Methodology inventorying, reporting to state authorities, checks
REPACKING AND INVENTORYING FEDERAL SPECTRUM...
Transcript of REPACKING AND INVENTORYING FEDERAL SPECTRUM...
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REPACKING AND INVENTORYING
FEDERAL SPECTRUM: THE ROLE OF
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES
Sarah Oh†
Abstract
Federal radio engineers have the expertise and job description to
perform federal spectrum repacking. However, these federal employees have high costs of coordination due to administrative constraints. The inter-agency structure of federal spectrum management creates fragmentation on spectrum decisions. Radio engineers are disaggregated from their counterparts in other agencies and removed from policy decisions made by spectrum policy committees. Several proposals for institutions to manage federal spectrum have been advanced this year to bring federal spectrum into a modern organizational service. Institutional reform also requires a closer analysis of the role of federal employees who perform repacking and inventory of federal spectrum. Incorporating best practices from federal property management to federal radio spectrum reallocation may better align incentives of federal employees, particularly engineers who manage custom and localized federal radio equipment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................................... 316 I. Fragmentation of Federal Radio Engineers ......................................... 321
A. Repacking Costs and Expert Judgment ....................................... 321 B. Inter-Agency Fragmentation........................................................ 323 C. Knowledge Allocation in Expert Technical Advice .................... 326 D. Managing the Engineers .............................................................. 328 E. Features of Federal Spectrum Use ............................................... 332
II. Federal Property Managers and Federal Radio Engineers .................. 332 A. Incentives in Federal Property Management ............................... 333 B. Incentives in Federal Radio Management ................................... 334
III. Certification of Federal Radio Engineers ............................................ 335 A. Certification Procedures for Specialized Federal Employees ...... 336 B. Requirements for Federal Radio Engineers ................................. 337
† PhD Student, George Mason University, Department of Economics; JD 2009, George Mason
School of Law; BS 2004, Stanford University.
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Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 339
INTRODUCTION
This article addresses federal spectrum policy with a focus on the role of
federal employees who take inventories and reallocate federal radio uses.
Radio reallocation, or repacking, requires the evaluation, measurement,
sorting, procurement, and installation of radio equipment.1 Indeed, the
coordination problem for spectrum repacking is complex and handled by real
people. The inventory task is time and labor intensive in both the private and
public sector. In the public sector, federal engineers across nineteen agencies
assess and report on federal inventories, make repacking recommendations,
and consider multilateral agreements across domestic and international
stakeholders to draft spectrum transition plans.2 Federal employees are also
subject to policy and budget decisions at higher levels of review.3
Many radio technicians are stewards of decades-old equipment in unique
geographic locations across the United States with important governmental
functions. These engineers are tasked with filling out federal inventory sheets
to reflect radio device uses.4 Inventories are meant to record customized and
assorted equipment by function and topography.5 The Spectrum Relocation
Fund and the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA) Dispute Resolution framework
depends critically on the business judgment of radio engineers in the federal
agencies in this inventory task.6 In spectrum repacking efforts, institutional
reform needs to improve the job functions of these engineers who take
inventories, and the policy directors who interpret the inventories. Federal
1. FCC, Spectrum Analysis: Options for Broadcast Spectrum 16–17 (OBI Technical Working Paper
No. 3, 2000) [hereinafter “OBI Technical Working Paper”], https://transition.fcc.gov/national-broadband-
plan/spectrum-analysis-paper.pdf; Charles M. Davidson & Michael J. Santorelli, Seizing the Mobile Moment:
Spectrum Allocation Policy for the Wireless Broadband Century, 19 COMMLAW CONSPECTUS 1, 54 (2010).
2. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. (NTIA), U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, MANUAL OF
REGULATIONS AND PROCEDURES FOR FEDERAL RADIO FREQUENCY MANAGEMENT 1–5, 1–12 (2014)
[hereinafter “REDBOOK”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/redbook/2014-05/1_14_5.pdf; CORP.
FOR PUB. BROAD., FACING THE SPECTRUM INCENTIVE AUCTION AND REPACKING PROCESS 8 (July 8, 2014)
[hereinafter “FACING THE SPECTRUM”], http://www.cpb.org/spectrum/reports/CPB-White-Paper-on-Spectrum-
Auction-and-Repacking-Process.pdf; Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Sec’y for Commc’n & Info., Nat’l
Telecomms. & Info. Admin., Testimony Before the Subcomm. on Commc’ns and Tech., Federal Government
Spectrum Use 5–6 (July 6, 2011), http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/
Testimony-Strickling-CT-The-Federal-Government-Spectrum-Use-2011-7-6.pdf.
3. The Mission and Structure of the Office of Management and Budget, WHITE HOUSE,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/organization_mission (last visited Aug. 30, 2015) (describing various
budget and management oversights over federal agencies).
4. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at O-9 to O-14, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/redbook/
2014-05/O_14_5.pdf.
5. RADIO SPECTRUM INVENTORY ACT, H.R. REP. NO. 111–462 (2010); MICHAEL CALABRESE ET AL.,
NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. (NTIA), REPORT FROM THE SPECTRUM INVENTORY WORKING GROUP OF
THE COMMERCE SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 5–7 (2010), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/
ntia/publications/csmac_siwg_document_0525clean.pdf.
6. Relocation of and Spectrum Sharing by Federal Government Stations—Technical Panel and
Dispute Resolution Boards, 78 Fed. Reg. 5310, 5311 (Jan. 25, 2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/federal-register-
notice/2013/spectrum-relocation-final-rule-technical-panel-and-dispute-resolution-b.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 317
employees who are asked to repack the federal spectrum have remarked that
ten years may not be enough time for reallocation efforts, with limited budget
resources and evaluation costs.7
Repacking federal spectrum is similar to repacking spectrum in the
private sector. Repacking radios, or spectrum reallocation, is often needed to
make room for new spectrum uses.8 This repacking or reallocation effort is not
cost-free in terms of human capital or fixed capital.9 Indeed, repacking often
requires manual and custom attention on a radio-by-radio basis.10
Topography
and technology are highly non-standard, with costs of time and effort that rise
with analysis of each custom device.11
Status quo allocations persist due to
costs of assessing and reorganizing equipment.12
The reorganization effort is
not a trivial endeavor, since sorting and valuation of radios by function occurs
within a fragmented inter-agency structure of federal spectrum management.13
Yet, repacking has the potential to generate multipliers of economic welfare
gains through more efficient use of spectrum.14
Radio repacking is similar to real property management in many ways.
Radios can be replaced, transferred, or modified, yet only in regard to local and
custom conditions.15
This decision is best performed by radio engineers with
technical and local judgment.16
Efforts by policymakers to legislate
interference standards, receiver standards, and other technical boundaries are
attempts to generalize rules.17
However, customized and non-standard
equipment uses can make these rules unworkable very quickly, once engineers
take into account local conditions and conflicts among neighboring spectrum
7. See U.S. DEP’T OF INTERIOR, 1755–1850 MHZ COMPARABLE BAND ANALYSIS, PHASE III—FINAL
REPORT 3, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/doi_2.pdf (“However, our resources and staffing are
limited and further DOI work and analysis to meet the NTIA 10-Year Plan is dependent on availability of
funds for continued research and RF engineering analysis moving forward with other candidate spectrum
bands. Further, the going forward work is dependent on availability of funds to perform a more thorough up-
front technical and engineering analysis.”).
8. FACING THE SPECTRUM, supra note 2, at 6; Karen R. Sprung, Broadcast v. Broadband? A Survey of
the Reallocation of Broadcast Spectrum for Wireless Broadband, MEDIA L. & POL’Y 238, 242 (2010).
9. William Lehr & J. Armand Musey, Right-Sizing Broadband Spectrum Auction Licenses: The Case
for Smaller Geographic License Areas in the TV Broadcast Incentive Auction, 37 HASTINGS COMM. & ENT.
L.J. 231, 238 (2015) (“These repacking costs alone are estimated to be $1.75 billion.”).
10. OBI Technical Working Paper, supra note 1, at 24.
11. Strickling, supra note 2, at 7.
12. Ellen P. Goodman, Spectrum Rights in the Telecosm to Come, 41 SAN DIEGO L. REV. 269, 313
(2004); Promoting Spectrum Sharing in the Wireless Broadband Era, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.
(Jan. 9, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2015/promoting-spectrum-sharing-wireless-broadband-era.
13. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at 15, 1–12.
14. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., PROMOTING SPECTRUM SHARING IN THE WIRELESS
BROADBAND ERA (Jan. 9, 2015); Jeffrey A. Eisenach, Spectrum Reallocation and the National Broadband
Plan, 64 FED. COMM. L.J. 87, 107 (2011).
15. Thomas W. Hazlett, A Law & Economics Approach to Spectrum Property Rights: A Response to
Weiser and Hatfield, 15 GEO. MASON L. REV. 975, 979 (2008).
16. Richard Bennett, Technical Principles of Spectrum Allocation, TPRC 41: The 41st Research
Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy 2013, http://ssrn.com/abstract=2240625.
