Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025
Latest action (Feb 12, 2026) — Received in the Senate and Read twice and on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
What it does
Congressional Research Service, Jan 9, 2025This 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.
Face Value
as passed the HouseHow much of this bill its name accounts for.
- Every bill starts at100
- Nothing counted against it: one area of law, and short enough that length doesn't register.
Face Value measures reach, not honesty. A big bill can be accurately named, and a low score is not an accusation — it means the contents reach further than any short title could describe. Count it yourself ↗ How this is worked out
What Congress did
2 recordeddecisive vote
House · Feb 11, 2026
Whether the bill passes the House. This is the vote most people mean.
On
House · Feb 11, 2026
The minority party's last attempt to change the bill by sending it back to committee. It usually fails and is usually about forcing an awkward vote.
Who lobbied on this
1 organizationThese organizations told Congress, in their own quarterly disclosures, that they were lobbying on this bill.
- Microsoft Corporationno position stated
“…Robotexting. H.R 1027, QUIET Act. Telecom Network Security. H.R. 866, S. 244, ROUTERS Act. Subsea Cables. H.R. 261 Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025.” filing ↗
Most filings say only that an organization lobbied on a bill, not which side it took — where that's the case we say so rather than guessing. Quotes are verbatim from the filing. How this is built.
Discussion
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