Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WEBER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1338 promotes U.S. leadership in the commercial satellite communications industry by creating a regulatory environment that encourages innovation and investment in the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you something. The Energy and Commerce Committee is all about encouraging innovation and investment in the United States.

This bill helps us to beat China. China is actively working to undermine U.S. leadership in the satellite communications marketplace and provide service to other allies so that they can gather intelligence.

This bill streamlines the process for modifications to existing satellite communications systems. The bill would ensure that modifications to existing satellite communications are not held up unnecessarily by new applications that may be more complex.

The bill also creates a regulatory fast lane for minor modifications that do not change the spectrum interference landscape in a meaningful way.

It incentivizes satellite communications systems to be good stewards of spectrum. By establishing a quantifiable level of protection that defines how each satellite communications system licensed by the FCC may use spectrum, the bill ensures a balance between competition and innovation.

It enhances FCC transparency and efficiency of processing NGSO satellite applications, for example, SpaceX.

The bill would provide direction to the FCC on how their satellite communications licensing rules should be designed.

By creating objective, measurable, and technology-neutral performance objectives, satellite operators will have flexibility to design their systems without government overregulation.

Mr. Speaker, we need H.R. 1338.

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