17. See, e.g., R. Paul Margie, Can You Hear Me Now? Getting Better Reception from the FCC’s
Spectrum Policy, 2004 STAN. TECH. L. REV. 5, 26 (2004) (“While the Commission permits ‘interference’ in
most cases, it generally prohibits ‘harmful interference’ . . . and the harmful interference standard allows the
FCC the flexibility to know interference when it sees it. This flexibility is an important asset of the standard in
these types of cases, much like the flexibility of the antitrust standard and the obscenity standard is an asset for
other types of disputes.”).
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users.18
Federal spectrum decisions that give rise to inter-agency conflicts are
delegated to working groups with technical expertise for this reason.19
Other
obstacles limit federal spectrum repacking efforts.20
Reformers find that federal spectrum is more encumbered than private
spectrum.21
Mechanisms that may be feasible for commercial spectrum are
often considered underdeveloped for federal spectrum, such as overlay
licenses,22
incentive auctions,23
and harm claim thresholds.24
One proposal to
improve federal reallocation is to directly increase decision-making power25
as
cited in a recent request for information on federal agency incentives.26
Another mechanism is to increase repacking authority is through specialized
applications of market design such as incentive auctions for federal spectrum.27
In one particular proposal, federal agencies would receive proceeds from
commercial auctions of federal spectrum to incentivize agencies to find and
relinquish spectrum holdings.28
18. Establishment of an Interference Temperature Metric to Quantify and Manage Interference, ET
Docket No. 03-237, (FCC May 4, 2007) (order), http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-
78A1.pdf (interference temperature proceeding); Interference Immunity Performance Specifications for Radio
Receivers, ET Docket No. 03-65, (FCC May 4, 2007) (order), http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?
(receiver standards proceeding); FCC, Spectrum Policy Task Force: Report, ET Docket No. 02-135 (Nov.
2002), http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-228542A1.pdf (recommending interference
temperature and receiver standards proceedings).
19. COMMERCE SPECTRUM MGMT. ADVISORY COMM. (CSMAC), SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT
IMPROVEMENTS WORKING GROUP REPLY TO MARCH 1, 2012 NTIA RESPONSE (2012),
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/sm_improvements_response_to_ntia_052512_draft_-_802011_
1.pdf; Agenda for 11/05/2013 Innovative Spectrum Sharing Technology Day, Co-hosted by U.S. Commerce
Dep’t’s Nat’l Telecomms. & Info. Admin. (NTIA) and Nat’l Inst. of Standards & Tech. (NIST) (Nov. 5,
2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2013/agenda- 11052013-innovative-spectrum-sharing-
technology-day; NAT’L SCI. FOUND., ENHANCING ACCESS TO THE RADIO SPECTRUM (EARS), PROGRAM
SOLICITATION NSF 14-529, http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14529/nsf14529.pdf; JENNIFER BERNHARD ET
AL., NAT’L SCI. FOUND., WORKSHOP ON ENHANCING ACCESS TO THE RADIO SPECTRUM (Aug. 4–6, 2010),
http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/ears_workshop_final_report_ce_final_corr.pdf.
20. See e.g., Brent Skorup, Reclaiming Federal Spectrum: Proposals and Recommendations, 15
COLUM. SCI. & TECH. L. REV. 90, 113 (2013) (discussing political obstacles).
21. Eisenach, supra note 14, at 130–31.
22. THOMAS W. HAZLETT, UNLEASHING THE DTV BAND A PROPOSAL FOR AN OVERLAY AUCTION, FCC
(Dec. 18, 2009), http://mason.gmu.edu/~thazlett/pubs/NBP_PublicNotice26_DTVBand.pdf; see generally THE
NETWORKING AND INFO. TECH. RES. AND DEV. (NITRD) PROGRAM, WIRELESS SPECTRUM RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT (WSRD) WORKSHOP IV, PROMOTING ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY IN SPECTRUM USE: THE
ECONOMIC AND POL’Y R&D AGENDA, http://iep.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CSAIL-Program-April-
2013.pdf (providing background on the federal spectrum and an explanation of the workshop).
23. PAUL MILGROM, ET AL., INCENTIVE AUCTION RULES OPTION AND DISCUSSION (Sept. 12, 2012),
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db1002/FCC-12-118A2.pdf.
24. J. PIERRE DE VRIES & PHILIP J. WEISER, THE HAMILTON PROJECT, UNLOCKING SPECTRUM VALUE
THROUGH IMPROVED ALLOCATION ASSIGNMENT, AND ADJUDICATION OF SPECTRUM RIGHTS (Mar. 2014),
http://www.hamiltonproject.org/files/downloads_and_links/THP_DeVries-WeiserDiscPaper.pdf.
25. KAREN D. GORDON, ET AL., IDA SCI. AND TECH. POLICY INST., A REVIEW OF APPROACHES TO
SHARING OR RELINQUISHING AGENCY-ASSIGNED SPECTRUM, IDA PAPER P-5102 (Jan. 2014),
https://www.ida.org/upload/stpi/pdfs/p5102final.pdf.
26. OFFICE OF SCI. AND TECH. POLICY, EXEC. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR
INFORMATION (Feb. 18, 2014), https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/02/18/2014-03413/spectrum-
policy; OFFICE OF THE PRESS SEC’Y, EXEC. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM—
EXPANDING AMERICA’S LEADERSHIP IN WIRELESS INNOVATION (June 14, 2013), http://www.whitehouse.gov/
the-press-office/2013/06/14/presidential-memorandum-expanding-americas-leadership-wireless-innovatio.
27. Federal Spectrum Incentive Act of 2013, H.R. 3674, 113th Cong. (2013).
28. Id.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 319
Statutory mandates are not all alike, however, and if poorly designed they
can fail to result in productive outcomes. The Spectrum Relocation Fund is an
example of an effort to speed federal spectrum reallocation.29
The Spectrum
Relocation Fund was introduced in 2002 by the NTIA with a final rulemaking
in 2013 to distribute a $1 billion fund from the Office of Management and
Budget to assist in the inventory of radios and transfer plans.30
Yet, between
2002 and 2013, the American taxpayer has seen little progress in federal
relocation efforts.31
The AWS-3 auction will test the transfer plan mechanism
in 2015.32
Institutional reform is naturally a next step to consider in federal spectrum
policy. A review of institutional review starts with the NTIA, created in 1978
for the purpose of managing federal spectrum properties.33
This institution
was placed within the Department of Commerce.34
As noted by IEEE-USA,
radio repacking efforts depend on expert judgment by engineering staff in
independent agencies.35
NTIA was created in an effort to consolidate expert
judgment.36
With coordination through the NTIA, federal employees in the
nineteen agencies manage equipment and agency directives.37
Whether NTIA
has effectively and by which metrics, is able to facilitate inter-agency
allocation of federal resources is an open question. That NTIA has authority to
promulgate consensus among the agencies does not mean that it can reach
unanimous agreement or equitable solutions across nineteen agencies.38
Research on the NTIA’s track record for federal spectrum resource
management could advance the literature in this area of spectrum policy.
Recently in 2014, due to demand for federal spectrum reform, several
new reorganization proposals have been advanced.39
The creation of a
29. Id.
30. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM RELOCATION FINAL
RULE ON TECHNICAL PANEL AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION BOARDS, Docket No. 120620177-2445-02 (Jan. 25,
2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/federal-register-notice/2013/spectrum-relocation-final-rule-technical-panel-
and-dispute-resolution-b.
31. U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, RELOCATION OF FEDERAL RADIO SYSTEMS FROM THE 1710–1755 MHZ
SPECTRUM BAND (Mar. 2014) http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/ntia_seventh_annual_report_to_
congress_on_the_1710-1755_mhz_relocation_3-28-14.pdf.
32. See American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, H.R. 8, 112th Cong. (2013) (noting that the deadline of
2015 for AWS-3 auction was statutorily mandated through the Tax Relief Act of 2012).
33. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA,
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/opadhome/history.html [hereinafter “A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA”].
34. Id.
35. IEEE USA, POSITION STATEMENT: IMPROVING U.S. SPECTRUM POLICY DELIBERATIONS IN THE
PERIOD 2013–2017 (2012), https://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/SpectrumPoilcy1112.pdf; IEEE-USA
COMMITTEE ON COMMS. POLICY, CLARIFYING HARMFUL INTERFERENCE WILL FACILITATE WIRELESS
INNOVATION, A WHITE PAPER, http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/whitepapers/IEEEUSAWP-HarmfulInterference
0712.pdf.
36. A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA, supra note 33.
37. See Lawrence E. Strickling, NTIA Employees Win Departmental Award for Outstanding Work,
NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE (Jan. 27, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/
blog/2015/ntia-employees-win-departmental-awards-outstanding-work (describing the roles of the NTIA
employees who received an award).
38. About NTIA, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE,
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/about (last visited Nov. 5, 2015).
