House draft bill authorizes voluntary incentive auction of TV spectrum
Nov 30, 2011 10:53 AM, By Phil Kurz
Greg Walden (R-OR), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee, said this week that the subcommittee will move forward with a markup of draft legislation authorizing a voluntary incentive auction of TV spectrum.
The House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee has scheduled a markup for Dec. 1 of draft legislation that would authorize the FCC to conduct incentive auctions to clear TV spectrum.
The draft bill, Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act of 2011, lays out the ground rules for the commission to follow in conducting the auction and provides for creation of a $3 billion TV broadcaster relocation fund from the proceeds of the auction. The draft legislation includes several key provisions that protect the interests of OTA viewers and stations alike, including restricting to one the number of incentive auctions the commission may conduct, authorizing a single “reorganization,” commonly referred to as repacking, of the broadcast band and directing the FCC to maintain television stations’ geographical and population coverage.
Greg Walden (R-OR), chairman of the subcommittee, unveiled the Republican bill Nov. 29 after failing to reach a bipartisan agreement on the legislation.
“Following nearly a year of hearings, meetings and negotiations, I am disappointed that we could not develop a bipartisan bill,” Walden said in a press release announcing the JOBS Act.
“No party, special interest or lobby gets everything they want in this legislation,” he said in the release.
A “discussion draft” of the bill available on the subcommittee’s website says the amount of compensation a television licensee would accept in return for voluntarily giving up spectrum usage rights will be determined through a reverse auction process in which at least two competing licensees participate. The draft specifies that $3 billion from the proceeds of broadcast incentive auctions will be set aside in a TV broadcaster relocation fund.
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