House Communications Subcommittee OK's Spectrum Auction Bill

The House Communications Subcommittee approved in a 17 to 6 vote along party lines a Republican version of a spectrum incentive auction bill that would give the Federal Communications Commission the authority to pay broadcasters for voluntarily exiting the spectrum to be auctioned for broadband use, and set aside as much as $3 billion to compensate broadcasters left behind for moving or sharing channels. That $3 billion is three times as much as Democrats were proposing in their version and was the subject of some debate, as were a number of issues.

The House's Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act of 2011 would require the FCC to do its best to preserve the coverage areas and interference protections of broadcasters who do not give up spectrum, compensates cable operators for any costs of picking up reconfigured broadcast signals, and prevents the FCC from forcing stations on UHF channels to move to VHF, which is not as robust for DTV. The bill allocates the D block of spectrum, rather than auctioning it, a Republican concession that Democrats on the committee praised.

The bill was amended to prevent the FCC from imposing network neutrality or wholesale conditions on the spectrum being reclaimed for auction, as well as to require the FCC to resolve broadcaster spectrum coordination issues with Canada and Mexico, to set aside money for e-911 call centers, and to prevent security risks from building out the emergency interoperable broadband communications network.

The bill will now go to full committee for markup, where Democrats said they hoped they could negotiate compromises, though they got no promises from the Republican majority. The auction is projected to return at least $15 billion to the US Treasury for deficit reduction after paying broadcasters and for the care and feeding of an interoperable emergency communications network. A separate Senate bill has passed the Commerce Committee and is awaiting a floor vote.