Lawmakers Remain Hopeful About Spectrum Bill's Prospects

Two key lawmakers said that despite some differences between the House and Senate approaches to the issue, they are still hopeful spectrum legislation will be included in a package to extend a payroll tax cut. House and Senate lawmakers on the payroll tax cut conference committee met again to try and hammer out differences between the two chambers' versions of the legislation but did not discuss spectrum. Still, House Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman (D-CA), one of the House Democratic conferees, said that staffers are meeting and making slow progress on ways to narrow differences between the House-GOP passed spectrum legislation, which was included in a one-year extension of the payroll tax bill, and a stand-alone bipartisan spectrum bill approved last summer by the Senate Commerce Committee.