39. Richard Bennett, Am. Enter. Inst., A Blueprint for a Federal Spectrum Service: A Very Rough
Draft (2014), http://www.techpolicydaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Blueprint-for-a-Federal-Spectrum-
320 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
government spectrum ownership corporation (GSOC) could act similar to the
Government Services Administration (GSA), but focused on federal
spectrum.40
The creation of a Federal Spectrum Service could also impose a
mandate to shrink the spectrum footprint across the agencies.41
Reform
proposals have also included a zero-base federal spectrum registry,42
spectrum
fees,43
federal shared use,44
and funding for a more detailed spectrum
inventory.45
Presidential memoranda drive these reform proposals, with noble
goals set for the NTIA to release 500 MHz of federal spectrum to the
commercial sector.46
These initiatives, while well-meaning and ambitious,
have resulted in incremental progress in 1999, 2010, and 2014.47
The NTIA has been tasked with inventorying, repacking, and releasing
500 MHz of federal spectrum to the commercial sector by several different
presidential administrations.48
However, executing on these lofty goals has
been far more difficult than the policy recommendations.49
Each spectrum
band requires extensive analysis and inter-agency dispute resolution before
repacking can occur.50
The process has been slow and arduous, which
motivates ongoing initiatives for reform.51
This article considers federal spectrum repacking efforts with a focus on
the federal employee who makes inventory decisions at the agency level.
Section I reviews the repacking task with a focus on federal radio engineers
within the federal agencies. Section II considers federal property management
and the use of incentives in the management of resources other than radio
Service.pdf.
40. Letter from Thomas M. Lenard & Lawrence J. White, President, Tech. Policy Inst., Professor of
Econ., NYU Stern School of Business, to Office of Science and Technology Policy, Attention Tom Power,
(Mar. 20, 2014), https://www.techpolicyinstitute.org/files/lenard_white_ostp_gsoc.pdf.
41. Bennett, supra note 39 (Document Presented at the Information Economy Project Conference on
Spectrum Beyond Incentive Auctions, Apr. 25, 2014, National Press Club, Washington, D.C.,
http://iep.gmu.edu/conference-spectrum-beyond-incentive-auctions/.).
42. Harold Feld & Gregory Rose, Breaking the Logjam: Creating Sustainable Spectrum Access
Through Federal Secondary Markets, Public Knowledge White Paper, http://www.publicknowledge.org/
pdf/pk-spectrum-fed-secondary-markets-whitepaper.pdf.
43. Brent Skorup, Reclaiming Federal Spectrum: Proposals and Recommendations, 15 COLUM. SCI. &
TECH. L. REV. 90, 110–11 (2012), http://stlr.org/download/volumes/volume15/Skorup.pdf.
44. PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCI. AND TECH., REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT, REALIZING
THE FULL POTENTIAL OF GOVERNMENT-HELD SPECTRUM TO SPUR ECONOMIC GROWTH 6 (July 2012)
[hereinafter “PCAST Report 2012”], http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast_
spectrum_report_final_july_20_2012.pdf.
45. Id. at xi.
46. Id. at v.
47. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., Plan and Timetable to Make Available 500 Megahertz of
Spectrum for Wireless Broadband, U.S. DEP’T OF COMM. 24 (Oct. 2010) [hereinafter “Plan and Timetable”],
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/tenyearplan_11152010.pdf; NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO.
ADMIN., An Assessment of the Near-Term Viability of Accommodating Wireless Broadband Systems in the
1675–1710 MHz, 1755–1780 MHz, 3500–3650 MHz, and 4200–4220 MHz, 4380–4400 MHz Bands, U.S.
DEP’T OF COM. 1–4 (Oct. 2010) [hereinafter “Assessment”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/
fasttrackevaluation_11152010.pdf.
48. Plan and Timetable, supra note 47, at ii.
49. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-11-352, SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT: NITA PLANNING
AND PROCESSES NEED STRENGTHENING TO PROMOTE THE EFFICIENT USE OF SPECTRUM BY FEDERAL AGENCIES
1–4 (Apr. 2011).
50. Id. at 1–12.
51. Id.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 321
spectrum. Section III explores whether certification of a class of federal radio
engineers as trusted agents could mitigate risk and facilitate federal spectrum
reallocation.
I. FRAGMENTATION OF FEDERAL RADIO ENGINEERS
Spectrum repacking involves coordination by federal radio engineers
from many independent agencies.52
However, spectrum planning committees
and subcommittees often must make trade-offs between broad policy and
budgetary goals with specific, individualized decisions on custom radio
equipment.53
In spectrum management, a large number of decisions are
fragmented across engineers, spectrum policy representatives, and agency
directors.54
A. Repacking Costs and Expert Judgment
Spectrum inventory and relocation planning occurs within each agency by
their own radio engineers.55
These engineers operate equipment in local
conditions, see Figure 1.56
Engineers advise on relocation decisions for each
federal radio in operation by their agency.57
The internal decision process
occurs independently in each of the 19 agencies.58
The effort to make a
decision for each radio, whether and where to relocate its operating parameters
involves time in evaluation, analysis, and equipment replacement. Just as with
other inventory or restructuring efforts, the diagnostic and assessment process
is closely related to the ultimate decision for resource use.
Some understanding of the inventory management literature is integral to
understanding the spectrum reallocation process. Inventory assessment is a
time-intensive, detail-oriented task which has generated sophisticated statistics
research.59
Inventory assessment is a time-intensive, detail-oriented task which
has generated sophisticated statistics research.60
The most computationally-
intensive aspects of inventory control are decisions on whether to stock or not
stock products in demand.61
In traditional logistics decisions, a competitive
52. Id. at 18.
53. Id. at 9–16. The structural perspective on innovation policy within the federal government and by
the federal government is related to this article in scope and application. Government policy has the ability to
facilitate or stifle innovation cycles. See generally Stuart Minor Benjamin & Arti K. Rai, Fixing Innovation
Policy: A Structural Perspective, 77 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1–88 (2008) (describing how policies and
innovations should be structured).
54. GAO-11-352, supra note 49, at 9–16.
55. Id.
56. Id. at 14.
57. Id. at 13–19.
58. Id.
59. Inventory theory, inventory control and management is an important area of the operations research
literature. See generally PAUL A. JENSEN & JONATHAN F. BARD, OPERATIONS RESEARCH MODELS AND
METHODS (Wayne Anderson, et al. eds., 2003) [hereinafter “JENSEN & BARD”].
60. See generally id. (discussing inventory theory, inventory control, and management as significant
areas of the operations research literature).
61. See generally Erhan Bayraktar & Michael Ludkovski, Inventory Management with Partially
Observed Nonstationary Demand, 176 ANNALS OF OPERATIONS RES. 7, 7–39 (2010) (applying “a continuous-
322 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
decision exists for how a firm should respond to unknown future demand
without wasting warehouse space with spare parts or excess supply.62
Traditional inventory control models have developed in the supply chain
management and logistics literature in the private sector.63
This inventory control process is not new to the federal government for
spectrum assessment. The Department of Interior recently listed its repacking
cost estimates, as $45 million for the U.S. Geological Survey, with 15 sites on
26 radio frequency assignments with 18 radios in Central California and 8
radios in Southern California for microwave system radios for the Northern
California Seismic Network and Southern California Seismic Network, and $1
million for National Park Service (NPS) video surveillance for transmitters on
two aircraft, on one radio frequency assignment.64
For each radio device,
repacking costs include local conditions and local functions. Federal agencies
have been compiling repacking cost estimates, albeit with federal timelines and
administrative constraints.
Indeed, there are high costs in time and human capital to reorganize
federal spectrum use. This inventory process occurs one customized radio
hardware device at a time, by teams of federal radio engineers, within each
agency.65
The fixed costs of reorganizing existing allocations seem to be
underappreciated in the literature. Compare for example, the process of
phasing out one particular singular radio technology, the broadcast analog
television.
Band clearing costs for analog television devices were apparent in the
digital television transition. The NTIA/DOC and FCC led the analog to digital
television transition, which took them over twenty years to decide, and only
with statutory authority from Congress.66
The technology transition at the time
was a rather straightforward mandate, with repacking subsidies of $1.5
billion.67
For this technology upgrade decision, a calculation and tradeoff was
reached with projected fixed costs of equipment change.68
The policymakers
who decided on the transition from digital to analog only had one type of radio
to repack.69
On the federal spectrum, many different types of radio hardware
time model for inventory management with Markov modulated non-stationary demands”).
62. See JENSEN & BARD, supra note 59, at 2 (discussing lumpy demand, spare parts, and other uncertain
resource needs are studied in the operations research literature); Hau L. Lee & Corey Billington, Management
Supply Chain Inventory: Pitfalls and Opportunities, 33 MIT SLOAN MGMT. REV. 65 (1992) (citing early work
on supply chain management).
63. See generally Brent D. Williams & Travis Tokar, A Review of Inventory Management Research in
Major Logistics Journals: Themes and Future Directions, 19 INT’L J. OF LOGISTICS MGMT. 212, 232 (2008)
(articulating themes present in the major logistics journals).
64. U.S. DEP’T OF THE INTERIOR, 1755–1850 MHz COMPARABLE BAND ANALYSIS: PHASE III—FINAL
REPORT (2011).
65. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-02-447G, EXECUTIVE GUIDE: BEST PRACTICES IN
ACHIEVING CONSISTENT, ACCURATE PHYSICAL COUNTS OF INVENTORY AND RELATED PROPERTY (2002).
66. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-08-510, DIGITAL TELEVISION TRANSITION: MAJORITY
OF BROADCASTERS ARE PREPARED FOR THE DTV TRANSITION, BUT SOME TECHNICAL AND COORDINATION
ISSUES REMAIN (2008) [hereinafter “BROADCASTERS”].
67. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-08-43, DIGITAL TELEVISION TRANSITION: INCREASED
FEDERAL PLANNING AND RISK MANAGEMENT COULD FURTHER FACILITATE THE DTV TRANSITION (2007).
68. Id. at 11.
69. Id.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 323
devices are used for many types of uses. The cost of assessing and clearing
multiple different types of radios increases from there.
The logical solution, then would be to harness market mechanisms to
handle reallocation decisions across agencies and types of radios. In an
intermediate step, the broadcast TV band is currently being auctioned by the
FCC in an incentive auction.70
This one type of radio technology is used by
many private and independent television stations.71
There is a repacking
subsidy proposed of $1.75 billion for television stations, similar to the DTV
converter box transition.72
The incentive auction format is designed to elicit
valuations in reverse and forward components73
based on advanced market
design and sorting theory.74
The incentive auction process is meant to provide
a market platform to match buyers and sellers of high-value stations in large
television markets with wireless carriers who can offer high prices in urban
areas.75
Repacking examples highlight the nature of inventory assessment and
repacking decisions that occur within agencies by their radio engineers. Along
with repacking of custom equipment, federal engineers are encumbered by
inter-agency constraints.
B. Inter-Agency Fragmentation
Federal spectrum management generates combinations of bilateral and
multilateral meetings across nineteen agencies to resolve boundary conflicts.76
The Spectrum Relocation Fund and NTIA rulemaking on Dispute Resolution
rules 2013 has provided a way forward for dispute resolution of spectrum
conflicts,77
but inter-agency challenges persist. The GAO in 200478
conducted
interviews of federal spectrum managers and observed deficiencies in process,
also noted in the IDA 2014 report.79
When agency spectrum planning groups
reach a decision point that they cannot resolve, the issue frequently is a
technical matter, which is then deferred to a technical working group.80
The
70. BROADCASTERS, supra note 66, at 1.
71. Joe Flint, TV Broadcasters Await Spectrum Valuations From FCC: Auction Could Bring In $45
Billion; Some Station Owners Anticipate High Valuations, WALL ST. J. (Oct. 2, 2014), http://www.wsj.com/
articles/tv-broadcasters-await-spectrum-valuations-from-fcc-1412291991.
72. Information Collection Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission Under
Delegated Authority, 79 Fed. Reg. 40141 (Apr. 1, 2014).
73. MILGROM, supra note 23, at 7.
74. In the Matter of Amendment of the Commission's Rules with Regard to Commercial Operations in
the 1695–1710 Mhz, 1755–1780 Mhz, & 2155–2180 Mhz Bands, 29 F.C.C. Rcd. 4610, 4611 (2014).
75. Id.
76. Press Release, Nat’l Telecomms. & Info. Admin., The Use of 60 GHz (a.k.a. WiGig) Unlicensed
Wireless Technology In Consumer Devices, Such As Laptop PCs And Tablets, On-board In-flight Aircraft
(June 2, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/interdepartment-radio-advisory-committee-irac.
77. Spectrum Relocation Final Rule, 78 Fed. Reg. 5310 (Jan. 25, 2013) (to be codified at 47 C.F.R. pt.
301).
78. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-04-1028, INTERDEPARTMENT RADIO ADVISORY
COMMITTEE: IRAC REPRESENTATIVES EFFECTIVELY COORDINATE FEDERAL SPECTRUM BUT LACK SENIORITY
TO ADVISE ON CONTENTIOUS POLICY ISSUES (2004) [hereinafter “GAO-04-1028”].
79. GORDON, supra note 25, at 46.
80. Id. at 15.
324 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
NTIA/IRAC/CSMAC
Spectrum
Policy
Point of
Contact
Radio Engineer
OMB Spectrum Relocation Fund
Agency
Relocation
Decisions
Equipment
Executive Office of the President/OSTP/PCAST
technical working group then meets to answer an important question of
interference, yet often refers the question of administrative priority back to the
inter-agency spectrum planning group.81
Figure 1. Radio Engineers in Nineteen Federal Agencies
The Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) has a main
committee with six subcommittees and several technical working groups.82
IRAC was created in 1922 to advise the Assistant Secretary of Commerce on
spectrum assignments.83
IRAC includes one representative from each of
nineteen agencies, plus an acting chairman, agency vice chairman, vice
chairman, and executive secretary.84
Each agency has a spectrum management
division representative who is likely not an engineer, but an attorney from a
policy planning office.85
This main committee cannot address priorities such as emergency plans
81. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78, at 22.
82. Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) Announcement of Public Presentation to the
IRAC on the Use of 60 GHz (a.k.a. WiGig) unlicensed wireless technology in consumer devices, such as laptop
PCs and tablets, on-board in-flight aircraft, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. (June 2, 2015, 1:00 PM),
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/interdepartment-radio-advisory-committee-irac.
83. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78, at 4.
Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) Membership List, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.
(2014) [hereinafter “IRAC Membership List”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/irac_
membership_list_01-28-14.pdf.
85. Id.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 325
or technical matters, so IRAC subcommittees advise the main committee on
particular priorities, fragmenting the repacking decision further.86
IRAC does
not have authority to change frequency assignments, but serves in an advisory
capacity, and “is not the Executive Branch decision body on spectrum
management issues.”87
The authority to manage or coordinate spectrum use is
held by senior level federal agencies executives.88
NTIA was created in 1978 with the intent to improve IRAC’s
coordination task and inter-agency prioritization.89
IRAC spectrum relocation
decisions exceeded the resources of the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy, and the Department of Commerce absorbed the role by
creating the NTIA.90
Thus, the NTIA manages a Redbook manual that lists
federal radio management rules.91
Radio engineers who comply with the
Redbook are still located within agencies and report to agency representatives
to the IRAC.92
Figure 1 shows where radio engineers are disaggregated from
spectrum management. Federal radio engineers recommend radio relocation
plans to their respective agency representatives, who inform IRAC
subcommittees, who advise the NTIA.93
Local bottlenecks in repacking decisions are seen in the 1710–1850 MHz
relocation effort. The Tax Relief Act required the Commerce Department to
submit a progress report by February 2013 for spectrum auction of AWS-3 by
February 2015.94
The NTIA rulemaking for the spectrum relocation dispute
resolution was finalized in June 2013 and CSMAC working group reports were
published in September 2013.95
Technical expertise has been collected in the
Policy and Plans Steering Group (PPSG) with its own working group Spectrum
Working Group (SWG). When it comes to federal radio repacking, the nature
of the relocation task is manual, detail-oriented, and non-standardized.96
In
Annex O, each radio is inventoried and either publicly deliberated or sealed in
classified documents.97
Equipment relocations require system-by-system analysis in the 1710–
1755 MHz band, a closely watched case study in federal radio repacking.98
86. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78, at 7, 22.
87. REDBOOK, supra note 2.
88. Id.
89. Id.
90. A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA, supra note 33.
91. REDBOOK, supra note 2.
92. Id.
93. See NASA LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT (2004)
http://lms.larc.nasa.gov/admin/public_docs/LPR2570-5.pdf (explaining manager’s authority are identified by
individual agencies and coordinate with IRAC, they do not coordinate with each other).
94. Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, Pub. L. No. 112–96, 126 Stat. 156 (2012).
95. CSMAC Meetings, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/meetings/
CSMAC (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
96. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., ANNEX O: RELOCATION OR SHARING BY FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT STATION IN SUPPORT OF REALLOCATION (2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/
redbook/2013/O_13.pdf [hereinafter “ANNEX O”].
97. Id.
98. See generally Thomas W. Hazlett & Evan T. Leo, The Case for Liberal Spectrum Licenses: A
Technical and Economic Perspective, 26 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 1037 (2011) (providing economic and
technical analysis in the case of 1710–1755 MHz band). See also Coleman Bazelon, The Economic Basis of
326 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
Agency points of contact include seventeen administrative level federal
employees mostly based in D.C.99
For the 1755–1850 MHz band alone, the
CSMAC in 2011 listed relocation of dozens of highly customized radios, from
tactical radio relay, satellite, precision guided munitions, air combat training
(ACTS), video surveillance, aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT), UAVs and
other airborne platforms.100
From the relocation efforts, NTIA developed
standardized forms for the agency representatives in 2002 through 2013 to file
transition reports with ground-level reporting.101
To assist in the technical
effort, the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management offers Spectrum
Management Training Classes, to train policymakers and federal radio
engineers to make these spectrum decisions.102
C. Knowledge Allocation in Expert Technical Advice
IRAC collects expert technical advice through technical working groups,
in the form of subcommittees and ad hoc groups. These subcommittees were
created through rulemaking as the Emergency Planning Subcommittee,103
Frequency Assignment Subcommittee,104
Radio Conference Subcommittee,105
Spectrum Planning Subcommittee,106
Space Systems Subcommittee,107
Technical Subcommittee,108
with five Ad Hoc groups.109
The Chairman, Vice
Chairman, and Secretary who are Department of Commerce employees are
listed for each subcommittee. Members of the subcommittees, meeting times
and meeting notes are not readily accessible on the NTIA website. The NTIA
provides some details on the operation of the Frequency Assignment
Spectrum Value: Pairing AWS-3 with the 1755 MHz Band is More Valuable than Pairing it with Frequencies
from the 1690 MHz Band, THE BRATTLE GROUP, INC. (Apr. 11, 2011), http://www.brattle.com/system/
publications/pdfs/000/004/679/original/The_Economic_Basis_of_Spectrum_Value_-_Pairing_AWS-3_Baze
lon_Apr_11_2011.pdf?1378772119 (analyzing the 1710–1755 band case from the economic perspective).
