King cites 9/11 in fight against FCC plan

WASHINGTON -- A high-stakes fight over two small slices of the broadcast spectrum and the need for a high-speed network for police and firefighters is shaping up to be one of the biggest homeland security battles in Congress this year.

At stake are billions of dollars, market share in the fast-growing wireless world and first responders' ability to finally communicate easily with each other, a decade after 9/11.

The issue pits the White House against the FCC, the Democratic Senate against the GOP House, national security Republicans against budget hawks, and the two big wireless providers against smaller ones.

Spurring the fight is a bill proposed this year by Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), House Homeland Security Committee chairman, and a similar bill by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

The legislation would force a major shift in policy, requiring the FCC to give the spectrum license to public safety officials and the government to dedicate funds to its construction and upkeep.

"We have these political forces, all these special interests, all of the competing interests. We have the deficit," King said.

"But the bottom line is nobody wants to go through another Sept. 11, no one wants to have situations where there is not complete interoperability."

Few deny a need to fix the current radio systems after they failed on 9/11 and during Hurricane Katrina. The 9/11 Commission highlighted the problem and proposed that public safety be allocated a dedicated broadcast spectrum.

The FCC took a different path. It set aside a pair of 5 MHz slices of spectrum freed up when TV went digital for a public safety network and sought a commercial company to develop it.

In 2008, the FCC put what it called the D Block up for auction, with the condition the winner develop a public safety network and give it priority use. No one bid the minimum.

A second auction is on hold.

Last year, police, fire and other groups formed a Public Safety Alliance to win control of D Block and the network.

King is siding with them.

His legislation would scrap the planned auction, estimated to rake in as much as $3 billion, and instead give it to public safety officials for free.

King's bill sets up a fund of $5.5 billion, raised by selling other parts of the spectrum, to build a network, but estimates of that cost range as high as $48 billion.

King said the nation can't afford not to fund public safety and that Congress should act to fix the communication flaws by the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

But the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which must approve King's bill before the House can vote on it, gave a chilly assessment.

"Last Congress," said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), "there was bipartisan agreement the best way to meet our public safety and broadband needs was to auction the D Block."

The auction would raise billions of dollars while freeing up needed spectrum for smart phones and other devices, backers say. It also would tap the private sector and its technology for a public safety network.

Still under the radar for the public, the bills already have drawn scores of lobbyists hired by a dozen cities, two dozen trade groups and three dozen companies, records show.

Backing the intent of King's bill are President Barack Obama, the Department of Homeland Security, New York Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, and wireless giants Verizon and AT&T, which don't want rivals buying spectrum.

On the other side is the FCC, which calls for auctioning D Block in its National Broadband Plan, pro-business and budget hawk lawmakers, and Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, hungry for more spectrum.

"It's very complex, it's very complicated," said retired Ithaca Police Chief Harlin McEwen, a key player in the Public Safety Alliance. "But we're all working collaboratively to have a favorable outcome."