Rubio Eyes Early-March Reintroduction of Wireless Legislation, Hopeful for Hearings

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., intends to reintroduce one, or all, of his three pieces of wireless-focused legislation, likely in early March, with wireless hearings possible, he told us at the Capitol Thursday. He began working with the current Commerce Committee leadership on them as far back as September (see 1409220044). Rubio introduced two of the three bills last year: the Wi-Fi Innovation Act (S-2505) with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., pressing for FCC examination of the upper 5 GHz band, and the Wireless Innovation Act (S-2473), focused on reallocating of at least 200 MHz of government-held spectrum for private use, without any co-sponsors. Rubio prepared to issue a third bill -- on removing regulatory siting barriers for carriers -- in December with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., but he told us then a procedural detail stalled that introduction (see 1412110036). That stall involved a question of “the committee they wanted to send it to, that’s one of the other issues, but I think we might have that resolved,” Rubio said Thursday. “I think they could all be done simultaneously, but I’m not sure yet. … Our goal is to make them bipartisan. That’s one of the things that’s holding us up still. But we’ll get there.” Rubio is working with Commerce to see if they could be introduced with “a time frame to get some hearings on the general issue but we haven’t worked that out yet,” he said. He pointed to congressional recess in February when predicting the legislative release will “probably have to be in early March.”