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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 866

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to protect critical infrastructure

radio systems from interference and to promote efficient spectrum management of the private land mobile radio bands, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 25, 1999

Mr. JONES of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. HORN, Mr. UNDERWOOD, Mr.

GILLMOR, Mr. HALL of Texas, Mr. BURR of North Carolina, Mr.

PALLONE, Mr. SHIMKUS, and Mr. WHITFIELD) introduced the following

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to protect critical

infrastructure radio systems from interference and to

promote efficient spectrum management of the private

land mobile radio bands, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Critical Infrastructure

5 Communications Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds the following:
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1 (1) Radio systems operated by electric, gas, and

2 water utilities and natural gas and petroleum pipe3 lines are essential to the protection of the nation’s

4 critical infrastructure and public safety.

5 (2) Section 309(j)(2)(A) of the Communications

6 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 309(j)(2)(A)) obligates the

7 Commission to protect and enhance the communica8 tions capabilities of ‘‘public safety radio services,’’

9 including electric, gas, and water utilities and natu10 ral gas and petroleum pipelines.

11 (3) The Commission has provided for the pro12 tection of certain critical infrastructure private land

13 mobile radio services, including police and fire sup14 pression services, through the establishment of a

15 separate radio pool for these public safety services.

16 SEC. 3. LONG-TERM SOLUTION.

17 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment

18 of this Act, the Commission shall adopt rules which ensure

19 the ongoing protection and promotion of spectrum used

20 by electric, gas, and water utilities and natural gas and

21 petroleum pipelines against interference from other users

22 of spectrum and consistent with the provisions of section

23 309(j)(2)(A) of the Communications Act of 1934.
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1 SEC. 4. TEMPORARY INTERFERENCE PROTECTION.

2 (a) LICENSING MORATORIUM.—Until the rules pro3 mulgated by the Commission pursuant to section 3 of this

4 Act become effective, the Commission shall discontinue li5 censing private mobile radio facilities on—

6 (1) any channels that were formerly allocated

7 by the Commission to the Power Radio Service

8 (commonly referred to as the ‘‘IW Radio Service’’)

9 or Petroleum Radio Service (commonly referred to

10 as the ‘‘IP Radio Service’’) on either an exclusive or

11 shared basis; and

12 (2) any channels less than 15 kHz removed

13 from such channels.

14 (b) EXCEPTIONS TO MORATORIUM.—The Commis15 sion may, notwithstanding the moratorium imposed by

16 subsection (a), grant a license that is subject to such mor17 atorium if—

18 (1) the license applicant obtains the concur19 rence of the designated frequency advisory commit20 tee for the IW or IP Radio Service, or both, depend21 ing on whether the channel on which the applicant

22 is seeking to be licensed was formerly shared by 1

23 or both of these services; or

24 (2) the license applicant obtains and submits

25 written concurrence of all IW and IP radio services

26 licensees having a co-channel or adjacent-channel fa-
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1 cility within 70 miles of the applicant’s proposed

2 site.

3 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

4 As used in this Act—

5 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’

6 means the Federal Communications Commission.

7 (2) PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SERVICES.—The

8 term ‘‘public safety radio services’’ means those

9 radio services described in section 309(j)(2)(A) of

10 the Communications Act of 1934 which include pri11 vate internal radio services used by State and local

12 governments and nongovernmental entities such as

13 electric, gas, and water utilities and natural gas and

14 petroleum pipelines that are used to protect the safe15 ty of life, health, or property and are not made com16 mercially available to the public.

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