Political Quotes

“I'd like to thank our chairman and ranking member for including amendment No. 149 and my ranking member of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Loretta Sanchez, for joining me in an important amendment. We are deeply concerned about a commercial company, LightSquared, that is developing a communications service that will harm our GPS system and interfere with the military's use of GPS. The military is heavily reliant on GPS. The potential GPS interference would also affect first responders, air traffic management and safety, and commercial GPS users. The Deputy Secretary of Defense wrote to the FCC chairman that there is a ``strong potential for interference to critical national security systems.'' We need the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that the Defense Department's concerns about GPS interference are resolved before it moves ahead with the final decision on LightSquared. This is a bipartisan and bicameral concern. The defense bill contains a provision addressing this concern, and the amendment I and my ranking member Ms. Sanchez offered strengthens this position by saying that the FCC shall not permit LightSquared operations until the commission has resolved concerns of widespread harmful interference to GPS devices used by the Department of Defense. I also thank our colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee for working with us.”