House Subcommittee to Consider Bills to Reauthorize NTIA

The House Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee will convene on July 12 to consider a number of bills to reauthorize the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The main bill under consideration is the NTIA Reauthorization Act of 2023 (H.R. 4510).

Introduced by Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH) and Ranking Member Doris Matsui (D-CA), H.R. 4510 would provide NTIA with $62 million in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 and change the director of the NTIA from an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to an Under Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. The legislation establishes three new policy priorities for the NTIA:

1. Fostering the digital economy of the United States in order to ensure the competitiveness, future economic growth, and security of the United States.
2. Working to ensure that global communications networks remain open and innovative, including without inappropriate barriers to entry or operation.
3. Achieving the universal availability of and access to telecommunications service and information service and any technology related to such service.

The NTIA Reauthorization Act of 2023 would also give NTIA the authority to conduct studies, publish reports, and make recommendations concerning on any Federal, State, local, or private policy or practice relating to communications, information, or the digital economy of the United States; and that consider interoperability, privacy, security, spectrum use, emergency readiness, the flow of information, and the universal availability of and access to telecommunications service and information service.

The bill would require the NTIA to consolidate various reports into one annual report sent to Congress and published on its website in the first quarter of each calendar year.

HR 4510 would establish the Office of Spectrum Management within the NTIA. The new office would be charged with working with the Federal Communications Commission on developing and coordinating a comprehensive long-range plan for improved spectrum management. The office would oversee a new interagency advisory body called the Policy and Plans Steering Group (PPSG), made up with representatives from Federal agencies.

The legislation also requires the NTIA to develop a National Strategy to Close the Digital Divide. The strategy would have four main purposes:

1. support better management of Federal broadband programs to deliver on the goal of providing high-speed, affordable broadband internet access service to all individuals in the United States;
2. synchronize interagency coordination among covered agencies for Federal broadband programs;
3. synchronize interagency coordination regarding the process for approving the grant of an easement, right of way, or lease to, in, over, or on a building or any other property owned by the Federal Government for the right to install, construct, modify, or maintain infrastructure with respect to broadband internet access service; and
4. reduce barriers, lower costs, and ease administrative burdens for State, local, and Tribal governments to participate in Federal broadband programs.

The NTIA Reauthorization Act would establish an Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity within the NTIA to oversee and conduct national communications and information policy analysis and development for the internet and communications technologies.

The legislation would establish an Office of Public Safety Communications to carry out NTIA's responsibilities related to public safety communications policy.

Finally, the bill would establish an Office of International Affairs and would require the NTIA to establish an interagency review process that considers the law enforcement and national security policy implications of the approval of an application that may arise from the foreign ownership interests.

The subcommittee will also consider the following bills:

H.R. 3430, Spectrum Relocation Enhancement Act (Reps. Matsui and Weber) 

H.R. 3385, Diaspora Link Act (Reps. Plaskett and Fulcher)  

H.R. 3369, AI Accountability Act (Rep. Harder) 

H.R. 4511, Public Safety Communications Act (Rep. Cammack) 

H.R. 4506, TEAM TELECOM Act (Rep. Johnson) 

H.R. 4512, Digital Economy Cybersecurity Advisory Act (Rep. Pfluger) 

H.R. 4505, PLAN For Broadband Act (Reps. Walberg and Kuster) 

H.R. 4513, Commerce Spectrum Coordination Act of 2023 (Rep. Griffith) 

H.R. 4504, Novel, Advanced, Spectrum and Communications Technology Networks Promotion Act (Rep. Guthrie) 

H.R. 3431, Spectrum Coexistence Act (Rep. Matsui)