S. 649 Radio Spectrum Inventory Act

Procedural Step: Waiting for floor vote

Summary

The bill requires an inventory of radio spectrum bands managed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission.

It amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to:

1) biennially inventory each radio spectrum band from 300 megahertz to 3.5 gigahertz managed by each such agency, including information on the licenses or government user assigned in the band, the total spectrum allocation of each licensee or government user, the number of deployed intentional and end-user intentional radiators, and (if available) other specified information; and

2) make the information available to the public through the Internet.

The bill allows a licensee or government user to petition the NTIA or the FCC for a partial or total exemption from website inclusion. It also allows an exemption to be granted only to the extent that each such agency determines that disclosure of the information would be harmful to U.S. national security.

Updates

• Based on information from NTIA and FCC, CBO estimates that implementing S. 649
  would cost $22 million over the 2010-2014 period, assuming appropriation of the
  necessary amounts. contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
  Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would not affect the budgets of state,
  local, or tribal governments.

Supporters

Sen John Kerry (D-MA) -- sponsor

Co-sponsors:

Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [R-ME] - 3/19/2009
Sen Nelson, Bill [D-FL] - 3/19/2009
Sen Wicker, Roger F. [R-MS] - 3/19/2009
Sen Warner, Mark R. [D-VA] - 5/5/2009
Sen Hutchison, Kay Bailey [R-TX] - 5/5/2009
Sen Thune, John [R-SD] - 6/15/2009
Sen Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] - 7/7/2009
Sen Pryor, Mark L. [D-AR] - 7/8/2009