House Consensus Emerging on Broadband Deployment Measures
Bipartisan enthusiasm surrounded the package of draft measures and the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act (HR-3805) considered during Wednesday’s House Communications Subcommittee hearing. Witnesses and lawmakers agreed on the merits of the ideas, posted in draft form earlier this week on the committee website, addressing such deployment concerns as pole attachments, deadlines for the General Services Administration and creation of an inventory of federal assets (see 1510260057).
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Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., framed the broadband deployment goals as important given possible uncertainty due to the FCC’s Communications Act reclassification of broadband in its February net neutrality order. “These are important goals regardless of the outcome of the current court battle over Title II,” Walden said in his opening statement. “Today’s hearing will focus on reviewing bipartisan legislation to accelerate permitting processes, open up available infrastructure, and cut down on uncertainty and delay.”
“They are all really terrific ideas,” said ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. “They will really put a dent in the problem that we have.”
“It’s time for this committee to put the pedal to the metal and improve government permitting for broadband networks,” said Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich. “Both Democrats and Republicans have been at the drafting table together to think through good policy and put them into actionable laws.”
The Broadband Conduit Deployment Act, introduced last week to praise from various stakeholders including AT&T, Google and cable operators, also attracted attention. Eshoo had introduced versions of it in past sessions of Congress but this time touted Walden as a partner on the bill, along with many Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. “My idea’s been around since 2009, but some things take time to mature, or be appreciated,” Eshoo said. The bill was referred to the Transportation Committee, not Commerce.
Walden asked CTIA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann about the virtues of shot clocks. “Do they work?” Walden asked. “Clearly, if the GSA took three years to do something we mandated 60 days to complete, we have a problem -- well, they have a problem.” CTIA members do encounter problems on federal lands, Bergmann said. Cities also face these challenges, Next Century Cities Executive Director Deb Socia told Walden. “We have similar frustrations,” said CenturyLink Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Jeb Benedict, concerns echoed by Fiber to the Home Council Americas President Heather Gold.
Eshoo asked if any of the draft measures undermine local permitting authorities, but Gold saw nothing menacing. Socia told Eshoo “it has become very clear that more investment happens” rather than less when new entrants come into the market. CenturyLink would be able to reduce its costs if the measures considered Wednesday were enacted, Benedict told Eshoo. She and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., asked about expanding broadband on tribal lands. “The work that you’re doing today can really make a big difference,” Bergmann told Pallone. Bergmann told subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, that “shifting” definitions of broadband can make decisionmaking challenging.
“Our chief concern is on federal lands,” affirmed Benedict to Rep Joe Barton, R-Texas, who had asked whether the issue was federal lands or broader deployment challenges. “It’s because of the processing delays. It’s really a problem of process and not substance.” Barton also derided the idea that broadband access is “an entitlement” and said the market should decide when and where broadband becomes deployed: “I want to tread lightly in this area.”
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, speaking separately to lawmakers during a Senate Commerce Committee reconfirmation hearing Wednesday, urged Congress to take up many of the ideas embodied in the House measures, without specifically naming the House measures. “‘Dig once’ policies are terrific,” Rosenworcel told Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., referring to policies in the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act and in legislation from Klobuchar, predicting “lots of rewards down the road” under that policy. Rosenworcel said one-third of U.S. land is federal, so deployment should be made easier there. She suggested creating a shot clock for government and mandating a “regular GSA schedule” and “we should have a list of federal assets.” If all those measures were taken collectively, the U.S. “would have a much greater state of deployment on the ground,” Rosenworcel predicted.