The Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026, provides a total of $76,824,000,000 in discretionary budget authority for fiscal year 2026. Within this amount, non-defense spending totals $70,590,000,000 and defense spending totals $6,234,000,000. To reduce the size of the Federal Government and ensure that agencies funded herein are focused on missions that serve the American people without wasting and abusing hard-earned tax dollars, this bill prioritizes funding for critical agencies. The recommendation includes $46,000,000 for the salaries and expenses of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is $11,000,000 below fiscal year 2025 and equal to the OMB Budget request.

• Policy and Technical Training.—The Committee directs NTIA to continue working with the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of State to provide support for activities authorized under section 7 of Public Law 98–549. As part of these activities, NTIA may provide assistance and guidance in policy and technical training to impart best practices to information technology professionals from developing countries. 
• Broadband Programs.—NTIA’s broadband programs shall not provide a scoring advantage based specifically upon the form of organization or commercial status of a broadband service provider, and NTIA should ensure States using funding obtained through NTIA similarly do not provide a scoring advantage based on organization or commercial status for programs administered by the State.
• Rural Broadband Coordination.—The Committee continues to encourage NTIA to equally prioritize the deployment of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) in rural communities and in urban areas.
• Broadband Programs Barrier to Entry.—In administering its broadband programs, NTIA shall consider the effect of supply chain, workforce shortages, and other known barriers such as permit approvals to determine whether providers can reasonably meet deployment deadlines. In the case NTIA determines these factors unduly impact project commitments or will deter program participation, the Administration shall use its discretionary authority to provide waivers of such requirements and/or other relief.
• Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Coordination.—The Committee is concerned with the NTIA’s implementation of section 60102(h)(5)(D) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117–58). Accordingly, the Department shall not approve any Eligible Entity’s initial proposal or final proposal if the Eligible Entity proposes to require, encourage, or incentivize subgrantees to offer specific rates for broadband service, including a specific rate for a low-cost broadband service option, a middle- class affordability strategy, or a specific rate in order to earn points for the scoring of deployment subgrantee selection.
• Rate Regulation.—NTIA’s broadband programs shall not directly or indirectly regulate the rates that broadband service providers charge to consumers generally or to any subset of consumers. 
• Broadband Program Duplication.—The Committee appreciates NTIA and other Federal agencies’ efforts to provide high-speed broadband access to all Americans. However, the Committee is concerned that multiple Federal broadband programs exist with similar purposes. This overlap could increase the risk of duplication and inefficient use of taxpayer funds. As Congress has created new broadband deployment grants, the Committee believes it is important to ensure all broadband programs are well coordinated, sustainable, and effective using existing resources. NTIA is directed to report to the Committee, no later than 120 days after the enactment of this Act, on any statutory limitations hindering coordination of Federal broadband programs and offer legislative proposals to address these limitations, as recommended by Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2022. NTIA should also analyze how many Americans still lack fixed broadband access and estimate additional funding required to ensure all Americans have access to broadband, considering current funding.
• Spectrum Needs.—The Committee directs NTIA to continue evaluating ways to expand spectrum availability for non-Federal wireless use while maintaining a balanced approach to licensed, unlicensed, and shared spectrum access. NTIA is directed to provide annual updates on its evaluation process, including a review of spectrum-sharing opportunities and commercial access considerations. 

China’s two biggest networks have deployed less than 1 percent of their planned satellites, records show, a measure of how far they are falling behind Elon Musk’s company SpaceX for dominance in space communications. Satellites in low Earth orbit, up to 1,200 miles above the planet, are increasingly seen as essential for driverless cars, drone warfare and military surveillance. China regards Starlink as a military threat, and Chinese companies have invested heavily in two huge networks, with nearly 27,000 satellites planned between them. One reason for the unexpectedly slow pace is that the Chinese companies have not cleared a key engineering hurdle. The first network, or megaconstellation, Qianfan, was scheduled to have about 650 satellites in space by the end of 2025. But records show that the company behind the network, Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co., has put only 90 satellites in orbit since its launches began in August 2024. The other megaconstellation, Guowang, is even farther behind. Despite plans to launch about 13,000 satellites within the next decade, it has 34 in orbit. SpaceX has about 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit and is expanding its lead every month, according to data from U.S. Space Force and CelesTrak, a nonprofit group that gathers space data.

The dark cloud of uncertainty hanging over EchoStar doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said his agency continues to take a close look at whether EchoStar, via its Dish business, complied with the FCC’s 5G network buildout obligations. “Dish obviously says that they did,” he said during a press conference after the FCC’s July open meeting. “Concerns have been raised. We’ve been working through the data on that. That work continues.” Separately, the FCC opened a proceeding looking at whether EchoStar is using the 2 GHz band for mobile satellite services consistent with the terms for which it was authorized years ago by the FCC. That’s also ongoing. Chairman Carr said he’s open-minded about paths forward, but he reiterated that “the status quo is just not acceptable. We’re pushing hard to free up spectrum, and you have Dish effectively over the years sitting on a tremendous amount of spectrum that simply isn’t loaded.”

Most Americans encounter the Federal Trade Commission only if they’ve been scammed: It handles identity theft, fraud, and stolen data. During the Biden administration, the agency went after artificial intelligence companies for scamming customers with deceptive advertising or harming people by selling irresponsible technologies. With the announcement of President Trump’s AI Action Plan, that era may now be over. In the final months of the Biden administration under chair Lina Khan, the FTC levied a series of high-profile fines and actions against AI companies for overhyping their technology and bending the truth—or in some cases making claims that were entirely false. These actions did not result in fines that crippled the companies, but they did stop them from making false statements and offered customers ways to recover their money or get out of contracts. In each case, the FTC found that everyday people had been harmed by AI companies that allowed their technologies to run amok. The new plan released by the Trump administration suggests it believes these actions went too far. In a section about removing “red tape and onerous regulation,” the White House says it will review all FTC actions taken under the Biden administration “to ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation.” In the same section, the White House says it will withhold AI-related federal funding from states with “burdensome” regulations.