On April 20, the House passed the Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Reviews Act (H.R. 1681), by a vote of 384-9. The bill, introduced by Representative Gabe Evans (R-CO), establishes an interagency “strike force” for the purpose of accelerating the review of requests for communications use authorizations, which are required to site or modify communications facilities on public lands. The strike force would be responsible for establishing clear goals for processing authorization requests; conducting regular interagency meetings to ensure that each federal land management agency is prioritizing the review of these requests; tracking agency performance against the goals; and ensuring accountability to the goals. Members of the strike force would include the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information (NTIA) as chair, heads of each Federal land management agency, a designee of the Secretary of Agriculture, and a designee of the Secretary of the Interior. This legislation is intended to address permitting bottlenecks at the federal level that have delayed broadband buildout in rural and underserved communities, many of which are located near or must traverse federal lands to gain service. The bill is part of a broader House Energy and Commerce package aimed at streamlining federal broadband deployment reviews. A similar measure passed the House in the 118th Congress but was not taken up by the Senate. This measure now goes to the Senate for consideration.
For more information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate, Tracy Rhine.