Sen Cantwell Sounds the Alarm About Dangers of Republican Plan to Auction Spectrum Essential to National Security, Aviation Safety and the Innovation Economy

Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) sounded the alarm about the dangers of the Republican plan to auction 800 megahertz of spectrum that is essential to national security, aviation safety and America’s innovation economy in a one-on-one conversation with Dr. Tom Karako, Director of the Missile Defense Project and Senior Fellow in Defense & Security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. During the discussion, Sen Cantwell and Dr. Karako touched on a wide-range of issues and concerns related to the electromagnetic spectrum and the current debate over the potential spectrum auctions included in the Republican reconciliation bill, from why spectrum matters to the American people in their daily lives, to its vital importance for our information economy and, specifically, just how consequential it is to protect the parts of the spectrum critical to our national security. On the dangers of the Republican Spectrum Auction Plan, Sen Cantwell said, “I think it's a very dangerous proposal, because it really doesn't look at all the details about the incumbent users, in this case, a lot of military applications, and plan for what is the use of the future of that spectrum, if it's allocated to the private sector? And while we know we have an unbelievable need for new spectrum, the question is: How can we do things like dynamic spectrum sharing and testbed and really understand what these applications are and what they're going to do to create interference?"