The House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced on May 28 that it will hold a hearing titled “Where Are We?: Examining Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Capabilities in the United States” on June 4 at 10:15 AM ET in the Rayburn House Office Building.
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.”
J. David Grossman, Vice President of Policy & Regulatory Affairs for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee. Grossman said that GPS remains among the most vital technologies developed by the nation as it underpins trillions of dollars in economic activity, supports critical infrastructure, powers modern commerce, and remains a strategic advantage for the United States. He added that protecting and strengthening GPS resilience is an economic and national security imperative.
Grossman outlined three recommendations: prioritizing federal efforts to enhance GPS resilience; supporting market-driven solutions over government mandates for backup positioning technologies; and protecting innovation in the Lower 900 MHz band from proposals that could disrupt existing devices used across sectors such as life safety/security, retail logistics with RFID systems, defense supply chains with passive RFID tagging since 2005, energy management systems for utilities and consumers, transportation including electronic toll collection like E-ZPass systems used nationwide by millions of drivers daily; healthcare applications like medical alert pendants; and agricultural monitoring systems.
Grossman said that disrupting this ecosystem would impose massive costs on consumers and businesses while stifling innovation needed for national competitiveness. He concluded that Congress should support continued modernization of GPS technology while encouraging a diverse marketplace for complementary solutions without introducing harmful interference to current users of key spectrum bands.
Consumer Technology Association contributes to an innovation economy supporting millions of American jobs by empowering companies through advocacy initiatives such as standard development research events like CES—an event attracting participants from more than 50 countries—and collaborates with members ranging from startups to multinational corporations across diverse specialties in consumer technology innovation, according to the official website.
