I
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 man-
agement 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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Critical Infrastructure
Communications Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Radio systems operated by electric, gas, and
water utilities and natural gas and petroleum pipe-
lines are essential to the protection of the nation’s
critical infrastructure and public safety.
(2) Section 309(j)(2)(A) of the Communications
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 309(j)(2)(A)) obligates the
Commission to protect and enhance the communica-
tions capabilities of ‘‘public safety radio services,’’
including electric, gas, and water utilities and natu-
ral gas and petroleum pipelines.
(3) The Commission has provided for the pro-
tection of certain critical infrastructure private land
mobile radio services, including police and fire sup-
pression services, through the establishment of a
separate radio pool for these public safety services.
SEC. 3. LONG-TERM SOLUTION.
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Commission shall adopt rules which ensure
the ongoing protection and promotion of spectrum used
by electric, gas, and water utilities and natural gas and
petroleum pipelines against interference from other users
of spectrum and consistent with the provisions of section
309(j)(2)(A) of the Communications Act of 1934.
SEC. 4. TEMPORARY INTERFERENCE PROTECTION.
(a) LICENSING MORATORIUM.—Until the rules pro-
mulgated by the Commission pursuant to section 3 of this
Act become effective, the Commission shall discontinue li-
censing private mobile radio facilities on—
(1) any channels that were formerly allocated
by the Commission to the Power Radio Service
(commonly referred to as the ‘‘IW Radio Service’’)
or Petroleum Radio Service (commonly referred to
as the ‘‘IP Radio Service’’) on either an exclusive or
shared basis; and
(2) any channels less than 15 kHz removed
from such channels.
(b) EXCEPTIONS TO MORATORIUM.—The Commis-
sion may, notwithstanding the moratorium imposed by
subsection (a), grant a license that is subject to such mor-
atorium if—
(1) the license applicant obtains the concur-
rence of the designated frequency advisory commit-
tee for the IW or IP Radio Service, or both, depend-
ing on whether the channel on which the applicant
is seeking to be licensed was formerly shared by 1
or both of these services; or
(2) the license applicant obtains and submits
written concurrence of all IW and IP radio services
licensees having a co-channel or adjacent-channel fa-
cility within 70 miles of the applicant’s proposed
site.
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act—
(1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’
means the Federal Communications Commission.
(2) PUBLIC
SAFETY
RADIO
SERVICES.—The
term ‘‘public safety radio services’’ means those
radio services described in section 309(j)(2)(A) of
the Communications Act of 1934 which include pri-
vate internal radio services used by State and local
governments and nongovernmental entities such as
electric, gas, and water utilities and natural gas and
petroleum pipelines that are used to protect the safe-
ty of life, health, or property and are not made com-
mercially available to the public.
Æ