Sat, Jun 25, 2011
Appropriations Committee Acts To Halt Any FCC Expenditures
Related To Proposal Until GPS Interference Issues Resolved
The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee
Thursday approved action that would “fence,” or halt,
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from expending any
funds related to a conditional waiver it granted a company called
LightSquared until all concerns have been resolved about
interference with GPS.
The amendment was passed in a unanimous voice vote by the full
House Appropriations Committee. Observers reported that that the
vote was punctuated with a “loud” response –
underscoring the growing Congressional concern about the harmful
interference to GPS systems that will occur if the FCC moves ahead
with approval of LightSquared’s plans to deploy 40,000 ground
stations. The amendment was offered by U.S. Reps. Steve Austria
(R-OH) and Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and was part of the Financial
Services Appropriations Subcommittee’s bill.
“GPS is a vital national resource that is today
fundamental to our economy, national security and to virtually
every industry sector," said Jim Kirkland, vice president and
general counsel of Trimble, a founding member of the Coalition to
Save Our GPS. "Business, consumers and the government will be
hobbled if the FCC proceeds on this path with LightSquared. The
vote today (Thursday) puts ‘teeth’ into
legislation that will protect government and private GPS users from
LightSquared’s proposal.”
Kirkland said Coalition members are highly appreciative of both
the legislation and the many Members of Congress who have
intervened to protect GPS from the damaging and debilitating
interference that multiple tests have confirmed will occur if
LightSquared’s plans are allowed to proceed. In a highly
unusual process, the FCC early this year granted a conditional
waiver to LightSquared, a Virginia-based company backed by a New
York-based hedge fund, to develop spectrum immediately adjacent to
the spectrum long used for GPS.
The legislation reads, “None of the funds made available
in this Act may be used by the Federal Communications Commission to
remove the conditions imposed on commercial terrestrial operations
in the Order and Authorization adopted by the Commission on January
26, 2011 (DA 11-133), or otherwise permit such operations, until
the Commission has resolved concerns of potential widespread
harmful interference by such commercial terrestrial operations to
commercially available Global Positioning System
devices.”
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