A New Hope? Bipartisan Bill to Streamline Broadband Permitting Introduced

It’s old news that broadband permitting delays are one of the biggest pain points for providers, driving up costs and delaying deployments. The 270-day processing requirement is a joke. 

The flood (real or anticipated) of new broadband builds resulting from BEAD funding has shone a light on just how inconsistent and broken the process is. Finally, after years of struggle followed by months of review, the bipartisan “Accelerating Broadband Permits” bill was introduced by Sens John Thune (R-SD), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), and John Barasso (R-WY). Full text here. 

While it could go the way of the dodo bird and all ACP extension efforts, there’s hope this time. Both public and private interests are calling for reform, and Thune in particular has a telco track record. In 2018, he introduced the successful MOBILE NOW Act aimed at boosting development of next generation broadband services.

ALONG THE WAY

• On March 17, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), at the request of NTIA, amended its Program Comment for Communications Practices to allow all federal agencies involved in the permitting process to access the document, in the interest of consistency and accountability.
• On April 10, the General Accounting Office (GAO), in response to a request to review issues related to permitting, released its report. It revealed that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was unable to determine the processing time for 42 percent of its applications; the Forest Service fared better at seven percent, but still outside the boundaries of acceptability. 
• On April 19th, the House held a legislative hearing on ways to streamline the process in order to expedite broadband deployment. 
• On July 11, the NTIA published a set of general practices to support speedier permitting.