The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet (CTI) marked-up H.R. 3125, the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act, and H.R. 3019, the Spectrum Relocation Improvement Act, this morning and reported the legislation to the full committee by voice vote.  The AOC is tracking both bills, but directly engaged in H.R. 3125, because we believe the bill may significantly and disproportionately affect the joint warfighters who rely on the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) to train and fight in demanding environments. 

Over the past several weeks, the AOC has engaged subcommittee staff and Members of Congress who serve on the subcommittee and full committee, and submitted recommendations to improve the bill and make it more palatable for the EW community.  At the mark-up, Rep. Rick Boucher (VA-09), Chairman of the CTI Subcommittee, offered a manager’s amendment in nature of a substitute, which strikes the entire existing text and replaces it with new language.  The amendment makes several improvements to the bill that aligns with AOC recommendations.  While we certainly remain concerned about the bill, it is clear that the legislation is moving in the right direction.  There will be another round of recommendations and changes as the bill moves to the full committee, and we will reassert several more improvements that can and should be made.

There are several positives of the manager’s amendment.  First, the new bill pushes the initial inventory back to one year (vs. 180 days as introduced).  This aligns the bill with the Senate version.  The AOC recommended two years, but the bill at least moved off the six-month timeframe.  Second, the legislation better recognizes activities, capabilities, functions, and missions tied to using the spectrum rather than simply active utilization.  Third, the amendment delays the report on the inventory, which would identify spectrum for reallocation from one year to two years and biennially thereafter (up from one year and annually thereafter), which conforms to an AOC recommendation.  Finally, the national security provision is much stronger and better enables federal and non-federal spectrum users to seek a waiver from submitting sensitive data.

That said, the legislation remains far from perfect.  There are two major gaps in the bill.  The first gap is that there is no single metric to measure spectrum usage or utilization across all users and there is no analytical methodology to interpret user inventory data.  Furthermore, many user agencies have not even developed their own metric to measure spectrum activity.  Therefore, a significant probability of error exists both in the user agency recommendation phase and the decision-making process for reallocation.  A related second gap is that there is insufficient oversight of the decision-making process to ensure that inventory data is accurate, recommendations are feasible, and reallocations decisions are justified.  Finally, the bill insufficiently addresses the inherent dangers of creating a web portal to make the entire inventory available to the public.  This is an invitation to adversaries to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of how the U.S. uses the spectrum.

In closing, the next step is full committee consideration.  We hope that additional changes are made to help close the remaining gaps listed above.  The AOC is working with congressional EW Working Group on a new round of recommendations, and we will keep you posted as details develop.  The full committee mark-up has not yet been scheduled, but this morning Chairman Boucher indicated his commitment to move the bill “at the earliest possible time.”  That could be within a week or two.

While our community is rightfully concerned about this bill, it is important to keep in mind that the legislation has broad bi-partisan support and it will pass Congress, and it will be signed into law.  But we can make the bill better, and the AOC is dedicated to diligently working toward that end.