House Lawmakers Unveil Drafts of Dig Once, Siting Legislation Ahead of Hearing

Witnesses will testify in two panels during Tuesday’s 10 a.m. hearing. The first panel is Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry; U.S. Cellular Chairman LeRoy Carlson; Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe Sub-Chief Michael Conners; CTC Technology & Energy President Joanne Hovis, a former NATOA president; and WIA Chairman Thomas Murray. The second panel will be Mosaik Solutions CEO Bryan Darr and CostQuest Associates President James Stegeman.

The hearing’s purpose “is to discuss barriers at the federal level that hinder private sector investment in broadband infrastructure and to examine legislation intended to remove these barriers,” said a GOP memo dated Friday. “Additionally, the Subcommittee will discuss the challenges of collecting, aggregating, and making available accurate data relating to the availability of broadband service across the United States.” The memo described the two draft proposals and listed other areas of concern, such as broadband mapping data. “Without accurate, up-to-date, and accessible data, these programs are destined to misallocate resources, leaving deserving areas unserved,” said the GOP memo. “One of the most important lessons to be learned from the 2009 programs is that access to accurate data is paramount to ensuring that investments -- both private and federal -- are targeting areas that need service improvements the most.”

The two measures largely represented bipartisan consensus within House Commerce when addressed last Congress. They were considered in late 2015 but never advanced beyond clearing the subcommittee. The earlier broadband infrastructure package was 45 pages in the draft form when considered in December 2015. At the time, telecom industry stakeholders and FCC commissioners largely cheered the merits of dig once and shot clocks. Similar siting and dig once provisions also factored into the Senate’s Mobile Now spectrum bill, both in the last and current Congresses. The Senate Commerce Committee cleared its reintroduced version of Mobile Now in January.

CenturyLink commends House lawmakers for these efforts, a spokesman said: “Efforts to streamline permitting and rights of way are a valuable components for broadband infrastructure policy, which we hope Congress can act on quickly.” A CenturyLink official testified before House Commerce in 2015 when it was weighing its initial ideas.

The House’s new 30-page draft package’s sections would compel the creation of an inventory of federal assets; tracking applications to locate or modify communications facilities on federal land; address common forms, fees and master contracts for wireless facility locations on federal land; and streamline the processes for such siting at the Department of Interior and the Forest Service and for historic preservation and preparation of environmental impact statements. Missing from the newly posted draft, compared to the 2015 package, are sections on the regulation of pole attachments, streamlining siting processes with the DOD and dig once language.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association expressed grave concerns last Congress about a provision compelling an inventory of infrastructure and the possibility that electric co-ops would face a rate report and the equivalent of FCC regulation (see 1512020051). It was negotiating with Commerce staffers in December 2015 but no known resolution emerged. The association didn't comment by our deadline Friday.

Commerce’s focus comes as President Donald Trump eyes a possible $1-trillion infrastructure package that lawmakers say should include broadband. “We’re going to keep pushing hard,” Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told us of broadband infrastructure. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., directly raised the issue of addressing broadband through the proposal with Trump, as did senators (see 1702220054). Several Democratic subcommittee members offered broadband bills last week (see 1703160065) but aides didn’t say how those may factor into Tuesday’s hearing or any broadband legislation process for Commerce.

A spokeswoman for Eshoo, former ranking member of the subcommittee and current member, confirmed that the draft of her narrower dig once bill, known as the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act, is identical to the text introduced in 2015. Eshoo’s office is hoping for similar bipartisan backing this year, she said. That version was a compromise with Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who then chaired the subcommittee and now leads Commerce. It had 55 co-sponsors including Blackburn but ran into objections from Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chair of the House Transportation Committee then and now. The bill was referred to Transportation, not Commerce, upon its 2015 introduction. House Commerce lawmakers wrapped it into the package of other infrastructure measures when clearing them from subcommittee in draft form in December 2015 despite that jurisdictional difference. Commerce lawmakers told us then they hoped to get a referral of the combined package to Commerce, but no formal introduction of the package happened.

A GOP committee aide told us Democrats were involved in the bigger 30-page draft, citing the 2015 collaboration on its component parts. He said dig once is being posted separately -- rather than wrapped into the package as before -- due to its status as Eshoo’s bill. Strategy is unclear in terms of potentially combining these bills or on any potential markup timing, the GOP aide said.

A Democratic House aide said there appear to have been some unilateral GOP changes to the bigger infrastructure package. Democrats are still assessing the newly posted text, he said. The aide expects support to remain strong for Eshoo’s dig once bill.