Ligado Stakeholders Prepare for Hill Action; Doyle Criticizes Pai

The House Armed Services Committee’s current version of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act doesn’t include language to intervene in FCC approval of the Ligado L-band plan. Proposal supporters said they are gearing up for a fight if committee members attempt to attach such amendments to the measure. Ligado opponents believe they have a good chance of prevailing because the Senate is considering its Armed Services Committee-approved FY21 NDAA version (S-4049) with related language intact, and a standalone bill is still in the pipeline.

The “chairman’s mark” of House Armed Services’ NDAA doesn’t address Ligado, but that “doesn’t mean there won’t be at some point,” either at Wednesday's markup or on the House floor, a committee aide said during a Thursday call with reporters. The aide acknowledged “a jurisdictional issue” due to House Commerce Committee’s oversight of the FCC “so obviously we couldn’t do something” on Ligado without “the approval” of that committee, the Armed Services aide said.

House Commerce is actively “tracking” the issue, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., in an interview. Subcommittee members had a Ligado-focused briefing earlier this month in a bid to reinforce its jurisdiction (see 2006190061). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “should have looked before he leaped” to advance the Ligado decision, Doyle said. “Our main concern is ensuring there won’t be any harmful interference to GPS” given the dueling claims made by the plan’s supporters and opponents. An FCC spokesperson pointed us to Pai's defense of the Ligado decision in May letters to House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and other committee members (see 2005270045). The agency also released similar letters Friday.

The real “food fight” for now remains between the Senate's Armed Services and Commerce panels because S-4049 is already pending on the chamber floor, Doyle told us. Senate Commerce’s internal divisions on Ligado were on display last week during an FCC oversight hearing (see 2006240069). “I don’t know” whether there will be Ligado-focused amendments to House Armed Services’ NDAA, but “we’re keeping an eye on it,” Doyle said. The Senate voted 90-7 Thursday to invoke cloture on S-4049. Further floor attention on the measure is expected this week (see 2006250053).

Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., told us he hasn’t gotten the kind of pushback from Senate Commerce members that would lead him to believe S-4049’s anti-Ligado language is in danger on the chamber floor. The provision would bar DOD from using its funding to comply with the FCC’s Ligado order without further review by the secretary of defense and the National Academies of Science and Engineering (see 2006110026). Lobbyists expect S-4049 to pass with the Ligado language intact, which will intensify interest in the outcome of House Armed Services’ work.

Inhofe told us he remains intent on filing his stand-alone Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary for (Retain) GPS and Satellite Communications Act. He described it as “in the formative stage” as he seeks out co-sponsors. The proposed measure would require Ligado to pay for the costs of any GPS user whose operations are hurt by the company’s L-band use (see 2006220055), Inhofe said. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Road & Transportation Builders Association, Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association and the Boat Owners Association of The U.S. formed the Keep GPS Working Coalition last week with the intent of supporting the coming Inhofe bill.

House Armed Services’ NDAA would expand the DOD principal cybersecurity adviser’s role, the committee said in a summary. It would assign the adviser “full responsibility for certification, coordination, harmonization, and deconfliction of the various efforts, initiatives, and programs” under the department’s umbrella, the committee said. The bill extends the life of the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission by two years to allow the group to “provide updates” to the executive branch and Congress on implementation of its March recommendations (see 2003110076). The measure also authorizes the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center director to spend up to $150 million per year to “procure systems and technologies” for AI “over the Future Year Defense Program,” House Armed Services said.