Government Spectrum Valuation Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8244 To require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to estimate the value of electromagnetic spectrum assigned or otherwise allocated to Federal entities. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 Mrs. RODGERS of Washington (for herself and Ms. CLARKE of New York) in- troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on En- ergy and Commerce A BILL To require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to estimate the value of electromagnetic spectrum assigned or otherwise allocated to Federal enti- ties. 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 ‘‘Government Spectrum 4 Valuation Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:32 Sep 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8244.IH H8244 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8244 IH SEC. 2. ESTIMATE OF VALUE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC SPEC- 1 TRUM. 2 Part B of the National Telecommunications and In- 3 formation Administration Organization Act (47 U.S.C. 4 921 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following 5 new section: 6 ‘‘SEC. 120. ESTIMATE OF VALUE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC 7 SPECTRUM. 8 ‘‘(a) ESTIMATES REQUIRED.—The NTIA, in con- 9 sultation with the Commission and the Director of OMB, 10 shall estimate the value of electromagnetic spectrum in the 11 covered band that is assigned or otherwise allocated to 12 each Federal entity as of the date of the estimate, in ac- 13 cordance with the schedule under subsection (b). 14 ‘‘(b) SCHEDULE.—The NTIA shall conduct the esti- 15 mates under subsection (a) for the covered bands be- 16 tween— 17 ‘‘(1) 225 megahertz and 33 gigahertz not later 18 than 1 year after the date of enactment of this sec- 19 tion, and every 3 years thereafter; 20 ‘‘(2) 33 gigahertz and 66 gigahertz not later 21 than 2 years after the date of enactment of this sec- 22 tion, and every 3 years thereafter; and 23 ‘‘(3) 66 gigahertz and 95 gigahertz not later 24 than 3 years after the date of enactment of this sec- 25 tion, and every 3 years thereafter. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:32 Sep 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8244.IH H8244 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8244 IH ‘‘(c) BASIS FOR ESTIMATE.— 1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The NTIA shall base each 2 value estimate under subsection (a) on the value 3 that the electromagnetic spectrum would have if the 4 spectrum were reallocated for the use with the high- 5 est potential value of licensed or unlicensed commer- 6 cial wireless services that do not have access to that 7 spectrum as of the date of the estimate. 8 ‘‘(2) CONSIDERATION OF GOVERNMENT CAPA- 9 BILITIES.—In estimating the economic value of spec- 10 trum under subsection (a), the NTIA may consider 11 the spectrum needs of commercial interests while 12 preserving the spectrum access necessary to satisfy 13 mission requirements and operations of Federal enti- 14 ties. 15 ‘‘(3) DYNAMIC SCORING.—To the greatest ex- 16 tent practicable, the NTIA shall incorporate dynamic 17 scoring methodology into the value estimate under 18 subsection (a). 19 ‘‘(4) DISCLOSURE.— 20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara- 21 graph (B), the NTIA shall publicly disclose how 22 the NTIA arrived at each value estimate under 23 subsection (a), including any findings made 24 under paragraph (2). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:32 Sep 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8244.IH H8244 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8244 IH ‘‘(B) CLASSIFIED, LAW ENFORCEMENT- 1 SENSITIVE, AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION.— 2 If any information involved in a value estimate 3 under subsection (a), including any finding 4 made under paragraph (2), is classified, law en- 5 forcement-sensitive, or proprietary, the NTIA— 6 ‘‘(i) may not publicly disclose the clas- 7 sified, law enforcement-sensitive, or propri- 8 etary information; and 9 ‘‘(ii) shall make the classified, law en- 10 forcement-sensitive, or proprietary infor- 11 mation available to any Member of Con- 12 gress, upon request, in a separate annex. 13 ‘‘(d) AGENCY REPORT ON VALUE OF ELECTRO- 14 MAGNETIC SPECTRUM.—The head of a Federal entity that 15 has been assigned or otherwise allocated use of electro- 16 magnetic spectrum within the covered bands shall report 17 the value of the spectrum as most recently estimated 18 under subsection (a)— 19 ‘‘(1) in the budget of the Federal entity to be 20 included in the budget of the United States Govern- 21 ment submitted by the President under section 1105 22 of title 31, United States Code; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:32 Sep 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8244.IH H8244 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8244 IH ‘‘(2) in the annual financial statement of the 1 Federal entity required to be filed under section 2 3515 of title 31, United States Code. 3 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 4 ‘‘(1) COVERED BANDS.—The term ‘covered 5 bands’ means the band of frequencies between 225 6 megahertz and 95 gigahertz. 7 ‘‘(2) FEDERAL ENTITY.—The term ‘Federal en- 8 tity’ has the meaning given the term in section 9 113(l). 10 ‘‘(3) OMB.—The term ‘OMB’ means the Office 11 of Management and Budget.’’. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:32 Sep 15, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8244.IH H8244 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS