What’s A POTUS SOTU Shout Out On Wireless Worth?

[Commentary] When the President actually takes the time to endorse an idea or concept in what most regard as his biggest speech of the year, it carries some weight here in Policyland.

For starters, it can lift an issue out of obscurity. So what’s the practical payoff? Most importantly, it gives direction to the federal agencies who, after all, work for the President. It gives rhetorical support to members of Congress trying to move the President’s agenda forward, and can create problems for members of the President’s party who may have other ideas and don't want to be perceived as opposing their own President. This can be especially helpful for the vast majority of members not on the relevant Committee and Subcommittee who would otherwise have no clue about the issue before the floor vote. So the President endorsing wireless as a major platform for innovation gives a modest, general boost for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski’s wireless agenda. But the “wireless agenda” covers a lot of ground, and a high-level Presidential endorsement of the concept does not necessarily translate into making any specific goal any easier. Still, it gives Genachowski a good rhetorical club for pushing things like incentive auctions. It also gives Genachowski and Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling (Administrator of the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA), the agency that coordinates federal spectrum use) a boost in trying to get other Federal agencies to cooperate in identifying spectrum for auction and – I hope – dynamic reuse.