WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard last week unveiled a new tax certificate program to attract more women, minorities and small businesses into wireless and other sectors of the telecommunications industry.
Kennard outlined the plan at a luncheon in New York hosted by the Citizenship Education Fund.
After gaining control of the House and Senate in the 1994 midterm elections, Republicans killed the FCC tax certificate program as one of its first pieces of business in 1995.
Later that year, the Supreme Court curbed federal affirmative action programs. The FCC responded by eliminating bidding credits for women and minorities in wireless license auctions.
Tax certificates enable owners of telecom licenses who sell to minorities (and in some cases to women) to defer capital gains tax.
