S. 2873 119th Congress Senate

Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025

Official title: 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.

Introduced: September 18, 2025 Introduced by: Marsha Blackburn Republican · Tennessee See on congress.gov

Transportation and Public Works Broadcasting, cable, digital technologiesMarine and coastal resources, fisheries

Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

Sep 18, 2025

Introduced in Senate

Sep 18, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Votes taken on this bill 1

Date	Chamber	What was voted on	Result	Yes–No
Nov 29, 2016	Senate · vote #154	On Passage of the Bill S. 2873	Passed	97–0	See who voted →

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What's happening now September 18, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

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.

Related & companion bills 1

Bill text 1 version

Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

Committees of jurisdiction 1

Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
Senate

Lobbying activity 19

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

NEC CORPORATION OF AMERICA
for NEC CORPORATION OF AMERICA · Texas · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO
for AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AFL-CIO · District of Columbia · 1st Quarter 2026 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)
AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO
for AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AFL-CIO · District of Columbia · 1st Quarter 2026 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)
AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO
for AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AFL-CIO · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO
for AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AFL-CIO · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO
for AMERICAN FED OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AFL-CIO · District of Columbia · 1st Quarter 2026 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)

Bodies those filers lobbied

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
19 filings
SENATE
18 filings
Homeland Security, Dept of (DHS)
17 filings
Commerce, Dept of (DOC)
16 filings
Defense, Dept of (DOD)
14 filings
Justice, Dept of (DOJ)
14 filings
Agriculture, Dept of (USDA)
13 filings
Air Force, Dept of
13 filings

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

See all 19 filings →

Cosponsors 1

Schmitt, Eric

Missouri · Oct 1, 2025

Cite this page click to expand

APA

U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 2873: Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2873/

MLA

"S. 2873: Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2873/.

Bluebook (legal)

S. 2873, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2873/.

Markdown link

[S. 2873: Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-2873/)