House Communications Subcommittee Sets GPS Hearing for June 4

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2026 – The Trump administration’s quest to develop a companion GPS system is going to get a close look on Capitol Hill.

The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee is holding a hearing next week on GPS backups, the committee announced Thursday.

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The hearing on position, navigation, and timing (PNT) technology, the subject of intense debate at the Federal Communications Commission, will be June 4. The witness list has yet to be published.

It comes after another House committee moved to block the FCC from acting on a PNT proposal from one company, NextNav. The House Appropriations Committee included a provision in its FCC budget bill that would prevent work on the company’s proposal.

The company is asking the FCC to reorganize the lower 900 MegaHertz (MHz) band and allow it to provide a GPS backup and 5G broadband. It’s already one of the main license holders.

While the NextNav proposal has been met with opposition from other users of the band and turned into a fierce lobbying fight, a person familiar with the matter said the hearing would also likely be aimed at getting members of the committee up to speed on the GPS issue generally. The subcommittee is typically responsible for overseeing the FCC.

Reps. Richard Hudson , R-N.C., head of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, and Brett Guthrie , R-Ky., head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, issued a joint statement.

“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,” they said. “We look forward to a conversation about how we can strengthen positioning, navigation, and timing services to maximize resiliency and reliability.”

NPRM this summer?

The FCC launched a general inquiry last year on GPS complements, which included NextNav’s proposal but also sought comment on other ideas like broadcast TV infrastructure or low-Earth orbit satellites. It also separately sought comment on NextNav’s idea in 2024.

An FCC filing with the Office of Management and Budget has stakeholder thinking the agency is nearing another inquiry or proposal after those inquiries. Howard Waltzman , an attorney representing the Security Industry Association, said at a May 12 webinar he expects the agency to move forward with a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) sometime this summer.

“Usually, a notice of proposed rulemaking includes tentative conclusions. We don’t believe the FCC is at a point where it has tentative conclusions yet,” he said. “But we do expect, probably sometime this summer, that the FCC is going to be asking additional questions about the various PNT alternatives.”

SIA, along with other 900 MHz incumbents, strongly opposes NextNav’s plan. Opponents argue a new terrestrial network would create interference for the current users like railroads, utilities, security systems, and others.

House appropriators’ budget bill that would block work on the proposal has not yet been taken up by the full House.