WASHINGTON—Funding figures and policy changes for air travel, artificial intelligence, spectrum internet, and the U.S. Coast Guard were detailed June 5 in the Senate Commerce Committee’s proposed section of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is budgetary legislation being considered by both houses of Congress as a way to fund the Trump administration’s policy initiatives. The measure passed the House of Representatives by just one vote on May 22.
Work on the bill has been the principal business of the 119th Congress thus far and has elicited a great deal of controversy.
The Senate is drafting its own version of the bill—in anticipation of a “conference” process to reconcile differences between the chambers—with each committee having jurisdiction over certain areas of funding, or segments.
The Senate Commerce Committee’s segment would allot $25 billion to the U.S. Coast Guard and $12.5 billion to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and require the federal government to auction off all unused spectrum, which it claims will generate $85 billion in revenue.
“Senate Republicans are fixing the aging air traffic control system, rebuilding the Coast Guard to secure our maritime border against deadly drugs and illegal immigration, ensuring the U.S.—not China—gets to Mars and gets back to the moon first, and turbocharging economic activity with expanded commercial access to spectrum,” wrote Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Commerce Committee, in a press release.
Even though the U.S. Coast Guard is an “armed service” and branch of the United States military, the Senate Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over it because the Coast Guard performs nondefense functions such as law enforcement. The Commerce Committee’s bill segment would fund the acquisition of 17 new icebreakers, 21 new “cutters” (the Coast Guard’s main type of vessel), and dozens of new aircraft to interdict the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.
Regarding spectrum (i.e., electromagnetic wavelength bands for communication), the bill segment stated it would allow for 800 megahertz (MHz) of new spectrum wavelengths to enter the private market. The committee said that doing so will allow telecommunications companies to develop 6G technology that enables very high-speed internet. President Donald Trump particularly commended this provision.
“This is serious power for American Leadership on 6G. We will have the World’s Greatest Networks, and ensure the Highest Level of National Security for future Generations of Americans,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Air traffic control (ATC) has been a major public policy focus in recent months due to several high-profile disasters involving commercial aircraft. The bill segment gives the FAA money to upgrade its communications infrastructure, which would allow ATC operators to handle “new entrants like drones, air taxis, and commercial space operations.”
On artificial intelligence, the bill includes a controversial provision that would ban all states and municipalities from regulating artificial intelligence for a period of 10 years, thereby ensuring that federal regulation is the only standard. That provision, included in the House version of the bill, has been opposed by some Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who said she will not vote for the bill if that provision is included in the final version.
“I’m not voting for the development of skynet and the rise of the machines by destroying federalism for 10 years by taking away state rights to regulate and make laws on all AI,” wrote Green on social media, referring to the science-fiction AI system that takes over the world in the “Terminator” film series starring former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
