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[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 92 (Wednesday, June 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7918-S7919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. STEVENS:
  S. 888. A bill to extend the authority of the Federal Communications 
Commission to use auctions for the allocation of radio spectrum 
frequencies for commercial use, to provide for private sector 
reimbursement of Federal governmental user costs to vacate commercially 
valuable spectrum, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

                    THE SPECTRUM AUCTION ACT OF 1995

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I wish to send to the desk this morning a 
bill to extend the Federal Communications Commission's authority to use 
auctions to award radio spectrum licenses. I want to state to the 
Senate that for several Congresses, I had suggested spectrum auctions 
to deal with the problem of allocating this very valuable space in our 
airways. Congress did not pass those bills, but finally, in the last 
Congress, Congress did accept the amendment that I had offered. Since 
that time, the Federal Government has received over $9 billion in money 
that has been bid for the use of this spectrum which is allocated by 
the FCC.
  I am introducing this bill now so that the Senate will be aware of 
it, because I intend to offer it as an amendment to the 
telecommunications bill when it is presented to the Senate. This bill 
will raise an estimated minimum amount of $4.5 billion over a 5-year 
period. It will be used to partially offset the cost of the 
telecommunications bill as computed by the Congressional Budget Office.
  I might say on the bright side, the Congressional Budget Office has 
stated that enactment of the telecommunications bill will result in a 
$3 billion reduction in the payments, that are made by the private 
sector I might add, for universal service in this country. But there is 
still a remaining expenditure that will be made in the 7-year period of 
the budget that is before the Congress, and in order that that budget 
may remain in balance and still have us be able to enact the 
telecommunications bill, we are presenting amendments that will provide 
offsetting revenues on the Federal side.
  It is a strange thing about this, Mr. President, because it is the 
private sector that makes the support payments under existing law and 
will continue to make smaller payments under the telecommunications 
bill as the Commerce Committee will present it. But there is no 
question that the CBO has decided it still has a budgetary impact as 
far as the economy is concerned, and, therefore, an offset is required.
  I urge Senators to review this proposed bill, which, as I said, will 
become an amendment to be offered by me to the telecommunications bill 
when it is on the floor.
  This bill has five sections. Section 1 is the short title, which is 
the ``Spectrum Auction Act of 1995.'' Section 2 contains findings drawn 
from two NTIA reports, which state that the U.S. will need at least 180 
megahertz of additional spectrum for cellular, PCS, and satellite 
services over the next 10 years, and that less than that amount will be 
available without the bill. Section 3 extends the FCC's auction 
authority from 1998 until 2002, and would allow the FCC to use auctions 
for all licenses except public safety radio services and new digital TV 
licenses. Section 4 of the bill allows federal agencies to accept 
reimbursement from private parties for the costs of relocating to new 
spectrum frequencies, so that the private sector can pay to move 
government stations off valuable frequencies; it also requires NTIA to 
move government stations if all costs are paid and the new frequency 
and facilities are comparable. Section 5 requires the Secretary of 
Commerce to submit a plan to reallocate three additional frequency 
bands that NTIA has identified for transfer from government to private 
use.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 888

