House Communications Republicans Release Broadband Infrastructure Principles

House Communications Vice Chairman Leonard Lance, R-N.J., and three other subcommittee members filed resolutions that set out overarching principles on broadband infrastructure. Lance's resolution would direct broadband infrastructure funding “toward areas that are currently unserved.” House Digital Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, filed a measure that would “ensure federal policy treats all broadband providers in a technology-neutral manner, applying consistent rules that support innovation.”

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., filed a resolution to “ensure federal, state and local tax, regulatory, permitting and other requirements are coordinated and reconciled to maximize the benefits of broadband investment.” Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., filed a measure to “ensure wireless broadband infrastructure funding preference for states that support small cell siting reform, helping ease the permitting process in communities across the country.”

House Communications Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., tipped the coming legislation in a Wednesday interview, but said the first four resolutions were only part of a “tranche of 16” bills on broadband infrastructure issues. The overall theme of the legislation is “simplification, cutting red tape and focusing on innovation,” she said. “The goal is to do a technology-neutral bill, the goal is to have some grant funding that is going to help get this done, and the goal is to clean up this process so that we can get broadband expansion in high gear.”

Blackburn told us she's working with other committee leaders to schedule a hearing on the bills this month. She's aiming for the other resolutions to be filed by the end of next week, before a one-week House recess, several industry lobbyists said. Blackburn wants the hearing on the measures to happen the following week, which is “ambitious but not out of the question,” one telecom lobbyist said. “It's not like they're trying to mark these up immediately and none of these resolutions contains anything that's coming from out of the blue. These issues have been discussed for years.”

House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., told us broadband infrastructure issues are “really important” to the committee but the release of the principles doesn't mean they will take full precedence over other issues. “We can still walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said, noting House Commerce is also working on net neutrality legislation and additional funding for repacking reimbursements. “We'll start with these multiple bills” and then “move methodically forward” given they likely all will be incorporated into an omnibus infrastructure package, Walden said. “We often will start with individual bills; other times they're all good and you put them in in one go.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr lauded the House Communications members for filing the proposals, saying in a statement they are part of the subcommittee's “continued focus on removing barriers to broadband buildout. These efforts will help ensure that all Americans -- regardless of where they live -- can benefit from next-generation technologies.” CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association also praised the lawmakers.

The broadband resolutions may be as much a precursor to House work on a broader infrastructure bill to follow the White House's anticipated release of its legislative package, a telecom lobbyist said. The White House and Congress “are clearly working together” on those issues, the lobbyist said. That sort of coordination makes sense given the limited scope of Trump's Monday executive actions, the lobbyist said.

Trump's executive order aims to “accelerate” rural broadband deployments by directing federal agencies to “seek to reduce barriers to capital investment, remove obstacles to broadband services, and more efficiently employ Government resources.” The order in part directed the GSA to evaluate the common form and contract template for wireless facility sitings on federally owned property created as part of the 2012 Spectrum Act and decide whether it needs to be revised. Trump's presidential memo directed the Department of Interior to begin increasing the private sector's access to department-managed lands as a way of increasing rural broadband deployments.

“This is just the beginning,” NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said. The White House is “really looking comprehensively” at rural broadband issues and Trump's Monday actions are a “good start.” If “all the White House was going to do was what came out Monday, you'd be hearing” a great deal of public criticism from the communications sector, a telecom lobbyist said. “The White House is limited in what they can do, so the real substantive stuff will have to come from Congress.”

Some telecom lobbyists did criticize Trump's executive actions even with the prospect of congressional action ahead. “There's nothing there there” in the order and memo, one lobbyist said. “Nothing that moves the needle or gets us excited about what it can do for rural broadband.” Rural areas have “a lot of problems” with connectivity “but the Trump proposals don't do anything to address those problems,” another telecom lobbyist said. “I don't disagree with” the proposals but they “are hardly new” and “are [Band-Aids] on the cancer, while ignoring proposals to address the cancer.”