Senate Commerce Committee chair Jay Rockefeller (D- W.Va.)
said Wednesday he plans to hold a classified briefing with government agencies
to better understand how they are using their radio spectrum.
Government agencies have been directed by the Obama
Administration to work with the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration to free up spectrum either via reclamation of sharing.
Broadcasters, who are being asked to volunteer their spectrum for sale or
sharing, have pointed out that the government has a lot of spectrum it could be
contributing to the cause, and has called for an inventory of that spectrum.
At the committee's first hearing of the new session,
according to Rockefeller's office, he said that he and ranking member John
Thune (R-S.D.) were "working right now on setting up a classified briefing
for Members that will help us understand how the military, law enforcement, and
the intelligence community currently use spectrum that is reserved for the government."