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

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Spectrum Auction Act of 
     1995''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       The Congress finds that--
       (1) the National Telecommunications and Information 
     Administration of the Department of Commerce recently 
     submitted to the Congress a report entitled ``U.S. National 
     Spectrum Requirements'' as required by section 113 of the 
     National Telecommunications and Information Administration 
     Organization Act (47 U.S.C. 923);
       (2) based on the best available information the report 
     concludes that an additional 179 megahertz of spectrum will 
     be needed within the next ten years to meet the expected 
     demand for land mobile and mobile satellite radio services 
     such as cellular telephone service, paging services, personal 
     communication services, and low earth orbiting satellite 
     communications systems;
       (3) a further 85 megahertz of additional spectrum, for a 
     total of 264 megahertz, is needed if the United States is to 
     fully implement the Intelligent Transportation System 
     currently under development by the Department of 
     Transportation;
       (4) as required by Part B of the National 
     Telecommunications and Information Administration 
     Organization Act (47 U.S.C. 921 et seq.) the Federal 
     Government will transfer 235 megahertz of spectrum
      from exclusive government use to non-governmental or mixed 
     governmental and non-governmental use between 1994 and 
     2004;
       (5) the Spectrum Reallocation Final Report submitted to 
     Congress by the National Telecommunications and Information 
     Administration states that, of the 235 megahertz of spectrum 
     identified for reallocation from governmental to non-
     governmental or mixed use--
       (A) 50 megahertz has already been reallocated for exclusive 
     non-governmental use,
       (B) 45 megahertz will be reallocated in 1995 for both 
     exclusive non-governmental and mixed governmental and non-
     governmental use,
       (C) 25 megahertz will be reallocated in 1997 for exclusive 
     non-governmental use,
       (D) 70 megahertz will be reallocated in 1999 for both 
     exclusive non-governmental and mixed governmental and non-
     governmental use, and
       (E) the final 45 megahertz will be reallocated for mixed 
     governmental and non-governmental use by 2004;
       (6) the 165 megahertz of spectrum that are not yet 
     reallocated, combined with 80 megahertz that the Federal 
     Communications Commission is currently holding in reserve for 
     emerging technologies, are less than the best estimates of 
     projected spectrum needs in the United States;
       (7) the authority of the Federal Communications Commission 
     to assign radio spectrum frequencies using an auction process 
     expires on September 30, 1998;
       [[Page S7919]] (8) a significant portion of the reallocated 
     spectrum will not yet be assigned to non-governmental users 
     before that authority expires;
       (9) the transfer of Federal governmental users from certain 
     valuable radio frequencies to other reserved frequencies 
     could be expedited if Federal governmental users are 
     permitted to accept reimbursement for reallocation costs from 
     non-governmental users; and
       (10) extension of the authority to use auctions and non-
     governmental reimbursement of Federal governmental users 
     relocation costs would allow the market to determine the most 
     efficient use of the available spectrum.

     SEC. 3. EXTENSION AND EXPANSION OF AUCTION AUTHORITY.

       Section 309(j) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
     309(j)) is amended--
       (1) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting in lieu thereof 
     the following:
       (``1) General authority.--If mutually exclusive 
     applications or requests are accepted for any initial license 
     or construction permit which will involve a use of the 
     electromagnetic spectrum, then the Commission shall grant 
     such license or permit to a qualified applicant through a 
     system of competitive bidding that meets the requirements of 
     this subsection. The competitive bidding authority granted by 
     this subsection shall not apply to licenses or construction 
     permits issued by the Commission for public safety radio 
     services or for licenses or construction permits for new 
     terrestrial digital television services assigned by the 
     Commission to existing terrestrial broadcast licensees to 
     replace their current television licenses.'';
       (2) by striking paragraph (2) and renumbering paragraphs 
     (3) through (13) as (2) through (12), respectively; and
       (3) by striking ``1998'' in paragraph (10), as renumbered, 
     and inserting in lieu thereof ``2002''.
       (3) by striking `1998'' in paragraph (10), as renumbered, 
     and inserting in lieu thereof ``2002''.

     SEC. 4. REIMBURSEMENT OF FEDERAL RELOCATION COSTS.

