Federal coastal data now fully free—and includes underground infrastructure
S. 2245 — A bill to amend the Digital Coast Act to improve the acquisition, integration, and accessibility of data of the Digital Coast program and to extend the program. · Filed by Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 10, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends the Digital Coast Act to require that coastal data collected by the federal government be made fully and freely available (not just readily accessible), expands the types of data collected to include underground infrastructure and subsurface utilities, clarifies that trainings focus on technical instruction, and extends the program's authorization from 2025 to 2030.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to strengthen public access to federal coastal and infrastructure data and extend program funding. It is a straightforward transparency and public-information measure with no narrow beneficiaries or hidden riders.
What the text implies
- Inclusion of 'underground infrastructure and subsurface utilities' data may expose sensitive information about critical infrastructure location and design, potentially creating security considerations that agencies will need to balance against transparency.
- Extension to 2030 commits federal resources and coordination across agencies (NOAA and others) for five additional years; reauthorization will be needed in 2030, creating a future legislative checkpoint.
- Requirement that trainings be limited to 'technical instruction' may constrain educational outreach on policy applications or climate adaptation uses of the data.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens and coastal communities gain expanded, unrestricted access to federal coastal and infrastructure data that can inform local planning, environmental protection, and disaster preparedness. The shift from 'readily accessible' to 'fully and freely available' removes potential barriers to use, and inclusion of subsurface utility data supports public safety and infrastructure resilience.
Named in the bill
Digital Coast Act, Digital Coast program, NOAA, Section 4 (Digital Coast Act), coastal data, subsurface utilities, underground infrastructure
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Jul 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
- Oct 21, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of…”
- Feb 26, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S715-716; text of amendment in the…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $80,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 8 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Tammy Baldwin, the sponsor, reported $195,336 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Management Association of Private Photogrammetrist Surveyors — $80,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (783 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal coastal data now fully free—and includes underground infrastructure” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2245 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.