I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1455
To codify the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences and to direct the
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information
to establish an initiative to support the development of emergency com-
munication and tracking technologies, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY21, 2025
Mr. C
ARTERof Georgia (for himself and Ms. PETTERSEN) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To codify the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences and
to direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Com-
munications and Information to establish an initiative
to support the development of emergency communication
and tracking technologies, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Institute for Tele-4
communication Sciences Codification Act’’ or the ‘‘ITS 5
Codification Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. INSTITUTE FOR TELECOMMUNICATION SCIENCES. 1
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 2
(1) The test center within the National Tele-3
communications and Information Administration (in 4
this subsection referred to as the ‘‘NTIA’’) rep-5
resents executive branch agencies on spectrum issues 6
before the Federal Communications Commission. 7
(2) Understanding radio frequency propagation 8
characteristics and modeling is a critical component 9
of making spectrum decisions. 10
(3) Federal agencies rely on expert engineering 11
studies, simulations, and analyses to make deter-12
minations about how to make spectrum available for 13
commercial use, including through system reloca-14
tions and identifying spectrum sharing opportunities 15
through the NTIA. 16
(4) Clearing of Federal spectrum, when fea-17
sible, is the priority action to take to make Federal 18
spectrum available for commercial uses as required 19
by section 113(j)(1) of the National Telecommuni-20
cations and Information Administration Organiza-21
tion Act (47 U.S.C. 923(j)(1)). 22
(5) Sharing of Federal spectrum between Fed-23
eral entities and commercial entities provides access 24
to Federal spectrum for commercial uses in cir-25
cumstances where clearing is not feasible. 26
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•HR 1455 IH
(6) The test center within the NTIA is the Gov-1
ernment’s premier expert laboratory for spectrum re-2
search activities, spectrum sharing innovation and 3
testing, spectrum interference studies, and all activi-4
ties related to advancing next generation wireless 5
technologies. 6
(7) The test center within the NTIA is critical 7
for undertaking engineering studies and analyses 8
that inform clearing or sharing opportunities and fa-9
cilitate policy decisions to maximize the efficient use 10
of spectrum resources. 11
(b) O
PERATION OFTESTCENTER.—Part A of the 12
National Telecommunications and Information Adminis-13
tration Organization Act (47 U.S.C. 901 et seq.) is 14
amended by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘SEC. 106. INSTITUTE FOR TELECOMMUNICATION 16
SCIENCES. 17
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Under the authority pro-19
vided to the Assistant Secretary under section 103, 20
the Assistant Secretary shall operate a test center to 21
be known as the Institute for Telecommunication 22
Sciences (in this section referred to as ‘ITS’). 23
‘‘(2) F
UNCTIONS.— 24
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•HR 1455 IH
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any 1
functions delegated by the Assistant Secretary 2
under subparagraph (B), ITS shall serve as the 3
primary laboratory for the executive branch of 4
the Federal Government to— 5
‘‘(i) study radio frequency emissions, 6
including technologies and techniques to 7
control such emissions and interference 8
caused by such emissions; 9
‘‘(ii) determine spectrum propagation 10
characteristics; 11
‘‘(iii) conduct tests on technology that 12
enhances the sharing of electromagnetic 13
spectrum between Federal and non-Federal 14
users; 15
‘‘(iv) improve the interference toler-16
ance of Federal systems operating with, or 17
using, Federal spectrum; 18
‘‘(v) promote activities relating to ac-19
cess to Federal spectrum by non-Federal 20
users and the sharing of Federal spectrum 21
between Federal and non-Federal users; 22
and 23
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•HR 1455 IH
‘‘(vi) conduct such other activities as 1
determined necessary by the Assistant Sec-2
retary. 3
‘‘(B) A
DDITIONAL FUNCTIONS .—The As-4
sistant Secretary may delegate to ITS any of 5
the functions assigned to the Assistant Sec-6
retary under section 103(b)(1). 7
‘‘(3) A
GREEMENTS AND TRANSACTIONS .—In 8
carrying out the functions described in paragraph 9
(2), the Assistant Secretary, acting through the head 10
of ITS, may enter into agreements as provided 11
under the following authorities: 12
‘‘(A) Sections 11 and 12 of the Stevenson- 13
Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 14
U.S.C. 3710; 3710a). 15
‘‘(B) Section 1535 of title 31, United 16
States Code. 17
‘‘(C) Sections 207 and 209 of title 35, 18
United States Code. 19
‘‘(D) Section 103(b)(2) of this Act. 20
‘‘(E) Section 113(g) of this Act. 21
‘‘(F) The first undesignated section of 22
Public Law 91–412. 23
‘‘(G) Any authorization in any other Fed-24
eral statute. 25
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‘‘(4) FEDERAL SPECTRUM DEFINED .—In this 1
subsection, the term ‘Federal spectrum’ means fre-2
quencies assigned on a primary basis to a Federal 3
entity (as defined in section 113(l)). 4
‘‘(b) E
MERGENCYCOMMUNICATION AND TRACKING 5
T
ECHNOLOGIESINITIATIVE.— 6
‘‘(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Assistant Sec-7
retary, acting through the head of ITS, shall estab-8
lish an initiative to support the development of 9
emergency communication and tracking technologies 10
for use in locating trapped individuals in confined 11
spaces, such as underground mines, and other 12
shielded environments, such as high-rise buildings or 13
collapsed structures, where conventional radio com-14
munication is limited. 15
‘‘(2) A
CTIVITIES.—In order to carry out this 16
subsection, the Assistant Secretary, acting through 17
the head of ITS, shall work with private sector enti-18
ties and the heads of appropriate Federal agencies, 19
to— 20
‘‘(A) perform a needs assessment to iden-21
tify and evaluate the measurement, technical 22
specifications, and conformity assessment needs 23
required to improve the operation and reliability 24
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•HR 1455 IH
of such emergency communication and tracking 1
technologies; and 2
‘‘(B) support the development of technical 3
specifications and conformance architecture to 4
improve the operation and reliability of such 5
emergency communication and tracking tech-6
nologies. 7
‘‘(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 18 months after 8
the date of the enactment of this section, the Assist-9
ant Secretary shall submit to Congress, and make 10
publicly available, a report on the assessment per-11
formed under paragraph (2)(A).’’. 12
Æ
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