HR1455-119

What This Bill Does

H.R. 1455, the ITS Codification Act, would add section 106 to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act. The Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information would be required to operate the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) as the executive branch's primary laboratory for specified radio-frequency and spectrum research. ITS already exists within NTIA and already conducts related research; this is statutory codification, not the first creation of a federal telecommunications laboratory. The official record checked September 22, 2026 lists Senate Commerce Committee referral on July 15, 2025 as the latest action. The bill has not been enacted.

The laboratory would study emissions and interference, determine propagation characteristics, test technologies for federal/nonfederal spectrum sharing, improve federal systems' interference tolerance and promote nonfederal access and sharing. The Assistant Secretary could assign additional functions under existing section 103(b)(1), determine other necessary activities and enter agreements through the listed existing statutory authorities.

Who Benefits and How

Commercial wireless service providers could benefit from research that makes possible spectrum access or sharing arrangements easier to evaluate. The bill does not itself assign frequencies, issue FCC licenses, schedule auctions, clear any band or give a provider a right to use federal spectrum. Federal agencies operating systems on federal spectrum could benefit from interference studies and improved tolerance without a new bill-specific relocation mandate. These effects depend on implementation and later spectrum decisions.

Manufacturers of emergency communication equipment and providers of location-tracking technology could use needs assessments and technical specifications to improve reliability in mines, high-rise buildings and collapsed structures. Emergency response providers and people trapped in these environments are intended downstream beneficiaries of better communication and location tools. These are prospective research benefits, not promised rescue outcomes, equipment grants or guaranteed government purchases. Private research partners can use agreements permitted by existing law; no named firm receives an exclusive contract or patent.

Who Bears the Burden and How

NTIA, acting through the head of ITS, must establish the emergency-technology initiative, work with private entities and appropriate federal agency heads, assess measurement and technical-specification needs, and support technical specifications and conformance architecture. It must send Congress and publish the needs-assessment report within 18 months after enactment. These research, coordination and reporting duties create agency work; the bill does not impose compulsory product certification, require mine operators to buy equipment or mandate participation by every private manufacturer.

The text supplies no new appropriation or fixed grant award. CBO's estimate reproduced in House Report 119-176 projected $4 million in implementation costs over 2025-2030, subject to appropriations and assuming enactment in fiscal 2025; it is an estimate, not an enacted funding amount or an updated estimate for enactment in 2026. CBO attributed no additional cost to the spectrum-research functions already performed by ITS. Existing agreement, reimbursement, technology-transfer and patent-licensing authorities remain the legal conditions for any resulting transactions.

Key Provisions

• Requires operation of ITS and specifies emissions, propagation, interference-tolerance and spectrum-sharing research functions.
• Permits additional delegated functions and agreements under listed existing statutes, without automatically awarding spectrum or overriding those statutes' conditions.
• Establishes an initiative for emergency communication and tracking technology in confined or shielded environments.
• Requires collaboration on a needs assessment and support for technical specifications and conformance architecture.
• Requires a public report to Congress within 18 months after enactment, not an annual reporting cycle.
• Defines federal spectrum for proposed subsection 106(a) as frequencies assigned primarily to a federal entity; findings restate the existing priority for feasible federal-spectrum relocation.