[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1678 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1678

   To require the Secretary of Defense to establish a backup for the 
           global positioning system, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 26, 2015

Mr. Garamendi (for himself, Mr. Hunter, Mr. DeFazio, and Mr. LoBiondo) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Secretary of Defense to establish a backup for the 
           global positioning system, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Positioning, Navigation, 
and Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite signals are 
        used by all critical infrastructure sectors in the United 
        States and are crucial to the reliable and secure operation of 
        defense systems operated by the United States Armed Forces.
            (2) Use and dependence on GPS signals in the United States 
        continues to grow.
            (3) GPS signals are relatively weak and consequently unable 
        to reach many indoor environments or underground installations, 
        which limits their use for first responders, law enforcement, 
        the Armed Forces, and other users.
            (4) Due to the relative weakness of GPS signals, such 
        signals can be easily corrupted, degraded, or denied access to.
            (5) There is an increasing use of inexpensive and widely 
        available GPS jammers by organized crime syndicates and rogue 
        states.
            (6) A prolonged disruption of GPS signals caused by jamming 
        or other cyber security threats would cause serious national 
        security, intelligence, and economic disruption for the United 
        States.
            (7) Since 2004, the Federal Government has recognized that 
        the absence of a reliable backup system for GPS is a glaring 
        economic and security threat to the United States, and has 
        reaffirmed its interest in developing an enhanced long-range 
        navigation system (LORAN), or eLORAN, as a reliable land-based 
        backup for GPS signals.
            (8) The establishment of a land-based positioning, 
        navigation, and timing backup system to complement GPS as soon 
        as practicable is essential to secure the economic and national 
        security interests of the United States.

SEC. 3. BACKUP GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM.

    (a) Establishment.--Section 2281 of title 10, United States Code, 
is amended by--
            (1) redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(d) Land-Based Complementary and Backup System.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary of Defense, in 
        consultation with the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the 
        Secretary of Transportation, shall provide for the 
        establishment, sustainment, and operation of a reliable land-
        based positioning, navigation, and timing system to provide a 
        complement to and backup for GPS to ensure the availability of 
        uncorrupted or non-degraded positioning, navigation, and timing 
        signals for military and civilian users if GPS signals are 
        corrupted, degraded, unreliable, or otherwise unavailable.
            ``(2) Requirements.--The system established under paragraph 
        (1) shall--
                    ``(A) be wireless, terrestrial, and wide-area;
                    ``(B) provide a precise, high-power 100 kilohertz 
                signal;
                    ``(C) be resilient and extremely difficult to 
                disrupt or degrade;
                    ``(D) be able to penetrate underground and inside 
                buildings;
                    ``(E) take full advantage of existing, unused 
                government long-range navigation system (commonly known 
                as `LORAN') infrastructure;
                    ``(F) incorporate the expertise and contributions 
                of the private sector to quickly establish a system 
                architecture, build, and operate a land-based GPS back-
                up system; and
                    ``(G) work in concert with and complement any other 
                similar positioning, navigation, and timing systems, 
                including enhanced long-range navigation systems 
                (commonly known as `eLORAN').''.
    (b) Implementation Date.--The Secretary of Defense, in consultation 
with the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Secretary of 
Transportation, shall ensure that the system required under subsection 
(d) of section 2281 of title 10, United States Code, as inserted by 
subsection (a) of this section, is fully operational not later than 
three years after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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