Facilitating DIGITAL Applications Act
The Facilitating DIGITAL Applications Act would require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to regularly report to Congress on whether two federal land-management Secretaries (the Interior and Agriculture, via the Forest Service) have established online portals to accept, process, and dispose of Form 299s—forms used to obtain authorizations for placing or modifying communications facilities on covered lands. The bill sets a tight timeline: an initial report within 90 days of enactment, followed by updates every 60 days until a portal is actually established and the Secretary concerned notifies the Assistant Secretary. When a portal is created, the relevant Secretary must notify the Assistant Secretary within 3 business days. The reporting focuses on barriers to creating these online portals and on whether the portals exist for handling Form 299s (easements, rights-of-way, leases, licenses, etc.) for communications use on public lands and National Forest System lands. In short, the bill is a transparency and accountability measure aimed at encouraging streamlined, online processing of Form 299s for communications infrastructure on federal lands, with formal reporting to Congress and cross-agency coordination between Interior and Agriculture/Forest Service.
Key Points
- 1Mandated reporting to Congress: The Assistant Secretary must, within 90 days after enactment and then every 60 days, report to the relevant congressional committees on (A) whether online portals exist for Form 299 processing and (B) any barriers to creating such portals, for the Interior and Agriculture/Forest Service lands.
- 2Portal establishment notification: Each Secretary concerned must notify the Assistant Secretary within 3 business days after establishing an online portal for Form 299 processing.
- 3Scope and definitions: The act centers on Form 299—a form tied to communications use authorization (easements, rights-of-way, leases, licenses) for placing or modifying communications facilities on covered land (public lands and National Forest System). It uses these definitions to determine which agencies and lands are covered.
- 4Agencies and committees affected: The Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture (via the Forest Service) are the “Secretary concerned,” and the reporting goes to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Natural Resources, and the Senate Committees on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and Environment and Public Works.
- 5No new funding provision: The bill creates reporting obligations and interagency coordination mechanisms but does not itself authorize new funding or specific implementation costs.