99. 1710–1755 MHz Relocation Agency Points of Contact, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.
[hereinafter “NTIA Points of Contact”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/pointsofcontact_
2012_12_01.pdf (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
100. Search for 500 MHz Working Group, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. [hereinafter “NTIA
CSMAC Search”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/csmac_search_1755-1850_recommend
ations_final.pdf. (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
101. ANNEX O, supra, note 96, at O-13.
102. Spectrum Management Training Course, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN, http://www.
ntia.doc.gov/spectrumtraining/spectrum-management-training-course (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
103. Emergency Planning Subcomm. (EPS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.
ntia.doc.gov/page/emergency-planning-subcommittee-eps (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA
EPS”].
104. Frequency Assignment Subcomm. (FAS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.,
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/frequency-assignment-subcommittee-fas (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter
“NTIA FAS”].
105. Radio Conference Subcomm. (RCS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.
ntia.doc.gov/page/radio-conference-subcommittee-rcs (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA RCS”].
106. Spectrum Planning Subcomm. (SPS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.
ntia.doc.gov/page/spectrum-planning-subcommittee-sps (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA SPS”].
107. Space Systems Subcomm. (SSS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.
ntia.doc.gov/page/space-systems-subcommittee-sss (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA SSS”].
108. Technical Subcomm. (TS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/
page/technical-subcommittee-tsc (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA TS”].
109. IRAC Membership List, supra note 83.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 327
Subcommittee (FAS), that it meets monthly, every third Wednesday, to discuss
frequency assignments, with voting that may occur on a daily basis.110
Bylaws
of the subcommittees are codified in the NTIA Redbook Chapter 1.111
IRAC representatives also range in variance in technical knowledge and
agency authority.112
In the GAO report, one subcommittee chair described the
process:
Regarding IRAC’s accomplishment of spectrum-coordination tasks, IRAC representatives agree that the committee effectively assists in coordinating government spectrum use, but 8 of 20 representatives commented that some agency representatives lack sufficient technical knowledge and/or understanding of emerging technologies.
113 This concern was also shared by 4 of the 6 IRAC
subcommittee chairs.114
To remedy this “lack of sufficient technical knowledge and/or
understanding of emerging technologies”115
within the IRAC, the Commerce
Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) was established in
2004 to assist as an expert advisory body with thirty-one commercial
representatives to advise the NTIA Assistant Secretary of Commerce on
spectrum policy.116
CSMAC meets quarterly and has five technical working
groups.117
Between 1978 and 2004, the NTIA IRAC did not have the expert
advisory resources of the private sector to better use the federal radio spectrum.
During those years, the FCC had conducted its first spectrum auctions and
facilitated the launch of mobile wireless phones on licensed bands.118
CSMAC
includes representatives from the private sector, with up to thirty members.119
GSA keeps a list of members of the committee (under the NTIA Organization
Act, under the Federal Advisory Committee Act).120
CSMAC has led the
1780–1850 MHz relocation effort on how to find paired spectrum for LTE and
other high-valued wireless use by the commercial sector.121
Due to the lack of progress in IRAC and CSMAC, the President’s
Council on Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) was established in
2009 as an advisory group with scientific experts to advise the Executive
Office of the President.122
PCAST recommended in 2012 for the formation of
110. NTIA FAS, supra note 104.
111. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at 1–6.
112. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78 at 3.
113. Id.
114. Id.
115. Id.
116. Charter of the Commerce Spectrum Mgmt. Advisory Comm., NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.
(Mar. 3, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2015/csmac-2015-charter [hereinafter “CSMAC
Charter”].
117. Id.
118. See generally Auctions, FCC (Aug. 18, 2015), http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm
(describing auction eligibility rules).
119. CSMAC Charter, supra note 116.
120. Id.
121. NTIA CSMAC Search, supra note 100.
122. About PCAST, THE WHITE HOUSE, https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/pcast/
about (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
328 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
a Spectrum Management Team (SMT) to work with NTIA.123
Legislative and
executive mandates have driven performance goals and priorities for federal
spectrum management.124
In 2004, the White House released a memorandum
that generated a report in 2008 on a Federal Strategic Spectrum Plan.125
In
2010, the White House set a goal to release 500 MHz of federal spectrum by
2020.126
The report also proposed to rename the Spectrum Relocation Fund as
the “Spectrum Efficiency Fund.”127
Fragmentation of knowledge leads each of these spectrum policy
committees to seek more engineering advice as the reallocation decisions
become more complex.128
Each spectrum committee recognizes its need for
“additional qualifications” or expert advice from “radio engineer or technical
expert[s].”129
However, mere technical expertise does not mitigate the
fragmentation problem.130
The nature of the repacking task on federal
spectrum may require institutional change that takes into account the nature of
the inventory task.
D. Managing the Engineers
Who are the federal employees who operate radio devices and federal
spectrum uses and what are their incentives? Federal radio engineers inventory
each radio and these employees are located within operating groups of the
organizational structure of the federal agencies.131
While policy
representatives spend time in working groups and committees, field employees
have technical judgment on particularly customized equipment.132
An example can be seen in just one category of technology, notably the
1.7 GHz microwave radio device. In Figure 2, CSMAC shows an outline of
the locations of 1.7 GHz microwave paths.133
For each of those links, there are
engineers who will reposition and reroute the communications.134
Radio
engineers in the federal government differ from the private sector, where their
123. PCAST Report 2012, supra note 44, at iii.
124. Id. at 8.
125. See MEREDITH A. BAKER ET AL., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT FOR THE
21ST CENTURY, THE PRESIDENT’S SPECTRUM POLICY INITIATIVE, FED. STRATEGIC SPECTRUM PLAN (2008),
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/federalstrategicspectrumplan2008.pdf (discussing the strategic
federal need for a spectrum use plan).
126. Memorandum from President Barack Obama to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies
(June 28, 2010), http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-unleashing-wireless-
broadband-revolution.
127. PCAST Report 2012, supra note 44, at 57.
128. Id. at vii–viii.
129. Relocation of and Spectrum Sharing by Federal Government Stations—Technical Panel and
Dispute Resolution Boards, 78 Fed. Reg. 5310, 5312 (Jan. 25, 2013) (to be codified at 47 C.F.R. pt. 301).
130. See generally PCAST Report 2012, supra note 44 (discussing the necessity of implementing an
institutional framework to deal with the current fragmentation of spectrum knowledge).
131. USAJOBS, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/363170600
(last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing a job with the federal government in the radio engineering field).
132. Id. See also USAJOBS, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/
ViewDetails/366510100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing a job with the federal government in the radio
engineering field specifically dealing with policy issues).
133. NTIA CSMAC Search, supra note 100, at 36.
134. Id.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 329
chain of command comes from an agency head, who negotiates with other
agencies through spectrum policy representatives, before relocation across the
spectrum can occur.135
In a similar manner, their job constraints closely
resemble the federal property manager of real property holdings.
Furthermore, in human capital intensive fields such as engineering,
employees can be notoriously independent and difficult to manage due to wide
variation in skill, judgment and expertise required in designing systems. The
private sector has made advances in promoting management skills in managing
human capital, lowering agency costs, and increasing output.136
The federal
government can take note of Google’s Project Oxygen findings on
performance reviews and manager effects on engineers. With 37,000
employees, Google has refined “people analytics” that move organizations
forward through difficult engineering decisions.137
The project applied
empirical discipline to the “soft stuff” of people management, and found that
engineering management does matter.138
135. USAJOBS, supra note 137.
136. Nicholas Bloom et al., Management Practices Across Firms and Countries (NAT’L BUREAU OF
ECON. RES., Working Paper No. 17850, 2012), http://www.nber.org/papers/w17850.pdf (comparing
management quality and its effect on productivity and growth).
137. Adam Bryant, Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss, N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 12, 2011),
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html; David A. Garvin, How Google Sold its Engineers
on Management, HARV. BUS. REV. (Dec. 2013), http://hbr.org/2013/12/how-google-sold-its-engineers-on-
management/ar/1.
138. Garvin, supra note 137.
330 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
Figure 2. Detailed Repacking of Federal Microwave Paths 1.7 GHz139
The management of engineers involves alignment of incentives and
emotional intelligence to build complex systems with cohesive designs.
Performance management has been a major asset and point of contention for
talent retention in engineering firms such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Zappos.140
Economists have also studied the role of management as a major driver of
economic growth.141
Engineers that coordinate to build systems are capable of
high performance and efficiency gains or low and negative productivity.
