[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 102 (Monday, July 11, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1283-E1284]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE PUBLIC SAFETY SPECTRUM AND WIRELESS INNOVATION ACT

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                          HON. JOHN D. DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 11, 2011

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, along with my good friend and colleague, 
Congressman Gene Green of Texas, I am introducing the Public Safety 
Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act today to address the sensible and 
long neglected needs of public safety. This legislation builds on S. 
911, Senators Rockefeller and Hutchison's outstanding bipartisan bill, 
which was recently reported favorably by the Senate Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

[[Page E1284]]

  Congressman Green's and my bill do all the same things as S. 911. It 
allocates the D-Block free of charge to public safety and establishes a 
framework for the deployment of a nationwide, interoperable, wireless 
broadband network for public safety. The bill also establishes a 
funding mechanism to ensure the construction, maintenance, and upgrade 
of this network. It has been nearly 10 years since 9/11, and 
Congressman Green and I find it disgraceful that public safety has 
neither sufficient spectrum nor a national interoperable network to 
use. Our bill will remedy that and help public safety better protect 
American lives.
  The one important difference between our bill and its Senate 
companion is that ours builds in stricter conditions and requirements 
for a voluntary incentive auction of broadcaster spectrum. Our bill, 
like S. 911, seeks to tackle the Nation's growing need for wireless 
spectrum, but ours makes explicit that the Commission may conduct only 
one incentive auction, that broadcasters not be coerced into 
relinquishing spectrum, and that broadcasters be fully compensated for 
costs associated with repacking. Congressman Green and I have sought 
answers from the Federal Communications Commission about the effects of 
broad incentive auction authority on broadcasters and consumers. The 
Commission has provided us little assurance that these effects will not 
be far-reaching and negative, so Congressman Green and I feel compelled 
to include more rigid protections in our bill.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a strong bill and one worthy of the entire 
House's support. I would note that this bill has been endorsed by many 
stakeholders, including the Communications Workers of America (CWA), 
the Public Safety Alliance (PSA), APCO, the National Association of 
Sheriffs (NSA), and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). I 
urge my colleagues to join with Congressman Green and me in supporting 
public safety and addressing our country's critical spectrum needs by 
co-sponsoring the Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act.

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