3.0.0 2873 2026-04-07T12:58:13Z 2026-04-07T12:58:13Z Senate S S 2025-09-18 119 https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/2873 sscm00 Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Senate Standing Referred To 2025-09-18T18:42:22Z Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025 119 261 HR 2026-02-12 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Identical bill CRS 2025-09-18 sscm00 Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Senate Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. IntroReferral 2025-09-18 Introduced in Senate IntroReferral 10000 9 Library of Congress B001243 Sen. Blackburn, Marsha [R-TN] Marsha Blackburn R TN N S001227 Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO] Eric Schmitt R MO S. 2025-10-01 False Transportation and Public Works Transportation and Public Works 2025-12-09T22:28:47Z 00 2025-09-18 Introduced in Senate 2026-04-07T12:57:47Z Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025

This bill prohibits the Department of Commerce from enforcing certain permit requirements for activities related to undersea fiber optic cables in national marine sanctuaries. 

Specifically, Commerce may not prohibit or require an authorization for any covered activities related to undersea fiber optic cables if a license, lease, or permit has been issued by a state or federal agency to authorize the covered activity. Covered activities are the installation, continued presence, operation, maintenance, repair, or recovery of undersea fiber optic cables in a national marine sanctuary.

The bill also authorizes Commerce to direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to engage in interagency cooperation regarding federal agency actions that are likely to destroy, cause the loss of, or injure a resource in a national marine sanctuary and involve covered activities.  

]]> Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025 Display Title 45 Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025 2025-10-09T04:53:13Z Short Title(s) as Introduced 101 Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025 2025-10-09T04:53:13Z Introduced in Senate IS Official Title as Introduced 6 A bill to amend the National Marine Sanctuaries Act to prohibit requiring an authorization for the installation, continued presence, operation, maintenance, repair, or recovery of undersea fiber optic cables in a national marine sanctuary if such activities have previously been authorized by a Federal or State agency. 2025-10-09T04:48:19Z Introduced in Senate IS Introduced in Senate 2025-09-18T04:00:00Z https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119s2873is/xml/BILLS-119s2873is.xml 2025-09-18 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries and statuses for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.