Members of a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands this week debated a bill introduced in the House in January of 2018, entitled The Rural Broadband Permitting Efficiency Act (HR 4824)(Act). The proposed legislation is aimed at streamlining rural broadband infrastructure siting on federal land. The bill proposes to allow the Department of Agriculture (USDA), with respect to National Forest System land, and the Department of the Interior (DOI), with respect to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, to delegate reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to states by entering into memoranda of understanding. The bill also requires USDA and DOI to create a categorical exclusion from NEPA reviews for broadband projects that are built within existing right-of-ways. Finally, the bill creates a process for designating a lead permitting agency for projects that span multiple federal land management agencies’ jurisdiction. Supporters of the bill call it a common sense measure to improve permitting effectiveness, while opponents argue that the bill fails to address the core economic business reasons broadband companies do not serve rural communities.
