The House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced on May 28 a hearing titled “Where Are We?: Examining Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Capabilities in the United States.” The hearing is scheduled for June 4 at 10:15 AM ET in the Rayburn House Office Building and will be open to the public and press.
Chairmen Brett Guthrie and Richard Hudson said, “The U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) underlies critical technologies Americans use and rely on every day, but many people may not realize GPS applications extend far beyond the map apps on their phones. From national defense and critical infrastructure, such as banking and energy, to the daily routines of nearly every American, even a temporary GPS outage would drastically affect hundreds of millions of lives. We look forward to a conversation about how we can strengthen positioning, navigation, and timing services to maximize resiliency and reliability.”
Harold Feld, Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge, provided testimony before the Subcommittee on Communications & Technology regarding the current state of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems. Feld said that GPS has become essential across industries since its public availability in 1993 but now faces challenges including jamming and spoofing threats due to weak satellite signals. He emphasized that any transition from legacy GPS must be carefully managed over time to avoid disruption.
Feld also addressed proposals for alternative PNT systems such as NextNav’s terrestrial 5G system in the 900 MHz band and ATSC 3.0 broadcast-based solutions. He expressed opposition to NextNav’s proposal due to concerns about interference with existing devices operating in the band as well as lack of universal coverage or enforceable build-out commitments. Feld said that while private sector solutions can supplement PNT services, only government action can ensure global coverage as a public good.
He further said that privacy considerations should be incorporated into next-generation PNT systems from an early stage. Feld concluded by saying Congress has a responsibility to maintain free access to reliable PNT services for all users while managing any transition with careful oversight.
