The House of Representatives recently approved H.R. 5419, a bill introduced by Representative Tom Kean of New Jersey. Titled the Enhancing Administrative Reviews of Broadband Deployment Act, the bill would attempt to improve the process of getting permits for broadband on federal land. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Specifically, the bill would direct the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to conduct a comprehensive review of administrative barriers involved in reviewing applications to use federal rights-of-way. The two agencies would have a year to report their findings of the review to Congress, along with a plan on how the agencies can provide the needed staffing to review rights-of-way applications in a timely manner. The bill correctly recognizes that applications to build broadband on federal lands can be incredibly slow, to the point of creating hurdles that can stop broadband projects.

Looking back through old blogs, I see at least two other attempts by past administrations to improve access to federal lands for broadband.

In 2012, President Obama signed Executive Order 13616 that tried to make it easier to build fiber on federal lands. In a process that sounds similar to the one contemplated by the new legislation, the EO established a Broadband Deployment on Federal Property Working Group that was given a year to create a report to describe how to streamline applications for broadband on federal lands. The GAO was tasked with creating a standard set of forms and fees to apply for building broadband on federal lands. Finally, the EO ordered that all federal agencies implement a Dig Once policy that required placing conduit as part of any road projects on federal land.

In 2018, President Trump signed Executive Order 13821 that directed all federal agencies to seek to reduce barriers to capital investment, remove obstacles to broadband services, and more efficiently employ government resources related to broadband. The EO directed the General Services Administration to evaluate the effectiveness of the GSA Common Form Application used to get permission to locate broadband facilities on Federal land. Finally, the EO specifically directed the General Services Administration to complete the creation of a common form and master contract for placing wireless facilities on federal lands.

This repeating cycle of relooking at the same issues makes me wonder if this will ever be solved. And even if this legislation finally solves the issue, it will be far too late for BEAD implementation. BEAD grants are finally starting to be awarded this year, and those grants will have a four-year shot clock. For now, NTIA says that it does not expect to extend any grants beyond the four-year window.

This is not to belittle the legislation. Perhaps Congress can make progress on the issue when executive orders have failed. It just seems like the timeline contemplated by the legislation won’t provide solutions in time to make meaningful changes for broadband projects that will likely be underway this year. I hate to be pessimistic, but I have to wonder if the legislation or any executive orders will filter down to the dozens of agencies in charge of rights-of-way in various parts of the federal government.