[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1626 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1626

  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the licensing of 
            certain unused channels for public safety uses.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 15, 1997

 Ms. Harman (for herself and Mr. Dixon) introduced the following bill; 
            which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the licensing of 
            certain unused channels for public safety uses.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PUBLIC SAFETY USE OF UNUSED CHANNELS.

    (a) Amendment.--Section 331 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 331) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(c) Licensing of Unused Channels for Public Safety Radio 
Services.--With respect to a nonbroadcast channel or channels in the 
152-159 megahertz VHF band or the 470-512 megahertz UHF band allocated 
by the Commission for one or two-way common carrier mobile or point-to-
multipoint common carrier use for which licenses have not been issued, 
it shall be the policy of the Commission, notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, to waive whatever licensee eligibility and other 
requirements are applicable in order to permit the use of such channels 
for public safety purposes by a State or local governmental agency upon 
the showing that--
            ``(1) no other existing satisfactory public safety channel 
        is immediately available to satisfy the requested use;
            ``(2) the proposed use is technically feasible without 
        causing harmful interference to existing stations in the 
        frequency band entitled to protection from such interference 
        under the rules of the Commission; and
            ``(3) use of the channel for public safety purposes is 
        consistent with other existing public safety channel 
        allocations in the geographic area of proposed use.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to any application that is pending before the Federal 
Communications Commission, or that is not finally determined under 
either section 402 or 405 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
402, 405) on May 15, 1997, or that is filed after such date.
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