The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) largest direct user of spectrum, a resource critical to aviation navigation, communication and surveillance systems.
Recent;y passed and signed legislation directs the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to auction government-owned spectrum. The DOT’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says this could increase the risk of interference to these critical aviation systems.
Previously, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 mandated OIG to report on FAA’s internal processes and procedures for communicating the position of civil aviation operators and the safety of the national airspace system (NAS) to NTIA regarding proposed spectrum reallocations or auction decisions. Accordingly, OIG is now initiating an audit to assess FAA’s policies and procedures for communicating to NTIA the safety risks to the NAS and the position of civil aviation operators regarding proposed spectrum reallocations or auctions. OIG will begin the audit later this month.
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