Sponsors
The bill increases transparency and fiscal realism to enable potential reallocation of federal spectrum for commercial use—potentially boosting mobile capacity and informed budgeting—while creating risks to national-security operations, administrative burdens, and the possibility of overstated revenue expectations that could pressure inappropriate monetization.
Mobile consumers, small businesses, and tech industries could gain access to additional commercial spectrum because agencies must report market values, enabling reallocation of underused federal spectrum to commercial wireless services and potentially improving mobile capacity and innovation.
Taxpayers and the public will have clearer information because federal agencies must report market-based values for their spectrum holdings, increasing transparency about the economic value of federal spectrum and supporting accountability.
Taxpayers and state and local budget planners may get more realistic fiscal estimates because the bill requires incorporating market-based/dynamic scoring of spectrum reallocation impacts into budget planning.
Federal employees and taxpayers could face increased national security risk because agencies may feel pressured to monetize or reallocate spectrum for revenue even when it supports critical federal missions.
Federal employees and national security operations could be harmed because public release of valuation methodology and findings (where not exempted) may reveal sensitive information about government capabilities or spectrum use patterns.
Taxpayers and agency staff may bear higher administrative costs because preparing repeated, detailed market-value estimates across wide frequency ranges will divert NTIA, OMB, and agency resources from other missions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Mike Lee · Last progress February 27, 2025
Requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in consultation with the FCC and OMB, to estimate the market value of electromagnetic spectrum owned or allocated to federal agencies across 3 kHz–95 GHz and to update those estimates on a routine, staggered schedule. Federal entities must include the most recent NTIA estimate for their held spectrum in their budget submissions and annual financial statements; NTIA must publish its methodology and findings except for classified, law‑enforcement‑sensitive, or proprietary information.