       Section 113 of the National Telecommunications and 
     Information Administration Act (47 U.S.C. 923) is amended by 
     adding at the end the following new subsections:
       ``(f) Relocation of Federal Government Stations.--
       ``(1) In general.--In order to expedite the efficient use 
     of the electromagnetic spectrum and notwithstanding section 
     3302(b) of title 31, United States Code, any Federal entity 
     which operates a Federal Government station may accept 
     reimbursement from any person for the costs incurred by such 
     Federal entity for any modification, replacement, or 
     reissuance of equipment, facilities, operating manuals, 
     regulations, or other expenses incurred by that entity in 
     relocating the operations of its Federal Government station 
     or stations from one or more radio spectrum frequencies to 
     any other frequency or frequencies. Any such reimbursement 
     shall be deposited in the account of such Federal entity in 
     the Treasury of the United States. Funds deposited according 
     to this section shall be available, without appropriation or 
     fiscal year limitation, only for the
      operations of the Federal entity for which such funds were 
     deposited under this section.
       ``(2) Process for relocation.--Any person seeking to 
     relocate a Federal Government station that has been assigned 
     a frequently within a band allocated for mixed Federal and 
     non-Federal use may submit a petition for such relocation to 
     NTIA. The NTIA shall limit the Federal Government station's 
     operating license to secondary status when the following 
     requirements are met--
       ``(A) the person seeking relocation of the Federal 
     Government station has guaranteed reimbursement through money 
     or in-kind payment of all relocation costs incurred by the 
     Federal entity, including all engineering, equipment, site 
     acquisition and construction, and regulatory fee costs;
       ``(B) the person seeking relocation completes all 
     activities necessary for implementing the relocation, 
     including construction of replacement facilities (if 
     necessary and appropriate) and identifying and obtaining on 
     the Federal entity's behalf new frequencies for use by the 
     relocated Federal Government station (where such station is 
     not relocating to spectrum reserved exclusively for Federal 
     use); and
       ``(C) any necessary replacement facilities, equipment 
     modifications, or other changes have been implemented and 
     tested to ensure that the Federal Government station is able 
     to successfully accomplish its purposes.
       ``(3) Right to reclaim.--If within one year after the 
     relocation the Federal Government station demonstrates to the 
     Commission that the new facilities or spectrum are not 
     comparable to the facilities or spectrum from which the 
     Federal Government station was relocated, the person seeking 
     such relocation must take reasonable steps to remedy any 
     defects or reimburse the Federal entity for the costs of 
     returning the Federal Government station to the spectrum from 
     which such station was relocated.
       ``(g) Federal Action To Expedite Spectrum Transfer.--Any 
     Federal Government station which operates on electromagnetic 
     spectrum that has been identified for reallocation for mixed 
     Federal and non-Federal use in the Spectrum Reallocation 
     Final Report shall, to the maximum extent practicable through 
     the use of the authority granted under subsection (f) and any 
     other applicable provision of law, take action to relocate 
     its spectrum use to other frequencies that are reserved for 
     Federal use or to consolidate its spectrum use with other 
     Federal Government stations in a manner that maximizes the 
     spectrum available for non-Federal use. Notwithstanding the 
     timetable contained in the Spectrum Reallocation Final 
     Report, the President shall seek to implement the 
     reallocation of the 1710 to 1755 megahertz frequency band by 
     January 1, 2000. Subsection (c)(4) of this section shall not 
     apply to the extent that a non-Federal user seeks to relocate 
     or relocates a Federal power agency under subsection (f).
       ``(h) Definitions.--For purposes of this section--
       ``(1) Federal entity.--The term `Federal entity' means any 
     Department, agency, or other element of the Federal 
     government that utilizes radio frequency spectrum in the 
     conduct of its authorized activities, including a Federal 
     power agency.
       ``(2) Spectrum Reallocation Final Report.--The term 
     `Spectrum Reallocation Final Report' means the report 
     submitted by the Secretary to the President and Congress in 
     compliance with the requirements of subsection (a).''.

     SEC. 5. REALLOCATION OF ADDITIONAL SPECTRUM.

       The Secretary of Commerce shall, within 9 months after the 
     date of enactment of this Act, prepare and submit to the 
     President and the Congress a report and timetable 
     recommending the reallocation of the three frequency bands 
     (225-400 megahertz, 3625-3650 megahertz, and 5850-5925 
     megahertz) that were discussed but not recommended for 
     reallocation in the Spectrum Reallocation Final Report. The 
     Secretary shall consult with the Federal Communications 
     Commission and other Federal agencies in the preparation of 
     the report, and shall provide notice and an opportunity for 
     public comment before submitting the report and timetable 
     required by this section.
                                 ______
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