Grassley to White House: Cough up LightSquared docs or I’ll block FCC nominees
GOP watchdogs on Capitol Hill continue to chip away at White House stonewalls.
When last we visited the LightSquared scandal, one of the shady company’s partners was going under here in Colorado despite a $267 million fed loan and officials at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration were playing disclosure-ducking games.
The FCC is engaging in hide-the-docs, too. Sen. Charles Grassley has vowed to block Obama’s FCC nominees until the panel coughs up requested info:
The controversy over satellite-LTE carrier LightSquared could prevent the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from filling two vacant seats if a U.S. senator follows through on a threat issued this week.
In a statement on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa vowed to hold up a full Senate vote to confirm Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai as members of the FCC unless the agency answers his questions about its handling of LightSquared. President Barack Obama nominated Rosenworcel and Pai to the FCC on Tuesday, but their appointments will need to be confirmed by the Senate.
Grassley, a Republican, has been fighting the FCC since he wrote a letter to the agency in April requesting information about its regulation of LightSquared’s proposed hybrid satellite and cellular network. The carrier has a satellite mobile data network and wants to also build an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network on frequencies close to those used by GPS (Global Positioning System). In January, the FCC granted the company a waiver to sell wholesale access to the two networks separately, making an exception to current rules. It gave the waiver on the condition that there be no interference between the LTE network and GPS.
…Subsequent tests showed interference that effectively knocked out many GPS devices. LightSquared has adjusted its plans to minimize that interference and now says the problem could be solved through those changes and some affordable modifications to GPS receivers. But the company is still trading claims with GPS vendors and users over who caused the problem, what fixes can work and who should pay for them.
Grassley wants the agency to address concerns about GPS interference, but also about Harbinger Capital, the hedge fund that owns LightSquared. He cited U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into Harbinger and concerns that the company may have used past political contributions to influence the FCC toward granting the waiver.
The FCC declined to give Grassley the documents he asked for because he is not the chairman of a committee with direct jurisdiction over the agency, Grassley said.
Grassley’s statement on the FCC’s “radio silence:”
Radio Silence on New Wireless Service Draws Concern
A new wireless Internet network project appears on a fast track for government approval, despite concerns that it could jam the existing navigational systems used in farming, trucking, air travel, law enforcement, by the military and in general consumer navigation, and that the person funding the operation is a controversial hedge fund founder who’s reportedly under federal investigation for questionable financial dealings.
If anything, the shadows around the LightSquared project should have led the Federal Communications Commission to proceed with caution rather than step on the gas. Yet the opposite happened. The agency originally planned to take public comment on a key regulation necessary for green-lighting the project for only one week. The commission relented and held the comment period open longer only after consumers and affected businesses protested.
Still, the agency has granted a conditional waiver for LightSquared to proceed with its wireless network. Testing of the technology’s effects on other navigational systems is ongoing.
This week, as LightSquared was testing in Nevada, the Federal Aviation Administration warned that Global Positioning System service in a 300-mile area could be “unreliable or unavailable” for six-hour periods during testing, according to media reports. Other tests showed some disruption of this service for emergency first responders in New Mexico.
A LightSquared official was quoted as saying the company doesn’t want to jeopardize national security or public safety interests. He also said, “We’re trying to get our arms around this problem.”
Given the Federal Communications Commission’s haste so far, I worry that LightSquared will not have interference problems resolved before given the green light to become fully operational. Farmers shouldn’t have to worry that they’re planting the correct seed or applying the precise amount of fertilizer needed for the soil to optimally produce the crop, and ambulance drivers shouldn’t have to weather taking a wrong turn or driving into a ditch because a new system is scrambling their existing navigational technology. Just today, I joined 33 fellow senators in urging the agency to consider interference concerns.
Another concern is on the financial side. The head of the hedge fund behind the project told investors that his firm is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegations of market manipulation, according to media reports. The firm has been the subject of considerable media attention for losing large amounts of money and other controversies including whether the firm should have told investors in a timely fashion about a $113 million loan it extended to the principal of the firm.
The public spectrum is limited, and it’s a valuable asset that the Federal Communications Commission is responsible for protecting. It’s unclear what would happen if a company gets access to this piece of public property, then falls apart.
The unusual fast-tracking of this project before its effects have been fully tested raises questions about whether the agency did its due diligence. I’m looking for answers to these questions so taxpayers can be assured that the government is treating public property the way it ought to be treated. I wrote to the commission, seeking information about its process and its rationale here.
So far, the agency has responded with radio silence. It should provide the information I’ve requested in the interest of transparency in doing the public’s business. I’ll continue to press for answers.
