Sponsor
Mike Lee
Senator · R-UT
Senator · R-UT
The bill improves transparency and could free spectrum for commercial and public use, but it imposes administrative costs, requires staff diversion, and risks exposing sensitive details unless classified material is tightly controlled.
Broadband consumers, businesses, and the telecom industry could gain access to spectrum freed or reallocated after a clearer federal inventory identifies unused or underused bands, enabling expanded wireless capacity and infrastructure upgrades.
Federal agencies and spectrum managers will have a clearer, band-level inventory of federal spectrum holdings, enabling more efficient reuse, reallocation, and coordination across agencies.
Congress and the public gain greater transparency into federal spectrum use through an unclassified report (with an optional classified annex), improving oversight and public accountability.
Detailed public reporting of spectrum usage risks exposing sensitive information if not fully confined to a classified annex, creating potential national security vulnerabilities.
Preparing the comprehensive nationwide audit and reports will impose administrative costs borne by taxpayers and increase budgetary pressure on agencies and the Commerce Department.
Agencies must divert staff time and resources to compile detailed band-level data and coordinate across departments, potentially delaying other agency priorities and programs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Commerce to audit all federal electromagnetic spectrum holdings and report unclassified results to Congress within 18 months.
Official title: Require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to audit Federal spectrum.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Mike Lee · Last progress February 27, 2025
Directs the Commerce Department (Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information) to carry out a nationwide audit of all electromagnetic spectrum assigned or allocated to every federal entity and to deliver an unclassified report (with an optional classified annex) to Congress within 18 months of enactment. The report must list each federal-entity-held band, the purposes and amounts used for each purpose, geographic assignment, whether use is exclusive or shared, and any unused portions, and requires consultation with federal entity heads and coordination with the Transportation Secretary to avoid duplicative audits.