Enhancing Administrative Reviews for Broadband Deployment Act
The Enhancing Administrative Reviews for Broadband Deployment Act would require the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture (via the Forest Service) to study and report on how to improve the timeliness of reviews for communications use authorizations—such as easements, leases, licenses, or other rights to place or modify communications facilities on covered land (public lands and National Forest System land). The bill directs a joint report to be submitted within one year of enactment, detailing any barriers, potential rule or process revisions, and prioritization options. It also requires a staffing plan showing how many personnel would be needed in organizational units of the Interior and Forest Service to ensure timely reviews. The aim is to speed broadband deployment by reducing administrative delays in authorizing the use of federal land for communications facilities, while still considering appropriate regulatory and environmental reviews. Definitions are provided to ensure clarity about what qualifies as a communications facility, a communications use, and the types of lands and organizational units affected. The bill establishes who must be studied (Interior and Agriculture, acting through the Forest Service) and which congressional committees will receive the report. No new funding authorization is included in the text, and the act focuses on study, reporting, and staffing planning rather than mandating immediate procedural changes.
Key Points
- 1Requires separate studies by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to identify barriers, possible rule changes, and prioritization processes for timely reviews of communications use authorizations.
- 2Requires a joint report to appropriate congressional committees within one year, describing study results and including a plan for staffing levels needed to ensure timely reviews across relevant organizational units.
- 3Establishes key definitions for the scope of the bill, including communications facility, communications use authorization, communications use, covered land (public lands and National Forest System land), and organizational units within Interior and the Forest Service.
- 4Specifies which organizational units are covered (e.g., BLM state/regional/district/field offices and Forest Service regional/management units or ranger districts).
- 5Names the relevant departments and offices as those responsible (Interior and Agriculture, via the Chief of the Forest Service) and identifies the four congressional committees as the receiving bodies (House Energy and Commerce; House Natural Resources; Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Senate Environment and Public Works).