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Previous:
September 23 Government Loans to Nowhere
September 21 LightSquared: Obama’s Dangerous Broadband Boondoggle
September 15 LightSquared: The next Obama pay-for-play morass?
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It’s about time someone plays hardball on these issues.
It’s way past time for the entire GOP to be educating the public and fighting the Communist agenda!
Excellent
Somewhere in this week’s Accounts Payable invoices, the GSA has received bills for 973 paper shredders. The invoices are coming from DHS, FCC, DOJ, HHS, and EPA. The White House is expecting their 14K-gold, diamond-encrutsted super shredders any day now.
Blocking a FCC nominee is nothing.
The GOP should block ALL nominees to ANYTHING this golf-player vacationer is going to nominate.
I bet there are some Carbide Burn Barrels being purchased for their night time Thermite parties.
They probably have a lot of 11″ wide magic markers for redacting the few documents they do turn over.
“See, we are co-operating!”
Nah, they shred all their documents overseas…why else do you think Michelle is taking all those vacations? (wouldn’t it be something if that really was the reason).
Could be bho taking all the documents on his 9 day hawaii, bali, trip? Wonder if mo is going with him and if will she take a different AF1?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/07/us-apec-obama-poliitcs-idUSTRE7A60XM20111107
L
We use GPS every time we travel. It was absolutely indispensable in Boston!! We would still be there circling the airport without GPS! They’d better think hard and long before doing anything to interfere with GPS. There could be so many ramifications!!
I am deeply concerned about all the various attempts to “improve” or “update” our communication systems. This sounds like code to me, for putting programs in place that will further erode our freedoms. Am I being paranoid? I don’t think so!
Hey Fed, I’m going under, throw me some money! (holds out hands, bird poops on them)
No. none of what you write indicates any paranoia on your part. Attempts by the leftist/statists in “updating and improving” our communications systems should always be viewed with suspicion. Big Bro/Sis wants to watch and control our every action. It’s for our own good after all.
If that were the case, would she not be making more frequent trips and staying overseas longer? Perhaps in Asia somewhere?
Finally, a GOP senator shows he’s got a pair.
Let ‘em have it, Grassley! Time to quit making nice with the Dhimmicrats and play hardball.
Also – speaking of “radio silence,” I hate the idea that Oblame-o can do an “emergency test” of the FCC system all by himself. (I heard it on Savage’s show last week.)
Shades of Hugo Chavez – now the Man-Child wants to take over the airwaves single-handedly. Do these people have no shame?
Sheesh!
Regards,
Peter H.
They bring a knife, you bring a gun.
What are the chances that the data from these test runs are analysed the way man-made global warming data is? You must merely gather a group of like-minded individuals, declare that a concensus has been reached and anyone who questions the findings is not only wrong, but a fool for not believing. Liberals will invoke religion and science when it suites them, but just as easily ignore them when it’s convenient.
I also see that Issa is starting a probe into ACORN and OWS.
I believe on the 9th all radio and tv stations will be off the air for 3 minutes for the fcc to do their thing. This smacks of something I am not all that thrilled about. If they can do this, what will stop them from taking the internet off for whatever time they want? If bho and team has control of tv, radio, internet, HOW will we get news? Is this one of the plans for bho’s re-election? I would NOT put anything past bho and team. They are scum, crooks, and lie their heads off!
L
I, for one, do not adhere to that train of thought. If they bring a knife, I will counter with a low-yield thermonuclear device.
Jus’ sayin’…
Cabrerski–I like the way you think!
Blocking new nominees is a good start, but the GOP really needs to grow a pair and start investigating, indicting and where applicable impeaching the ones already in office.
Ha! I did not mention what type of gun I would bring. Check it out: the David Crockett Nuclear Artillery piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=nv_q8q6Z9_I
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HI PRENDAD–#22. Thanks for the interesting film clip. I used to watch the late 1940′s A-bomb tests from Reno about 350 miles North (as the neutrons fly!) from the Test Site. As I was rolling up my paper route newspapers in the pre-dawn and listening to the countdown on the radio.
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At zero the sky lit up to the South–lots of aurora borealis like rainbow colors on the horizon. A few minutes later darkness returned. These were much larger bombs. I never saw anything from the Davy Crockett tests years later in the early 1960′s–small yield firecrackers! A 3 Km. distance is still pretty close. I was a university student then.
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The Honest John and Little John rockets packed far more powerful bombs–and could fly 20 Km. They ran the Davy Crockett out of business. A 200 yard kill radius against an attacking mass Russki tank force just wasn’t enough. A mile wide hole was a lot better answer.
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And brooms to “decontaminate” the troops and equipment?? Without protective breathing masks?? The troops were pretty expendable in a mostly draftee Army.
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John Bibb
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