House Communications to Vote Tuesday on 28 Broadband Permitting Bills
The House Communications Subcommittee plans a markup session Tuesday on a set of 28 largely GOP-led broadband permitting bills, the Commerce Committee said Friday night. House Communications members traded partisan barbs during a September hearing on the measures, with Democrats saying that most of them were unlikely to be effective in speeding up connectivity buildout (see 2509180069). Tuesday's meeting will begin at 10:15 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
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The only measure that the subpanel examined in September that didn’t make it onto Tuesday's agenda was the Broadband Incentives for Communities Act (HR-2975) from Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas. That bill would create a grant program at NTIA to help local governments and Native American tribes improve the efficiency of their broadband permitting reviews (see 2304190068).
The National Call for Safe Technology (NC4ST) has been asking its supporters to urge House Communications members to push for the subpanel to cancel Tuesday's markup or to vote against “all of the legislation being considered,” citing concerns that they would collectively strip the power of state and local governments over wireless buildout permitting. The group noted that during the last Congress, House Commerce combined some of the same measures into the American Broadband Deployment Act (see 2305230067), although that permitting package never reached the chamber floor amid strong Democratic opposition.
NC4ST suggested that its supporters urge House Communications to instead move a version of the group’s proposal “compelling the FCC to comply with” a 2021 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order in Environmental Health Trust v. FCC, which remanded back to the commission its 2019 RF safety rules (see 2108130073). Americans for Responsible Technology also urged its supporters to join NC4ST’s campaign against the permitting bills, saying in an email that they “will virtually eliminate any local control over the placement of wireless infrastructure in communities across the country.”
The bills on House Communications' Tuesday agenda include: the Barriers and Regulatory Obstacles Avoids Deployment of Broadband Access and Needs Deregulatory Leadership Act (HR-278), Broadband Resiliency and Flexible Investment Act (HR-339), Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act (HR-1343), Wireless Broadband Competition and Efficient Deployment Act (HR-1541), Facilitating the Deployment of Infrastructure Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1588), Wireless Resiliency and Flexible Investment Act (HR-1617), Wildfire Communications Resiliency Act (HR-1655), Deploying Infrastructure With Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1665), Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Act (HR-1681), Standard Fees to Expedite Evaluation and Streamlining Act (HR-1731), Granting Remaining Applications Not Treated Efficiently or Delayed Act (HR-1836), Broadband Expansion and Deployment Fee Equity and Efficiency Act (HR-1975) and Proportional Reviews for Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2289).
Also on the docket: the Reducing Barriers for Broadband on Federal Lands Act (HR-2298), Coastal Broadband Deployment Act (HR-2817), Connecting Communities Post Disasters Act (HR-3960), Brownfields Broadband Deployment Act (HR-4211), Consumer Access to Broadband for Local Economies and Competition Act (HR-4927), Winning the International Race for Economic Leadership and Expanding Service to Support Leadership Act (HR-5147), Cable Access for Broadband and Local Economic Leadership Act (HR-5170), Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment for Broadband Infrastructure (HR-5264), 5G Using Previously Granted Rulings That Accelerate Deployment Everywhere Act (HR-5266), Broadband Competition and Efficient Deployment Act (HR-5273), Cable Transparency Act (HR-5290), Connecting and Building Lines for Expedited Expansion Act (HR-5311), Reducing Antiquated Permitting for Infrastructure Deployment Act (HR-5318), Timely Replacement Under Secure and Trusted for Early and Dependable Broadband Networks Act (HR-5358) and the unnumbered Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act.
Meanwhile, the Wireless Infrastructure Association on Monday was amplifying a letter that CEO Patrick Halley sent Friday to NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth. He urged the agency to consider using the group’s framework for improving states’ and localities’ permitting processes “as a helpful starting point for your discussions with states about committing to” more efficient review plans as part of their disbursal of BEAD funding. WIA “was encouraged by your recent statements” during a Hudson Institute event last month (see 2510280051) “citing NTIA’s work to improve federal permitting but also recognizing that ‘states need to match that urgency’ and that NTIA will therefore be requiring BEAD participants to commit to streamlining processing and minimizing permitting-related costs,” Halley said.