Lawmakers Seek GAO Review of Broadband Siting Streamlining Law
House Commerce Committee leaders sought GAO review Thursday of federal agencies’ progress in implementing the 2018 Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act’s requirement to develop and execute recommendations for streamlining broadband siting permit application review…
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processes. NTIA released its recommendations last year on its progress via the American Broadband Initiative. “Closing the digital divide remains a shared, bipartisan goal,” said House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and their Republican counterparts in a letter to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. The lawmakers want GAO to examine what progress federal agencies have made since NTIA made its 2020 recommendations, how NTIA is “overseeing” those efforts and what challenges federal agencies face in implementing the proposals. They asked whether broadband providers face additional “federal permitting or siting costs in areas where federal permitting processes have not been streamlined, and what is the extent of those costs?” GAO didn’t immediately comment.