Hill Poised to Take Spectrum Auction Action

Congress could adopt legislation this week that would pave the way for the FCC to conduct incentive auctions of TV spectrum and share the proceeds of those auctions with broadcasters that voluntarily give up their spectrum.

The House is expected to vote this week on a major GOP jobs package called "The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011,” to which the spectrum auction proposal adopted early this month by the House Communications Subcommittee has been attached. The House spectrum measure, authored by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), has the blessing of the National Association of Broadcasters because it contains protections for stations that chose not to relinquish their spectrum. Once the House acts, the package is expected to move on to the Senate and win final approval by the end of the week. But there is still a possibility that the spectrum provisions could be dropped from the jobs package if Republicans and Democrats are unable to settle their differences over several critical issues, some of which are incidental to the auction authority.