On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked-up two bills that have significant ramifications for the EW community.  The first measure is H.R. 3125 establishes a radio spectrum inventory, which will inform the FCC and the NTIA on future rounds of spectrum reallocation.  The other bill, H.R. 3019, the Spectrum Relocation Improvement Act, reforms the process of relocating federal government users from spectrum that has been reallocated from federal to non-federal and commercial use.

Taken together (and they very well may be) these bills could disproportionately affect our joint warfighters who rely on the spectrum to train and fight.  Defense Department leaders are taking notice of the importance of controlling the spectrum in combat, but there is a lot of unfulfilled potential when it comes to managing the spectrum and knowing what our forces need to train and fight in 21^st Century combat.  The problem is not that DOD cannot afford to lose spectrum through reallocation (although it would be nice if they could gain through this process), it is that they do not have a well-proven metric to gauge both spectrum utilization and necessity across all military services and systems.  Of course, such a metric is probably impossible.  So the problem is really that there is a good chance that there will be mistakes, and these mistakes will carry dire consequences for our warfighters.

This brings us to the mark-up of the bills on Wednesday.  To be clear, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is listening to the defense community and the Committee made many positive changes to HR 3125 through the legislative process.  The bill is still far from perfect, but it is definitely moving in the right direction.  That right direction is thanks in large part to the efforts of Rep. Joe Pitts, the Chairman of the Electronic Warfare Working Group.  His continued support for the EW community brought about many positive changes and alerted the Committee to the criticality of the spectrum as a global warfighting domain.  Furthermore, he will continue to engage the Committee to add report language reinforcing this position.  These are very important steps as our community struggles to raise awareness outside of itself, especially outside of DOD.

Here is an excerpt from his opening statement:

“ I am pleased to see that the Committee has taken into consideration concerns raised by the Administration and the electronic warfare community regarding public disclosure of national security information, the reallocation process, and to some extent, the amount of spectrum included in the inventory.

“However, the electromagnetic spectrum is a dynamic and ever-changing environment, and we must ensure that the Armed Forces can manage utilization of the spectrum and provide long-term strategic planning and program development.

“ While I understand the importance and the potential economic value of spectrum inventory and reallocation, it is vital that these bills take into account the criticality of the electromagnetic spectrum to military training and operations and the importance of the US military controlling the spectrum in conflict.

“In addition, it is also imperative that it is recognized that the electromagnetic spectrum is recognized as a global warfighting domain that is fundamental to the range of military operations.  Its availability is essential to existing and emerging technologies in electronic warfare, network-centric capabilities, communications systems, satellite resources, and multi-spectral sensors.

“To that end, I would like to thank Chairman Waxman and Chairman Boucher for working with me to include report language in HR 3125 that recognizes the critical importance of adequate spectrum allocations for our armed services. “

So what’s next?  The two bills will proceed to the House floor for consideration in the coming weeks (possibly as early as next week – the week of March 15).  And the bills will pass with broad bipartisan support and they will eventually be signed into law.  But that is only the beginning.  Our community will have to remain engaged throughout, not just the legislative process, but also the implementation process.  Spectrum inventory and relocation promises to be on the front burner for a long time.