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Public Safety Spectrum Provision Left Out of Year-End Legislative Vehicle

Published Date: 12.20.2011

Provision to prevent a reduction in super-rural ambulance transport fees still on the table

As the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate continue to go back and forth over a proposal to extend several tax provisions that are set to expire at the end of the year, language that would have allocated radio spectrum to public safety for the purpose of building a nationwide broadband communications network appears to be off the table for now. Language preventing a reduction in the Medicare reimbursement rate for ambulance transport fees has been approved by the House and the Senate but differences over the length of the bill remain unsettled.

On December 13 the House passed H.R. 3630, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011, which included language allocating radio spectrum to public safety for the purpose of creating a nationwide broadband communications network. The House-passed bill would also have required public safety to give back certain frequencies of radio spectrum that are currently being used for interoperable voice communications and established an "administrator" to oversee the creation of the broadband network that was not accountable to public safety.

On December 17, the Senate passed an amended version of H.R. 3630 with the entire section of the bill dealing with radio spectrum removed. The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) had opposed the “give back” and “administrator” provisions in H.R. 3630 and had urged the Senate to replace the radio spectrum section in the House-passed bill with the bi-partisan Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act of 2011 (S. 911).

It was initially thought that the version of H.R. 3630 that passed the Senate, which includes language that would prevent a reduction in the Medicare reimbursement rates for ambulance transportation, would be approved by the House and signed by President Obama. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), however, has expressed concern over the fact that the Senate-passed version of the bill would only extend expiring provisions for two months. The House is now expected to amend and pass a new version of H.R. 3630 that would be in effect for all of 2012.

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