House Republican tech subcommittee members release third round of broadband bills

Efforts to expand rural broadband service continue apace with a third round of bills introduced by members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

The “bills bring us yet another step closer to bridging the digital divide for rural communities,” said Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in announcing the new proposals on Jan. 19.

U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) introduced the bipartisan Broadband Deployment Streamlining Act, H.R. 4847, which among other provisions would speed up federal agency approval processes for getting broadband infrastructure installed on federal lands by setting an allotted time for application approvals. If within the allotted time an agency fails to approve or deny an application, approval would be automatically granted, according to a subcommittee summary.

“The Broadband Deployment Streamlining Act works to improve the approval process within federal agencies to ensure installing communications technology is less burdensome and more efficient,” Brooks said.

Additionally, H.R. 4847 would require the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study and report on the National Broadband Map to ensure that it accurately and reliably cites communities that lack or have insufficient internet connectivity. The searchable and interactive map enables users to look at broadband service availability “across every neighborhood in the United States,” according to the site broadbandmap.gov.

In updating how data is collected for the map, Brooks added that “this bill is a big step towards closing the digital divide so Americans are not left behind and have the tools they need to thrive in an increasingly connected world.”

U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) joined Brooks in introducing the bipartisan bill.

A similar bill introduced on Jan. 18 by U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), the Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of Broadband Infrastructure Act of 2018, H.R. 4842, would exempt broadband facilities on federal property from environmental and historic preservation reviews if there is another communications facility on the property, or under certain other conditions, according to a subcommittee summary.

Also concerning environmental and historic reviews, U.S. Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) on Jan. 18 introduced H.Res. 701, to stipulate that the House would consider such reviews concerning broadband infrastructure deployment to be confined to the area immediately impacted by the facility.