Engineers decide which systems to operate and which to replace with long
term consequences. Google’s Project Oxygen results can inform the
importance of aligning incentives of engineers. The business management
community is well aware of best practices for productivity, with empirical
findings about “paralysis by analysis,”142
and the benefits of training and
139. NTIA CSMAC Search, supra note 100, at 36.
140. See Joshua Brustein, Yahoo’s Latest HR Disaster: Ranking Workers on a Curve, BLOOMBERG BUS.
(Nov. 12, 2013), http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-12/yahoos-latest-hr-disaster-ranking-
workers-on-a-curve (discussing Yahoo eliminating traditional review for bell curve based review); Shira Ovide
& Rachel Feintzeig, Microsoft Abandons ‘Stack Ranking’ of Employees, WALL ST. J. (Nov. 12, 2013),
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579193951987616572 (discussing Micro-
soft eliminating “stack ranking” when reviewing employees); Martha C. White, Amazon Will Pay You $5,000
to Quit Your Job, TIME (Apr. 11, 2014), http://time.com/58305/amazon-will-pay-you-5000-to-quit-your-job/
(discussing Amazon offering compensation to unhappy employees to keep a content workforce).
141. See generally Bloom, supra note 136 (discussing the findings of studies designed to measure
management standards in communication).
142. Bryant, supra note 137.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 331
coaching sessions.143
Manual repacking decisions on federal spectrum has to be done by
engineers. The federal radio engineer is a technical expert who conducts an
inventory and evaluation to replace radios.144
The task of federal radio
spectrum management is not just a measurement task, but also a highly
discretionary task that requires business judgment on valuation and operational
use.145
A wide range of outcomes can arise from each decision, and this
function involves budget constraints, future planning, and procurement
considerations.146
The repacking and relocation decision begins to look much
more granular at the equipment level.147
The difficulty in prioritization of spectrum use across agencies is a well-
known problem in federal spectrum policy.148
Input values of spectrum varies
in the private sector as well as the federal sector with divergent methods of
asset valuation.149
Valuation of spectrum by MHz per pop has a wide range in
commercial spectrum,150
based on its resale in paired or combinatorial
packages,151
and location in urban or rural locations.152
Such variation in
spectrum values in commercial markets is further obscured for federal users
who do not have price information from a secondary market.153
Rather than approaching spectrum reform in abstraction, there is a critical
role for the federal radio engineer. Part of the federal spectrum reform process
could mimic the private sector in the area of engineering management. Federal
radio spectrum is allocated to a single user, the federal government, yet,
143. Id.
144. See USAJOBS, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/
366358200 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing a job with the federal government in the radio engineering
field reporting deficiencies and inventory).
145. See generally U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: PLAN
TO IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PRESIDENT’S SPECTRUM POLICY INITIATIVE (2006),
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/osmhome/reports/ImplementationPlan2006.htm (describing tasks and
considerations to update the Government’s spectrum management planning).
146. Id.
147. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at O-11.
148. See generally Radio Frequency Spectrum Management, MITRE.ORG (June 2015), http://www.
mitre.org/publications/systems-engineering-guide/enterprise-engineering/enterprise-technology-information-
and-infrastructure/radio-frequency-spectrum-management (discussing problems in obtaining and maintaining
frequency spectrum allocations).
149. See generally J.P. MORGAN N. AM. EQUITY RES., TELECOM SERVICES & TOWERS: SPECTRUM
OVERVIEW & VALUATION MATRIX, CARRIER BY CARRIER SPECTRUM VALUE ACROSS THE WIRELESS
INDUSTRY (2012), http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7520934036 (estimating values for wireless
spectrum owned by various wireless industry players).
150. SCOTT WALLSTEN, TECH. POLICY INST., IS THERE REALLY A SPECTRUM CRISIS? QUANTIFYING THE
FACTORS AFFECTING SPECTRUM LICENSE VALUE 10 (2013), http://techpolicyinstitute.org/files/
wallsten_is_there_really_a_spectrum_crisis.pdf.
151. Peter Cramton, Spectrum Auction Design, 42 REV. OF INDUS. ORG. 161, 165 (2013) (mentioning
paired and combinatorial auctions), http://www.cramton.umd.edu/papers2005-2009/cramton-spectrum-
auction-design.pdf.
152. COLEMAN BAZELON & GIULIA MCHENRY, THE BRATTLE GRP., SPECTRUM VALUE 9-10 (2012),
http://ssrn.com/abstract=2032213.
153. Oral Testimony: Hearing on Public Safety Broadband Network and H.R. 4829 Before the
Subcomm. on Commc’ns, Tech., and the Internet of the H. Comm. on Energy and Commerce, 111th Cong. 3
(2010) (statement of Coleman Bazelon, Brattle Group), http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/
default/files/documents/Testimony-Bazelon-CTI-Public-Safety-Broadband-Discussion-Draft-HR-4829-Next-
Generation-911-2010-6-17.pdf.
332 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
fragmented across 19 agencies.154
And still, as a group of engineers,
specialized federal employees retain technical expertise to replace and repack
the radios that can make way for social welfare gains.
E. Features of Federal Spectrum Use
Federal radio spectrum is used in fixed and mobile applications.155
Federal spectrum also incorporates nationwide allocations such as FirstNet for
public-private partnerships.156
Much of federal spectrum use however, is
specialized for defense, science, research, aviation, maritime, and law
enforcement.157
Unlike commercial reallocation, federal spectrum repacking ought to
have lower coordination costs. Federal radios are evaluated by one firm, the
federal government, and radio engineers are paid with federal tax revenues and
fees. Federal agencies compete with other agencies for budget appropriations
and political support, but the federal function in theory, ought to consolidate
the welfare goal.
Federal radios often require large fixed cost investments such as radar,
seismic monitoring, and high frequency astronomy or satellite spectrum.158
Engineers across the agencies are likely to already know each other by name
and industry experience. These features of federal spectrum use indicate that
an institution that combines federal radio expertise into a GSA/GSOC could
generate spectrum saving solutions. The IRAC, which is supposed to serve
this function, is merely an advisory body to the NTIA, which has ultimate
authority but few mechanisms to effect change.159
These local features of federal spectrum use suggest that a related area of
federal resource management, namely real and personal property, could inform
how to improve federal repacking and inventory efforts. The federal
government’s treatment of property holdings may provide guidance here.160
II. FEDERAL PROPERTY MANAGERS AND FEDERAL RADIO ENGINEERS
The federal government manages large quantities of physical and human
154. Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.,
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/interdepartment-radio-advisory-committee-irac.
155. How the Spectrum is Used, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/book-
page/how-spectrum-used (last visited Sept. 9, 2015).
156. About FirstNet, FIRSTNET, http://firstnet.gov/about (last visited Sept. 9, 2015).
157. Understanding Federal Spectrum Use, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.,
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2015/understanding-federal-spectrum-use (last visited Sept. 9, 2015).
158. REDBOOK, supra note 2.
159. Legislation has been introduced to enhance the federal government’s ability to reallocate federal
spectrum. See, e.g., FEDERAL SPECTRUM INCENTIVE ACT OF 2015, H.R. 1641 (2015) (to amend various
provisions of the NTIA Organization Act, 47 U.S.C. 923); SPECTRUM PIPELINE ACT OF 2015, H.R. Draft
(2015). 160. DOROTHY ROBYN, BUILDINGS AND BANDWIDTH: LESSONS FOR SPECTRUM POLICY FROM FEDERAL
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Brookings Inst., Sept. 23, 2014), http://www.brookings.edu/research
/papers/2014/09/23-buildings-bandwidth-spectrum-property.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 333
resources, of which federal spectrum is just one component.161
The federal
government in FY2012 expended $33,040,945,112 in operating costs for
43,646,357 acres of land, 361,318 buildings, and 3,301,727,086 gross square
feet across 36 agencies large and small.162
Operations of the federal
government have also been modernized to apply best practices from the private
sector.163
Human capital management also affects 4,312,000 federal
employees164
and blue collar positions,165
with leading best practices in
performance reviews and talent retention.166
Within the agencies, OPM rates
Best Agencies to Work, for large, medium, and small agencies.167
A. Incentives in Federal Property Management
GSA was established in 1949 by President Truman to consolidate
property management agencies.168
President Truman consolidated the National
Archives Establishment, Federal Works Agency, and Public Buildings
Administration, Bureau of Federal Supply, Office of Contract Settlement, and
War Assets Administration.169
These agencies themselves had disparate mandates and locations across
the country; property managers were disaggregated and duplicate functions
were performed.170
Through the decades, between 1950 and 1980, the GSA
rolled out resources for federal employees, including technology, office space,
and federal acquisition processes.171
GSA has been a quiet success story of the
United States government.172
Consolidation of the detailed management of
resources into GSA has led reduced waste across the agencies, and the agency
has been a Top 10 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for many
161. U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, DEP’T OF COMMERCE BUDGET IN BRIEF (2015),
http://www.osec.doc.gov/bmi/budget/FY16BIB/EntireDocument-WebVersionWithCharts.pdf.
162. U.S. GEN. SERVS. ADMIN. (GSA), FY 2012 FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY REPORT, http://www.gsa.gov/
portal/mediaId/179655/fileName/FY_2012_FRPP_intro_508.action.
