House Communications Advances New Iteration of American Broadband Deployment Act

House Communications also advanced six bipartisan permitting bills Tuesday on voice votes. They are the Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act (HR-1343), Facilitating the Deployment of Infrastructure With Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1588), 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) and an amended version of the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act (HR-6046). House Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey and other Democrats indicated that they supported those measures’ swift passage.

Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia, HR-2289's lead sponsor, and other House Communications Republicans defended the package as necessary to ease permitting rules. Carter noted that witnesses at a September hearing identified some permitting processes as barriers to closing the digital divide (see 2509180069). The revised HR-2289 addresses “everything from duplicative or unnecessary environmental reviews, limiting unnecessary application fees and providing certainty on the timelines for reviewing permitting requests,” he said. The measure would set a 150-day shot clock for states and localities to approve new deployments and a 90-day window for modifications to existing infrastructure.

House Communications Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said enacting the permitting revamp language in HR-2289 will ensure that NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program succeeds after the Biden administration's “four years of delays” in rolling out the money. “We cannot let the millions of unserved and underserved Americans continue waiting … simply because we failed to modernize outdated rules,” Hudson said. Subpanel Vice Chairman Rick Allen of Georgia, speaking on behalf of Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., argued that “streamlining [broadband permitting] will save the American people billions of dollars in bureaucratic red tape.”

Pallone and other Democrats countered what they saw as GOP hypocrisy in citing Biden-era BEAD delays as a reason to ease permitting hurdles, given that NTIA’s changes to the program rules during the second Trump administration (see 2506060052) have also hindered the funding rollout. HR-2289, like its previous iteration, is “full of bad ideas that are unpopular with members on both sides of the aisle, [including] putting arbitrary deadlines on state, local, and tribal governments to start and finish complicated permit reviews,” Pallone said.

House Communications ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., argued that Congress can clear “real barriers to deployment while preserving safeguards that protect communities,” but the Trump administration has thrown BEAD “into chaos [via] constant disruptions.” Meanwhile, congressional Republicans “are cherry-picking stories about slow permits to justify steamrolling local voices and rubber-stamping approvals,” she said. If “we move one step forward on permitting or take two steps back on BEAD, we won't close the digital divide but widen it.” If “we want faster reviews, we should give local communities more help, not take away their say,” Matsui said.

Amendments Fail

House Communications defeated a series of Democratic amendments to HR-2289 along party lines, including one from Matsui that would have delayed the measure from taking effect until NTIA fully distributes all BEAD funding “to eligible entities.” The subpanel voted 17-13 against Matsui’s amendment, which appeared aimed at forcing Republicans to abandon attempts to claw back an estimated $20 billion in non-deployment BEAD funding (see 2511070035). Communications voted by a similar margin against an amendment from Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., to pause the legislation until NTIA fully distributes funding from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, which is on hold.

Democrats failed to attach three other amendments to HR-2289. One from Pallone would have removed all language automatically approving any broadband application still in the permitting review process when a shot clock expires. Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke of New York offered a proposal to require any broadband applicant participating in a streamlined permitting process to certify that it can provide connectivity to any unserved community or individual location in its proposed service area. An amendment from Rep. Jennifer McClellan of Virginia would have allocated NTIA funding for “grants to State and local governments to assist with the costs” of complying with HR-2289.

Hudson repeatedly cited NTIA’s announcement Tuesday that it approved 18 states’ revised BEAD proposals (see 2511180007) as a reason to oppose the Democrats’ amendments. “BEAD funds are on the way,” he said. “Delays in the permitting process have the potential to ruin the success of connecting all Americans, and we cannot risk this money getting wasted.”

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr lauded House Communications for advancing HR-2289 and the other permitting bills Tuesday to “help unleash additional broadband infrastructure builds in communities all across the country [and] drive down the prices for broadband services by cutting out excessive costs.” He argued that congressional action on the permitting measures “will help deliver” on his FCC agenda.

The Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA and Wireless Infrastructure Association also hailed the bills’ advancement. NCTA was more measured, saying House Communications’ markup “was important progress toward removing barriers to connecting more people to broadband.