Contact your U.S. Congress members to oppose local wireless and cable preemption bill

Broadband infrastructure permitting overreach

Earlier this spring, the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up 19 bills. One, H.R. 3557, the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023, is of particular interest to local governments. This bill would codify in statute two recent actions taken by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to preempt local authority over wireless facility siting and cable franchises. The bill advanced along partisan lines, with a handful of representatives from the House Democrats offering amendments to eliminate or reduce the preemptions and noting the outspoken objections of local government to the bill. When the Committee held an initial hearing on broadband permitting streamlining in April, no state or local government was invited to testify. The National League of Cities submitted a letter for the record.

H.R. 3557 is part of a larger trend in "streamlining preemption” seen in recent years on a wide range of issues, from housing to ridesharing to telecommunications. With the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, permitting streamlining has developed renewed interest within both parties. Cities need to combat the trend through proactive education about the role of local government oversight in infrastructure deployment.

Currently, the bill is not expected to be a priority for the floor schedule as a standalone. However, another bill that passed the markup with bipartisan support, H.R. 3565, the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act of 2023, likely will be a priority for the floor schedule and could become a vehicle for problematic amendments. H.R. 3565, sponsored by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would renew the FCC’s spectrum auction authority and authorize the use of auction proceeds as grant dollars for removing banned Chinese equipment from existing networks and supporting the rollout of Next Generation 911 technology.

Act now

Contact your U.S. Representative, and Senate Commerce Committee chair Sen. Maria Cantwell, to express the following points:

• Congress should not attach H.R. 3557 or any other preemptive amendment to the FCC Spectrum Auction Reauthorization bill.
• Local governments are just as, if not more, eager as Internet Service Providers to have quality broadband infrastructure deployed throughout their communities.
• Local permitting and cable franchising processes are intended to ensure infrastructure is deployed in the public interest, that work is done safely, and in a way that protects valuable public resources, including the rights of way. Local governments are the stewards of these finite public resources.
• There is no evidence that heavy-handed preemptive federal mandates, such as harsh permitting shot clocks or restrictions on permitting fee arrangements or cable franchises, have expedited the deployment of broadband infrastructure.
• It is inappropriate for Congress to apply harsher timelines and restrictions on local governments for these processes than it does on federal agencies.
• Congress should treat local governments as partners, not enemies, in the effort to close the digital divide. This means respecting processes that are best managed at the level of government closest and most responsive to the people.
• Access talking points and Congressional office phone number lookup tool here.

Please contact AWC if you have questions or if you receive feedback from your member of Congress. For further analysis on the preemption bill, view Doug Dawson’s recent blogpost.