163. About, ADMIN. CONFERENCE OF THE U.S., https://www.acus.gov/best-practices/about.
164. U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MGMT. (OPM), TOTAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT SINCE 1962,
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/federal-employment-reports/historic-
al-tables/total-government-employment-since-1962/.
165. The Twenty Largest Blue-Collar Occupations as of September 2013 and Compared to September
2013, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/
federal-employment-reports/reports-publications/the-twenty-largest-blue-collar-occupations/ (last visited Sept.
1, 2015).
166. Human Capital Management, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-
oversight/human-capital-management/#url=Taxonomy (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
167. Best Places to Work Agency Rankings, P’SHIP FOR PUB. SERV., http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/
rankings/overall/large (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
168. A Brief History of GSA, U.S. GEN. SERVS. ADMIN., http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/103369 (last
visited Sept. 1, 2015).
169. Id. (“GSA’s original mission was to dispose of war surplus goods, manage and store government
records, handle emergency preparedness, and stockpile strategic supplies for wartime. GSA also regulated the
sale of various office supplies to federal agencies and managed some unusual operations, such as hemp
plantations in South America.”).
170. GSA Historical Highlights, U.S. GEN. SERVS. ADMIN., http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101129
(last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
171. A Brief History of GSA, supra note 168.
172. Id.
334 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
years.173
The federal radio engineer may be more akin to a federal property
manager in function and form than spectrum policy advisory committees. The
federal radio engineer considers local conditions of the radios and coordinates
with agency budget authority.174
Resource decisions require business
judgment and the mitigation of agency costs through mistakes or
mismanagement. Federal property managers can make good decisions or poor
decisions. Employees who specialize and handle property decisions learn and
improve through performance management. Agency costs are minimized for
property managers through incentives such as reward programs.175
The Office
of Personnel Management includes awards and recognition for federal
employees who perform at high levels in real property, personal property,
personnel management, federal mail, government accounting, and other
management capacities.176
Energy management is also a growing area of lean
government efforts.177
Property management outcomes can be incentivized to award high
performance. Employee award programs are part of a “systematic process by
which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a
group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of
agency mission and goals.”178
The OPM has embraced performance
management to support sound management principles and to implement best
practices from effective organizations in the private sector.179
The OPM
acknowledges the innovations from organizational management, from
planning, monitoring, developing, rating, rewarding, and managing
performance effectively.180
B. Incentives in Federal Radio Management
Like property managers, federal employees are stewards of fixed cost
radio equipment and specialized spectrum uses. Incentives for federal agencies
and the radio engineers within the agencies would improve federal radio
spectrum use. Private engineering firms would likely structure incentive
systems such as performance bonuses or equity shares to find efficient
solutions and new technology. In federal spectrum, an elite group of engineers
could be rewarded to find solutions to repack radio bands with legacy
173. Id.
174. Job Title: Electronics Engineer, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/
ViewDetails366510100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
175. See Performance Management, Awards List, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.opm.gov/
policy-data-oversight/performance-management/awards-list (listing awards given to high-performing
employees) (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
176. Id.
177. Sustainability, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.opm.gov/sustainability/ (last visited Sept.
1, 2015).
178. Performance Management, Overview & History, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT.,
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/performance-management/overview-history/ (last visited Sept. 1,
2015).
179. Id.
180. Id.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 335
equipment. Funds could provide a focused incentive through market-based
organizational behavior principles. Some scholars have suggested such prizes
and awards for federal spectrum reallocation.181
Awards for high performance in property management exist in several
areas of federal real property.182
OPM receives and processes nominations for
large contributions to cost-savings and property management.183
Some of
these awards include the Federal Property Manager of the Year Award,
American Planning Association (APA) Federal Planning Awards, National
Society of Professional Engineers Federal Engineer of the Year, Miles Romney
Achievement Award for Innovation in Personal Property Management, and
General Services Administration Achievement Awards for Real Property
Innovation.184
The institution to recognize and reward property management
performance, however, is built upon the GSA organization that trains and
monitors the property managers.185
III. CERTIFICATION OF FEDERAL RADIO ENGINEERS
In order to enable federal employees to make critical relocation and
repacking decisions, certification may be necessary to identify employees with
expert authority. Certification of federal radio engineers may combine “trusted
agent” status and federal radio repacking authority.186
That federal spectrum
use is vital and has national security implications187
should not deter greater
consolidation of engineering expertise.
Certification of classes of employees for sensitive high-risk resource
decisions is not uncommon in the federal government for agencies with
sensitive, rules-based discretionary tasks.188
High-risk decisions are routinely
made by federal employees in agencies such as the FAA, DOD, Treasury,
Federal Reserve, NIST, CIA, FBI, and GSA.189
Licensing standards and
professional certification boards also support federal government productivity,
181. MARK MACCARTHY, SPECTRUM FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF WIRELESS 38 (Aspen Inst., 2011),
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/pubs/Spectrum_for_the_next_generation_of_
wireless.pdf.
182. Performance Management, Awards List, supra note 175.
183. Id.
184. Id.
185. Id.
186. COMMERCE SPECTRUM MGMT. ADVISORY COMM., CSMAC LESSONS LEARNED MEETING
SUMMARY (2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/csmac_lessons_learned_executive_
summary.pdf.
187. See Basic Elements of Spectrum Management: How the Spectrum is Used, NAT’L TELECOMMS. &
INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/osmhome/roosa2.html (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (illustrating
the significant role the federal spectrum plays in national security).
188. See Background Checks and Security Clearances for Federal Jobs, GO GOV’T,
http://gogovernment.org/how_to_apply/next_steps/security_clearance.php (last visited Sept. 1, 2015)
(describing background checks and security clearances for federal jobs).
189. Electronic Authentication Policy, 66 Fed. Reg. 394-97 (Jan. 3, 2001) (requiring that fiscal agents
and authentication for Treasury be managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST));
DEP’T OF TREAS., FED INFO. SEC. MGMT. ACT FISCAL YEAR 2013 EVALUATION (2013), http://www.
treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/ig/Audit%20Reports%20and%20Testimonies/OIG-CA-14-006.pdf
(showing that security and risk mitigation are applied to Open Market operations, Treasury, U.S. Mint, and
critical financial operations of the federal government).
336 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
with federal employees who practice medicine, law, and accounting.190
Tort
liability and national security duties are incorporated into many federal job
functions, with certification procedures to ensure human capital standards and
rules compliance.191
A. Certification Procedures for Specialized Federal Employees
Several certification programs can serve as a model for federal radio
engineers. Certification programs for specialized authority exist for the Patent
and Trademark Office,192
Federal Records Management,193
Federal Acquisition
Contracting (FAC),194
and Contracting Officer’s Representative (FAC-
COR).195
These certifications include general security clearances and
additional top-secret clearances available in many degrees.196
The intellectual
property and expert judgment managed by these employees have similar
features to federal spectrum management, with high agency costs and the need
for risk mitigation.197
Certification for federal real property and personal property management
may also serve as a model for the federal radio engineer. In Federal
Management Regulation, the General Services Administration property
management division outlines detailed instructions for releasing federal
personal and real property to private markets.198
The Federal Asset Sales
Program provides guidance on budget decisions for the agencies and OMB.199
Guidance also covers facility management, disposal, construction, assignment
and use of space, and annual inventories, mail management, records, forms,
and federal ridesharing programs.200
Federal radio spectrum is not exceptional. Other federal resources require
expert technical judgment in order to manage specific constraints and custom
features.201
Although real property has private market valuations compared to
radio spectrum, the federal government manages intellectual property
190. 42 C.F.R. § 483 (2015) (requiring federal certification within the medical field).
191. Id. (providing a remedial mechanism where compliance is failed).
192. USPTO, HOW TO BECOME REGISTERED TO PRACTICE BEFORE THE USPTO IN PATENT MATTERS
(2015) [hereinafter “Patent Matters”], http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/exam/grbpage.jsp (“All individuals
seeking registration must meet the requirements of 37 C.F.R. §11.7, including the possession of legal,
scientific and technical qualifications, and good moral character and reputation. Instructions for demonstrating
possession of the necessary qualifications can be found in the General Requirements Bulletin. The possession
of legal qualifications is ascertained by passing the Registration Exam. Former USPTO employees may be
eligible for waiver of the registration examination.”).
193. NAT’L ARCHIVES, FAQS ABOUT NARA’S CERTIFICATE OF FED. RECORDS MGMT. TRAINING
PROGRAM (2015), http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/training/certification-faq.html.
194. FED. ACQUISITIONS INST., CERTIFICATION AND CAREER DEV. PROGRAMS (2015).
195. Id.
196. CIA, APPLICATION PROCESS (2015), https://www.cia.gov/careers/application-process (detailing
certifications for security clearances).
197. See Operational Excellence in Federal Spectrum Management, COMMERCE.GOV (Dec. 15, 2014,
2:05 PM), https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2014/12/operational-excellence-federal-spectrum-
management (detailing both the importance and difficulty of spectrum management employee’s jobs).
198. 41 C.F.R. § 102.38 (2001).
