Super Committee Fails; Incentive Auctions Will Go It Alone

The deficit-reduction super committee has failed to come up with a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.2 billion, triggering defense and other cuts and leaving the spectrum incentive auction plan to go it alone in a stand-alone bill if it is to become the law of the land.

The plan for auction of broadcast spectrum for wireless and the billions it would have supplied for deficit reduction had been on the table as part of the committee negotiations, but the committee said it could not come to an agreement on a package of measures.

A Senate bill to authorize the auctions is awaiting a floor vote, while a different House version has yet to get a vote in committee, though there is word a markup could come as early as Dec. 1. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W. VA), who sponsored the Senate bill, pledged Monday to push for stand-alone passage before year's end. Commenting on the news of the committee's failure, President Barack Obama said that his plan, which he sent the committee in September, would have achieved the committee's goal of cutting the deficit by $1.2 billion--that plan included the spectrum auctions. But he said Republicans continued to be the main stumbling block. The FCC has been pushing for the legislation to get moving on its spectrum reclamation plan to free up more spectrum for wireless broadband, while broadcasters have been arguing that any voluntary auction must protect existing broadcasters' coverage area and signal quality. CTIA: The Wireless Industry was quick to push for stand-alone spectrum auction legislation. (11/21)