Strengthening National Resilience Through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services

The order directs the Secretary of Commerce, coordinating with sector-specific agencies, to develop and publish PNT profiles within one year — sector-tailored guides that help public and private infrastructure operators identify their dependence on positioning, navigation, and timing services, detect disruptions, and manage associated risks. It requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a vulnerability-testing plan for critical infrastructure. It directs the Departments of Transportation, Energy, and Homeland Security to run pilot programs evaluating responsible PNT use with infrastructure owners. It instructs the Director of OSTP to coordinate a national R&D plan for secure, GPS-independent timing and navigation services. The Secretary of Commerce must also make a GPS-independent source of Coordinated Universal Time available within 180 days.

Once PNT profiles are published, agencies must develop federal contract language incorporating them within 90 days, and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council must update procurement rules within 180 days of that. Sector agencies must report biennially on profile adoption. The order does not itself change any regulation, impose any prohibition on private actors, or reschedule any existing program; all real-world impact flows from the plans, profiles, and procurement updates the order sets in motion.

Federal agencies designated as Sector-Specific Agencies under Presidential Policy Directive 21, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, and private-sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure — including electric utilities, telecommunications carriers, transportation networks, and precision agriculture — who rely on GPS-based timing and navigation signals.

Power grids, cell networks, financial systems, and air traffic control all rely silently on GPS-derived timing signals. A cyberattack or physical disruption of those signals could cascade across sectors simultaneously. This order creates the federal architecture for measuring and reducing that shared vulnerability.

The order chains its deliverables sequentially: Commerce publishes PNT profiles first, which then trigger the 90-day window for agencies to draft procurement contract language, which then triggers the 180-day window for the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to embed those requirements in actual contracts. Homeland Security's vulnerability-testing results feed back into profile updates. OSTP's R&D plan runs on a parallel track. Profiles are reviewed every two years; the R&D plan is updated every four years. Enforcement relies on internal reporting to the National Security Advisor and OSTP Director, not on penalties or regulatory authority over private actors.