Lawmakers Finalizing Details of Spectrum Language

House and Senate negotiators were finalizing the details of spectrum legislation that is now expected to be part of a payroll tax cut package. "We're just about there," House Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) told reporters.

Chairman Upton -- along with Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) -- are members of the House-Senate payroll tax conference committee and are working on the spectrum provisions. House Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman (D-CA), who also sits on the conference committee, said negotiators were finalizing details but wouldn't say what still needed to be worked out. The negotiators want to use the spectrum legislation to help pay for the payroll tax cut package. The spectrum legislation would authorize incentive auctions, from which the Federal Communications Commission to could give broadcasters and other spectrum holders a share of the revenues from the spectrum they relinquish. Auctions could raise billions for the Treasury depending on how the legislation is structured. The Congressional Budget Office projected that spectrum legislation approved late last year by Walden's subcommittee and included in the House's version of the payroll tax package would generate $16.7 billion for the Treasury. "It's all about the money," said Communications and Technology Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo (D-CA).