[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 866 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 866

      To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to protect critical 
infrastructure radio systems from interference and to promote efficient 
  spectrum management of the private land mobile radio bands, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 25, 1999

Mr. Jones of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. Horn, Mr. Underwood, Mr. 
 Gillmor, Mr. Hall of Texas, Mr. Burr of North Carolina, Mr. Pallone, 
 Mr. Shimkus, and Mr. Whitfield) introduced the following bill; which 
               was referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to protect critical 
infrastructure radio systems from interference and to promote efficient 
  spectrum management of the private land mobile radio bands, and for 
                            other purposes.

    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 Infrastructure 
Communications Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Radio systems operated by electric, gas, and water 
        utilities and natural gas and petroleum pipelines are essential 
        to the protection of the nation's critical infrastructure and 
        public safety.
            (2) Section 309(j)(2)(A) of the Communications Act of 1934 
        (47 U.S.C. 309(j)(2)(A)) obligates the Commission to protect 
        and enhance the communications capabilities of ``public safety 
        radio services,'' including electric, gas, and water utilities 
        and natural gas and petroleum pipelines.
            (3) The Commission has provided for the protection of 
        certain critical infrastructure private land mobile radio 
        services, including police and fire suppression services, 
        through the establishment of a separate radio pool for these 
        public safety services.

SEC. 3. LONG-TERM SOLUTION.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Commission shall adopt rules which ensure the ongoing protection 
and promotion of spectrum used by electric, gas, and water utilities 
and natural gas and petroleum pipelines against interference from other 
users of spectrum and consistent with the provisions of section 
309(j)(2)(A) of the Communications Act of 1934.

SEC. 4. TEMPORARY INTERFERENCE PROTECTION.

    (a) Licensing Moratorium.--Until the rules promulgated by the 
Commission pursuant to section 3 of this Act become effective, the 
Commission shall discontinue licensing private mobile radio facilities 
on--
            (1) any channels that were formerly allocated by the 
        Commission to the Power Radio Service (commonly referred to as 
        the ``IW Radio Service'') or Petroleum Radio Service (commonly 
        referred to as the ``IP Radio Service'') on either an exclusive 
        or shared basis; and
            (2) any channels less than 15 kHz removed from such 
        channels.
    (b) Exceptions to Moratorium.--The Commission may, notwithstanding 
the moratorium imposed by subsection (a), grant a license that is 
subject to such moratorium if--
            (1) the license applicant obtains the concurrence of the 
        designated frequency advisory committee for the IW or IP Radio 
        Service, or both, depending on whether the channel on which the 
        applicant is seeking to be licensed was formerly shared by 1 or 
        both of these services; or
            (2) the license applicant obtains and submits written 
        concurrence of all IW and IP radio services licensees having a 
        co-channel or adjacent-channel facility within 70 miles of the 
        applicant's proposed site.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act--
            (1) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
        Communications Commission.
            (2) Public safety radio services.--The term ``public safety 
        radio services'' means those radio services described in 
        section 309(j)(2)(A) of the Communications Act of 1934 which 
        include private internal radio services used by State and local 
        governments and nongovernmental entities such as electric, gas, 
        and water utilities and natural gas and petroleum pipelines 
        that are used to protect the safety of life, health, or 
        property and are not made commercially available to the public.
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