House Communications Clash on Mostly GOP-Led Broadband Permitting Bills

House Communications Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., argued that enacting a similar broadband permitting package in this Congress “will make deploying broadband cheaper, more predictable and less burdensome, ultimately connecting more Americans.” All the broadband funding Congress enacted via the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) “will be tied up in burdensome reviews” absent a permitting revamp, “resulting in more unnecessary delays [and] forcing millions of Americans to continue to wait for connectivity,” Hudson said. He faulted the Biden administration’s rollout of the $42.5 billion BEAD program, which “I think members of both parties would agree [did not go] as we had hoped.”

Each of the bills House Communications examined Thursday addresses “an obstacle that has either prevented, delayed or complicated deployment with the goal of instilling certainty, predictability and savings into this process,” Hudson said during the hearing. He highlighted his Reducing Antiquated Permitting for Infrastructure Deployment Act (HR-5318), which would clarify that small-cell deployments aren't subject to either National Environmental Policy Act or National Historic Preservation Act reviews.

House Communications Vice Chairman Rick Allen, R-Ga., cited his Broadband Expansion and Deployment Fee Equity and Efficiency Act (HR-1975), saying it “will improve transparency in the BEAD program, allowing accountability for application fees,” which he called exorbitant in some cases. Allen noted that some of the bills the subpanel considered “implement shot clocks on state and local permitting reviews [and] cap excessive application fees.” Others would “exempt certain projects from [NEPA and NHPA] reviews, encourage federal agencies to prioritize broadband applications and provide transparency into the opaque federal permitting review process.”

House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui of California was among many Democrats who called out Republicans’ showcase of the largely party-affiliated set of permitting bills. “This hearing could have been a chance for real bipartisan permitting reform, modernizing outdated systems and giving local governments the resources they need,” she said. “Instead, Republicans are recycling the same broken playbook, offering the same one-sided, cookie-cutter solutions we heard last Congress.”

“Permitting offices are often understaffed and under-resourced,” Matsui said. “Mandating arbitrary deadlines and rubber-stamp approvals doesn't fix that. It bulldozes low local expertise and safeguards. Instead, we need federal, state and local collaboration.” She did tout the Deploying Infrastructure With Greater Internet Transactions and Legacy Applications Act (HR-1665), a bill on the agenda that she leads with Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla. It would require the Agriculture and Interior departments to create online portals to accept and process applications for permits to build broadband on federal land.

Matsui and senior House Commerce Committee member Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., criticized the Trump administration for delaying distributing IIJA broadband funding, including via NTIA’s June 6 policy restructuring notice for the BEAD program (see 2506060052). “This is the money that Congress wrote into law for our constituents to make sure they have the broadband access they need, but the Trump administration is choosing to deliberately delay and undermine [BEAD], which would otherwise be putting shovels in the ground right now,” Clarke said. “It's a betrayal to our communities and our states who have been counting on the BEAD funding we promised them.”

Clarke did praise the “handful of bipartisan bills” on House Communications’ agenda, saying “Democrats are eager to work together with our Republican colleagues on bills to address these and other real shortcomings. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the bills do not address the most pressing barriers to infrastructure deployment. Many of them are just politics dressed up as policy, [while] others would needlessly and wrongly undermine local, state and tribal governments.”

Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Patrick Halley, USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter and Staci Pies, Incompas' senior vice president of government affairs and policy, all praised the permitting bills on House Communications’ agenda during the hearing. Halley didn’t mention any by name but did highlight the Hudson-led Speed for BEAD Act (HR-1870), which would eliminate many of the rules in NTIA’s original notice of funding opportunity for the BEAD program that Republicans objected to, including “diversity, equity and inclusion,” labor, climate change and data cap ban requirements (see 2503050067).

Spalter cited the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act, the Barriers and Regulatory Obstacles Avoids Deployment of Broadband Access and Needs Deregulatory Leadership Act (HR-278) and the Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment for Broadband Infrastructure Act (HR-5264). Pies also praised the Broadband and Telecommunications Rail Act and the Broadband Incentives for Communities Act (HR-2975). Drew Garner, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society's director of policy engagement, urged lawmakers to strengthen BEAD as it considers permitting legislation.