Connecting to the Internet wirelessly is increasingly the means of choice for consumers, businesses, schools and organizations across the country, so much so that capacity to do so is rapidly drying up.

If America wants to continue its growing reliance on wireless and mobile data use, it needs a technical solution to enable it to maximize use of the finite available “spectrum sources,” write U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Jerry Moran of Kansas in Wednesday’s issue of The Hill, which is often described as the news outlet of record for the business of Washington, D.C.

Both Schatz and Moran serve on the Senate Commerce Committee, which is preparing legislation aimed at tackling the wireless challenge.

“In the weeks ahead, (Commerce) has an opportunity to advance a strategy that will ensure this public resource can reach its full potential,” they write. “In order to do that, this legislation must include an aggressive proposal that will help us find ways to improve spectrum efficiency and make more capacity available for both licensed and unlicensed uses, like Wi-Fi.”

Schatz and Moran have a lot in common, personally: Both are former state lawmakers, and both are relatively new to the Senate, Schatz having been appointed to his seat in 2012 and Moran, elected in 2010. Their political identities, however, couldn’t be more different: Schatz is a progressive Democrat from deep blue Hawaii, while Moran is a staunch social conservative from bright red Kansas.

One area of interest they share, however, is high tech entrepreneurship and governmental policy affecting related innovation and start-ups. Schatz has lately been invested in legislation advancing “the Internet of Things” and creation of a federal commission on digital security, while Moran’s recent interests have included a bill to protect consumers from being fined for writing negative online reviews.

The two seem to see development of unlicensed spectrum as potentially the greatest opportunity in maximizing use of wireless resources, pointing out that 70 million American homes already use WiFi in unlicensed bands to connect to the Internet. In each of those homes, an average of 11 devices link to that connection.

Such unlicensed spectrum use contributes $62 billion each year to the U.S. economy, according to the Consumer Technology Association, the senators write.

“Who knew when the FCC made a few spectrum bands available for unlicensed use almost 30 years ago that Wi-Fi would emerge out of what was originally used for garage door openers? Imagine the innovation we might enable with more unlicensed spectrum in the future,” they write. “The impact of this technology for consumers and our economy is significant and its potential is unlimited.”