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H.R. 261119th CongressPublic Lands and Natural Resources
Undersea Cable Protection Act of 2025
Sponsored by Rep. Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (R-GA) · 7 active : 7 Republicans
Latest action: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Where it standsPassed House, now in the Senate9 senators score as swing votes
Passed House
- House: passedFeb 11, 2026
- Senate: next
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govUndersea 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.
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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.
Committees and subjects
Committees
- House Committee on Natural Resources · HouseReported by · Markup by · Discharged from · Referred to
- Water, Wildlife and Fisheries · HouseHearings by (subcommittee) · Referred to
- Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · SenateReferred to
Subjects
- Broadcasting, cable, digital technologies
- Marine and coastal resources, fisheries
How the Senate breaks down
- 9Swing 70–100
- 62Middle 30–70
- 29Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v2, directional: only movement toward the other party counts, so members who sit further from the center than their party no longer score as swing votes.
Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
7 activeShow all 7 cosponsors
- August Pfluger (R-TX-11)
- Jennifer A. Kiggans (R-VA-2)
- Kat Cammack (R-FL-3)
- Neal P. Dunn (R-FL-2)
- Russell Fry (R-SC-7)
- Cliff Bentz (R-OR-2)
- Nicholas J. Begich (R-AK-AL)
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
