Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has urged Federal Communication Chairman Tom Wheeler to establish policies that will expand access to broadcast spectrum for small businesses, increasing diversity and creating jobs for American workers.

The letter to Chairman Wheeler, signed by Congresswoman Clarke and five of her colleagues in the House of Representatives, explains that current regulations have in many instances allowed multinational corporations to obtain broadcast spectrum to the exclusion of small businesses and have imposed unnecessary requirements which create difficulties for small businesses.

“By expanding opportunities to participate in broadcast spectrum auctions, we will support many small businesses owned by women and people of color – who remain substantially underrepresented in telecommunications.  These small business owners want to obtain licenses to open television and radio stations and to enter the market for wireless services, sectors of the economy that continue to develop as Americans access more content on their smartphones and tablets,” said Congresswoman Clarke, who as a member of both the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Small Business Committee has worked to increase the participation of diverse small business owners in the market for broadcast spectrum. “This proposal has the potential both to create jobs and to increase diversity in our media.”

The letter was signed by Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Congressman Bobby Rush, Congressman G.K. Butterfield, Congresswoman Doris Matsui, and Congressman Ben Ray Luján.

Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the House of Representatives, a member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, as well as the Committee on Ethics and the Committee of Small Business. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.