199. Id.
200. Id.
201. Patent Matters, supra note 192.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 337
classifications through the patent system without direct monetary valuations.202
International spectrum sharing may involve the State Department, but State
Department also has the human capital expertise to protect real property203
and
intellectual property204
across international borders. Federal spectrum that is
domestically located across agencies with international components is not
beyond the scope of federal employee discretion.205
B. Requirements for Federal Radio Engineers
Security concerns create the need for “trusted agents” and not merely
engineering talent, due to the classified nature of national security uses of radio
technology.206
Federal radio engineers often have top-secret clearance to
handle classified IRAC allocation data.207
This trusted agent status with a
good moral character element and background check can be combined with
specialized knowledge requirements for a broader consolidated group of
federal spectrum managers.
Certification would benefit federal spectrum management through
increased knowledge requirements of the NTIA Redbook, compliance
standards, and budget authority. Knowledge of rules and procedures is not an
uncommon requirement for federal employees. Patent agents are asked to pass
a rigorous exam based on the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP),
a rulebook that codifies the classification, examination, assignment, search,
and registration requirements of intellectual property.208
Registration for the
patent exam and practitioner status has resulted in 10,906 active agents and
32,642 active attorneys.209
As a thought experiment, perhaps the NTIA
Redbook and DOD Handbook210
may be combined into a consolidated federal
spectrum certificate.211
Perhaps federal spectrum policy has a better chance to reach the
administrative goal of finding 500 MHz of cleared spectrum by understanding
human capital in engineering organizations. The spectrum policy community
has neglected to consider the inventory process by real people, the federal
engineers who work within fragmented inter-agency structures.212
This article
202. Id.
203. U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, BUREAU OF ADMIN., http://www.state.gov/m/a/ (last visited Aug. 31, 2015).
204. U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ENFORCEMENT, http://www.state.gov/e/eb/tpp/ipe/
(last visited Aug. 31, 2015).
205. Id.
206. COMMERCE SPECTRUM MGMT. ADVISORY COMM., CSMAC LESSONS LEARNED MEETING
SUMMARY (2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/csmac_lessons_learned_executive_
summary.pdf.
207. Id.
208. MPEP (9th ed. Mar. 2014), http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/.
209. Patent Attorney/Agents Search, USPTO, https://oedci.uspto.gov/OEDCI/ (last visited Sept. 1,
2015).
210. DEF. INFO. SYS. AGENCY, U.S. DEP’T OF DEF., JSC-CR-10-004, COMM’S RECEIVER PERFORMANCE
DEGREDATION HANDBOOK (2010), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/osmhome/reports/2010/JSC-CR-10-
004.pdf.
211. REDBOOK, supra note 2.
212. See generally U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM POLICY FOR THE 21ST
CENTURY—THE
PRESIDENT’S SPECTRUM POLICY INITIATIVE (1994), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/reports/specpolini/
338 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015
highlights the importance of finding and consolidating the engineering
expertise in order to repack and reorganize the federal spectrum. In each
agency, federal radio managers also vary in job sophistication and expertise,
where radio operators can be located on national parks, military bases,
scientific research locations, and local law enforcement facilities.213
Engineers
in the nineteen agencies are typically technical specialists according to federal
employment status. Examples of radio spectrum positions include Technical
Specialist,214
Telecommunications Specialist,215
Communications Specialist,216
and Telecommunications Specialist.217
Policy positions include Supervisory
Technical Specialist at the NTIA,218
and Electronics Engineer with the FCC.219
Some of these engineers will perform better at the repacking task than others.
A certification process for federal radio engineers would at least create an
organization of technical skills for the goals in repacking and transition
decisions.
Certification also creates risk mitigation for a GSA/GSOC entity.220
Certified radio engineers could be identified and vested with inter-agency
decisions that impact long-term budgets and procurement contracts. Radio
engineers could be trained according to detailed instructions on how to propose
relocation plans that better repack the spectrum. Mitigating the decision
fragmentation for federal radio engineers, and identifying leadership on
operating priorities can occur with a restructuring of the federal employees
who operate these radios. If this occurs through a certification process, or
through another administrative designation, the engineers need to work
together to clear federal spectrum. Policy representatives and agency points of
contact can provide support for relocation decision plans, with
acknowledgment that these attorneys are limited in their technical knowledge
to make specialized decisions on the radio allocations.221
Engineers could also benefit from certification through other venues of
collaboration. Spectrum policy representatives meet for World
presspecpolini_report2_06242004.doc (outlining spectrum policy community policy and procedure
recommendations, omitting consideration of the inventory process by real people).
213. See generally REDBOOK, supra note 2 (displaying the variance in duties and tasks assigned to
federal radio managers).
214. U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, Job Title: Foreign Service Information Management Technical Specialist—
Radio, USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/366358200 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
215. U.S. DEP’T OF THE AIR FORCE, Job Title: Telecommunications Specialist, USAJOBS,
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/366475900 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
216. U.S. DEP’T OF TRANSP., Job Title: Airway Transportation Systems Specialist (Communication),
USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/363170600 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
217. U.S. DEP’T OF ARMY, Job Title: Telecommunications Specialist, USAJOBS, https://www.
usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/367423500 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
218. U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, Job Title: Supervisory Telecommunications Specialist (DEU),
USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/367832100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
219. FCC, Job Title: Electronics Engineer, USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/
366510100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
220. Why Be Certified, SOC’Y OF BROAD. ENG’RS, http://www.sbe.org/sections/cert_index.php (last
visited Sept. 1, 2015) (outlining the objectives of SBE certification: to raise the status of broadcast engineers
by providing standards of professional competence, and to recognize those individuals who, by fulfilling the
requirements of knowledge, experience, responsibility and conduct, meet those standards of professional
competence).
221. NTIA Points of Contact, supra note 99.
No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 339
Radiocommunication Conference meetings, the International
Telecommunications Union Radio Communication Sector, National Academy
of Science, National Science Foundation, European Science Foundation, and
the IEEE have conferences and working groups.222
However, few professional
associations such as the National Spectrum Management Association support
networks for federal radio engineers.223
Several magazines such as
Interference Technology224
and IEEE Spectrum225
provide industry guidance
and membership lists for federal radio engineers, along with the private sector
wireless industry.
CONCLUSION
Federal radio engineers who evaluate, measure, sort, procure, install, and
inventory federal radio devices have the expertise to repack federal radio
spectrum allocations.226
The spectrum repacking task is handled by real people
with expert judgment.227
However, in the public sector, federal repacking
efforts are constrained by institutional realities that fragment policy and budget
decisions from radio engineering decisions. This article reviewed the role of
federal employees in spectrum reallocation, with a proposal of certification
mechanisms that can identify employees capable of advancing repacking
efforts.
222. See Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF), EUR. SCI. FOUND., http://www.esf.org/
hosting-experts/expert-boards-and-committees/radio-astronomy.html (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing
the Committee’s efforts to protect radiospectrum bands); Committee on Radio Frequencies Agenda, NAT’L
ACAD. OF SCI., http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/BPA_088402 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (listing the
Committee’s presentations on radio spectrum management); Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS)
Principal Investigators’ Workshop, NAT’L SCI. FOUND., http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/ears_pi_workshop.jsp
(last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (listing the Foundation’s presentations on spectrum policy); IEEE 1900.5 Working
Group (WG) on Policy Language and Architectures for Managing Cognitive Radio for Dynamic Spectrum
Access Applications, IEEE STANDARDS ASS’N, http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/dyspan/5/ (last visited Sept. 1,
2015) (describing the WG’s efforts to expand radio spectrum access); ITU International Symposium on the
Digital Switchover—Presenters Biographies, INT’L TELECOMM. UNION, http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/GE06-
Symposium-2015/Pages/presenters-bios.aspx (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (illustrating spectrum policy
background of ITU Radiocommunication Sector symposium attendees); World Radiocommunication
Conferences (WRC), INT’L TELECOMM. UNION, http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/conferences/wrc/Pages/
default.aspx (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing the WRC’s objective of revising the international treaty
governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum).
223. A Message from our President, NAT’L SPECTRUM MGMT. ASS’N, http://www.nsma.org/about-us/
(last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
224. About Interference Technology, INTERFERENCE TECH., http://www.interferencetechnology.com/
about-us/ (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).
225. About IEEE Spectrum, IEEE SPECTRUM, http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/aboutus (last visited Sept. 1,
2015).
226. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK HANDBOOK:
BROAD. AND SOUND ENG’R TECHNICIANS (2014), http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/
broadcast-and-sound-engineering-technicians.htm#tab-2.
227. Id. See also Testimony: Hearing on Improving Federal Spectrum Systems Before the Subcomm. On
Commc’ns and Tech. of the H. Comm. On Energy and Commerce, 114th Cong. 9-10 (Oct. 7, 2015),
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF16/20151007/104037/HHRG-114-IF16-Wstate-ReedJ-20151007.pdf
(testimony of Jeffrey H. Reed, Professor, on the Importance of R&D in Improving Federal Spectrum Systems)
(“Incentives can build support from the legacy spectrum users, but the ‘devil is in the details.’ Thought needs
to be given to metrics for assessing what and how much incentives should be given for what [and how much]
concessions. Furthermore, how those incentives are distributed within federal organizations make a difference
in how cooperative the elements in those organizations will be with the transition.”).