On the recordApril 14, 2010
Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentleman for yielding time and thank him for his leadership on the committee and subcommittee, as well as the leadership of the ranking member. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 3125, the bipartisan Radio Spectrum Inventory Act, introduced by our chairman, Mr. Waxman, who just spoke a moment ago. Mr. Speaker, last year, 2009, a Pew study found that while African Americans are less likely than others to use a desktop computer to access the Internet, they are more likely to access the Internet over a wireless device. And so it is incredibly important to know the available spectrum and how to use it in the most efficient way so that wireless broadband service is as ubiquitous and robust as possible. We can help facilitate that goal by ensuring that additional spectrum will be available when it is needed. And given the long lead times that often are associated with efforts to bring spectrum to market, the time to start is now. The Radio Spectrum Inventory Act will help ensure that we know where future allocations of spectrum can be drawn from so that our constituents can have the services they need when they need them. This is a good bill, Mr. Speaker. I support it. I ask my colleagues to do the same.





