[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2379 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2379

To ensure that adequate frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum are 
                  available for biomedical telemetry.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 29, 1999

 Mr. Inslee (for himself, Mr. McDermott, and Mr. Smith of Washington) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                                Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure that adequate frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum are 
                  available for biomedical telemetry.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Critical Care Spectrum Act of 
1999''.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) biomedical telemetry systems can greatly improve the 
        quality, and significantly decrease the cost, of certain health 
        care services;
            (2) in making prior allocation decisions, the Federal 
        Communications Commission has not adequately considered the 
        needs of hospitals and other health care providers for 
        electromagnetic spectrum for biomedical telemetry that is free 
        of interference from other sources;
            (3) in the absence of affirmative regulatory action, the 
        continued operation and growth of these critical health care 
        systems may be seriously threatened;
            (4) the FCC should allocate or authorize the use of 
        spectrum adequate for the current and future needs of 
        biomedical telemetry systems.

SEC. 3. RULEMAKING TO ENSURE ADEQUATE SPECTRUM FOR CURRENT AND FUTURE 
              NEEDS.

    (a) In General.--The Federal Communications Commission shall adopt 
rules to ensure that biomedical telemetry operations are provided with 
frequencies adequate to support existing and future need, that--
            (1) make primary allocations of bands of frequencies for 
        such operations as are appropriate; and
            (2) maintain and expand any secondary allocations of bands 
        of frequencies for such operations that are in effect upon the 
        commencement of the proceeding for such rulemaking.
    (b) Proceeding.--The rules required by subsection (a) shall be 
adopted not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this 
Act pursuant to a rulemaking proceeding commenced not later than 90 
days after such date of enactment.
    (c) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the Federal Communications Commission, in consultation 
with the Joint Working Group on Telemedicine, shall submit a report to 
the Congress on the future spectrum needs of telemedicine and 
telehealth providers, including emergency medical services providers.

SEC. 4. MAINTENANCE OF EXISTING SPECTRUM ALLOCATION.

    Until the rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission 
pursuant to section 3 take effect, the Commission shall maintain any 
allocations of bands of frequencies for biomedical telemetry operations 
that are in effect upon January 1, 1999, except that any television 
broadcast station authorized by the Commission to initiate digital 
television service may initiate such service in accordance with the 
rules and policies of the Commission in effect on such date.
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