigorously denied.
Gallagher’s promotion, combined with the recent resignation of Pentagon spectrum czar Steven Price and the reorganization of the DoD unit overseeing spectrum, could have a particularly disruptive effect on the implementation of the Bush 3G plan. The plan directs the Pentagon to move communications and munitions systems from the 1710-1755 MHz band to other frequencies in order to free up frequencies for 3G services.
With the departure earlier this month of DoD’s Price, a former cellular industry executive who connected well with wireless lobbyists, Pentagon spectrum policy could return to hardliners still resentful about surrendering airwaves to industry throughout the 1990s.
More than 235 megahertz has been transferred from the federal government to the private sector since 1993, the year Congress gave the Federal Communications Commission permission to sell spectrum. Since then, the FCC gained fame for raising billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury from the sale of wireless licenses.
Price’s resignation was well known-indeed, lamented-by industry. Less public-by design-is the realignment of the DoD unit in which military spectrum policy resides: the office of command, control, communications and intelligence that Assistant Secretary of Defense John Stenbit manages.
In a May 8 memorandum, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz took the intelligence function from Stenbit and gave it to the newly created office of undersecretary of defense for intelligence, headed by Stephen Cambone. Wolfowitiz also gave a facelift to Stenbit’s shop. The memo was first reported in the newsletter, Inside the Pentagon.
“With the approval of the President, the Secretary has asked Mr. John Stenbit to continue to serve as an Assistant Secretary of Defense under the new title of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration,” the Wolfowitz memo stated.
Stenbit plans to meet offsite with key officials on Wednesday to discuss how to move forward.
Several days after the May 8 memo, according to a Pentagon source, Stenbit told his staff he would resign in early summer. Last week, Pentagon officials went out of their way to deny that Stenbit and other Pentagon officials with spectrum-related duties are planning to depart government.
Key officials in the Bush administration are transitioning out of the government now rather than later to avoid any political awkwardness or embarrassment that could be caused during the president’s re-election campaign.
DoD officials, however, did acknowledge the possibility that Price might not be replaced.
“No process is under way to replace Steve,” said Owen Wormser, a political appointee at DoD who worked directly under Price. Wormser, who had high praise for Price, said he did not anticipate military spectrum policy to suffer as a result of organizational changes.
Asked if he planned to remain at DoD, Wormser replied, “I’m going to stay with John (Stenbit).”
A Pentagon source, pointing to e-mails and conversations with others in the Pentagon familiar with Stenbit’s private statements, said Stenbit has said he wants out of DoD by July 1.
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, whose members have the most to lose by any Pentagon back-sliding on 3G, was apparently taken off guard by DoD reshuffling. CTIA’s top lobbyist Steven Berry, through association spokesman Travis Larson, said he was unaware of any restructuring at DoD other than Price’s departure.
For now, Congress appears to be filling the void in Pentagon spectrum affairs. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) authored two provisions in the defense authorization bill to foster improved spectrum management and greater efficiency of military airwaves. The Senate passed the legislation last Thursday.
