UPDATE, DOCUMENTS UNCOVERED: NTIA Cannot Find LightSquared Documents, Tells Magazine to Go Fish
October 4, 2011 By: Alan CameronUPDATE: Congress Digs Up Docs!!
See this page on the site of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology for at least some -- but not all -- of the impact statements. The page provides PDFs of impact statements from the Departments of Energy, Transportation, and Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the Federal Aviation Administration. Further communication from the Committee appears appended below to the end of this story.
Original GPS World story, dated October 4:
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has responded to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, filed on September 6 by GPS World magazine, saying it cannot or will not release documents prepared by other government agencies, outlining the operational and economic impacts of a LightSquared terrestrial signal on GPS services. GPS World has talked with two independent sources who confirm that the U.S. Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, and two other agencies wrote such letters to the NTIA in the June-July 2011 timeframe, in response to a federal tasking by the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing.
The NTIA essentially shrugs its massive shoulders and says “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Such conduct is consistent with previous characterizations of the NTIA by a participant in the process, who stated in late August that the NTIA had not forwarded any of the letters to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is weighing the matter. This source characterized the NTIA as “sitting on them” as part of a “massive bureaucratic game,” and further asserted that Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and other Congressional representatives are getting “stonewalled” by the FCC in their efforts to investigate the matter.
Kathy D. Smith, chief counsel to the NTIA, wrote to GPS World Editor Alan Cameron on September 29 that, “NTIA conducted a search for the requested documents and found no responsive documents originating with NTIA. All responsive documents that were found originated with other U.S. Government agencies and are being forwarded to those other agencies [ . . . . ] for a direct response to the request.”
A source who has seen the agency letters termed them “very powerful,” and another source expressed a strong desire “for these letters to see the light of day.”
The full text of chief counsel Kathy D. Smith's letter is available here.
On October 6 the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology published this press release:
Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) and Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Paul Broun (R-GA) reiterated their request that agencies provide the Committee with their assessments of the potential impacts of the LightSquared network on their operations. These assessments were transmitted to the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) in July, yet neither the NTIA, nor the individual agencies have allowed the technical evaluations to see the light of day.
“Despite the Administration’s claims of unprecedented transparency, the American public wouldn’t know about the impact of LightSquared’s interference on GPS if it weren’t for the diligence of Congressional oversight.” said Chairman Broun. “We need this Administration to be open about the impacts of LightSquared’s network on the GPS signal.”
The FCC requested comments on LightSquared’s proposal on July 30th, with a deadline of August 15th. While some agencies have complied with the Committee’s request, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Commerce (DOC), including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST), continue to withhold this information. Today, Chairmen Hall and Broun sent letters to DHS, NIST, and NOAA, once again requesting their assessments be provided to the Committee.
The Committee held a hearing on September 8th, 2011 to examine the impacts of the LightSquared network on federal science activities related to the Global Positioning System (GPS). Prior to that hearing, on July 28th, Chairman Hall asked the agencies to provide the Committee with a copy of the technical assessments they submitted to the NTIA. On September 20th, Chairman Hall, Vice Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), along with Republican Members of the Investigations and Oversight (I&O) Subcommittee requested a number of records from the Administration related to the LightSquared proposal.
Chairman Hall said, “The ramifications of destroying critical national security and economic infrastructure such as GPS should be fully vetted in the light of day. Everyone supports expanded wireless broadband capacity in the United States and I hope we can find a way to make it happen. But it absolutely cannot happen behind closed doors and with backroom deals.”
Hall continued, “Unfortunately, this is an issue that the Committee is unable to fully address because of the refusal of certain agencies to release their experts’ technical evaluations. For the benefit of all parties, today I am releasing the agency documents submitted thus far for the record in an attempt to shine some light on the issues that have been raised.”
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