ii
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 323
To direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and
Information to develop a National Strategy to Synchronize Federal
Broadband Programs, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY29, 2025
Mr. W
ICKER(for himself, Mr. LUJA´N, and Mr. WELCH) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Com-
merce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Commu-
nications and Information to develop a National Strategy
to Synchronize Federal Broadband Programs, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Proper Leadership to 4
Align Networks for Broadband Act’’ or the ‘‘PLAN for 5
Broadband Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
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(1) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -1
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-2
gress’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 4
and Transportation of the Senate; and 5
(B) the Committee on Energy and Com-6
merce of the House of Representatives. 7
(2) A
SSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist-8
ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary of 9
Commerce for Communications and Information. 10
(3) B
ROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE .— 11
The term ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ has 12
the meaning given the term in section 8.1(b) of title 13
47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor 14
regulation. 15
(4) C
OVERED AGENCIES .—The term ‘‘covered 16
agencies’’ means— 17
(A) the Federal Communications Commis-18
sion; 19
(B) the Department of Agriculture; 20
(C) the National Telecommunications and 21
Information Administration; 22
(D) the Department of Health and Human 23
Services; 24
(E) the Appalachian Regional Commission; 25
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(F) the Delta Regional Authority; 1
(G) the Denali Commission; 2
(H) the Economic Development Adminis-3
tration; 4
(I) the Department of Education; 5
(J) the Department of the Treasury; 6
(K) the Department of Transportation; 7
(L) the Institute of Museum and Library 8
Services; 9
(M) the Northern Border Regional Com-10
mission; 11
(N) the Department of Housing and 12
Urban Development; and 13
(O) the Department of the Interior. 14
(5) D
EPLOYMENT LOCATIONS MAP .—The term 15
‘‘Deployment Locations Map’’ has the meaning given 16
the term in section 60105(a) of the Infrastructure 17
Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1704(a)). 18
(6) F
EDERAL BROADBAND PROGRAM .—The 19
term ‘‘Federal broadband program’’ means any pro-20
gram administered by a covered agency that is di-21
rectly or indirectly intended to increase the deploy-22
ment of, access to, the affordability of, or the adop-23
tion of broadband internet access service. 24
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(7) FEDERAL LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCY .— 1
The term ‘‘Federal land management agency’’ 2
means— 3
(A) the National Park Service; 4
(B) the Bureau of Land Management; 5
(C) the Bureau of Reclamation; 6
(D) the United States Fish and Wildlife 7
Service; 8
(E) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and 9
(F) the Forest Service. 10
(8) I
MPLEMENTATION PLAN .—The term ‘‘Im-11
plementation Plan’’ means the implementation plan 12
developed under section 4(a). 13
(9) S
TRATEGY.—The term ‘‘Strategy’’ means 14
the National Strategy to Synchronize Federal 15
Broadband Programs developed under section 3(a). 16
SEC. 3. NATIONAL STRATEGY TO SYNCHRONIZE FEDERAL 17
BROADBAND PROGRAMS. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 19
date of enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary, in 20
consultation with the covered agencies, shall develop and 21
submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a Na-22
tional Strategy to Synchronize Federal Broadband Pro-23
grams to— 24
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(1) support better management of Federal 1
broadband programs to deliver on the goal of pro-2
viding access to high-speed, affordable broadband 3
internet access service to all individuals in the 4
United States, while ensuring that funding for Fed-5
eral broadband programs is used in the most effi-6
cient and fiscally responsible manner; 7
(2) synchronize interagency coordination among 8
covered agencies for Federal broadband programs; 9
(3) synchronize interagency coordination re-10
garding the process for approving the grant of any 11
permit, easement, right of way, or lease to, in, over, 12
or on a building or any other property owned by the 13
Federal Government for the right to install, con-14
struct, modify, or maintain infrastructure with re-15
spect to broadband internet access service; and 16
(4) reduce unnecessary barriers, eliminate un-17
necessary costs, and ease administrative burdens to 18
participate in Federal broadband programs. 19
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The Strategy shall— 20
(1) list all— 21
(A) Federal broadband programs; and 22
(B) programs that exist at the State and 23
local levels that are directly or indirectly in-24
tended to increase the deployment of, access to, 25
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the affordability of, or the adoption of 1
broadband internet access service; 2
(2) describe current, as of the date on which 3
the Strategy is submitted, Federal efforts to coordi-4
nate Federal broadband programs; 5
(3) identify gaps and limitations, including 6
laws, regulations, and covered agency policies and 7
practices, that hinder, or may hinder, coordination 8
across Federal broadband programs; 9
(4) establish clear roles and responsibilities for 10
the covered agencies, as well as clear goals, objec-11
tives, and performance measures, for— 12
(A) the management of all Federal 13
broadband programs; and 14
(B) interagency coordination efforts with 15
respect to Federal broadband programs; 16
(5) address the cost of the Strategy, the sources 17
and types of resources and investments needed to 18
carry out the Strategy, and where those resources 19
and investments should be targeted based on bal-20
ancing risk reductions with costs; 21
(6) address factors that increase the costs and 22
administrative burdens of participation in Federal 23
broadband programs, including with respect to ac-24
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cess to infrastructure necessary for deployment of 1
broadband internet access service; 2
(7) report information on the effectiveness of 3
each Federal broadband program in terms of how 4
many locations received broadband internet access 5
service or other assistance under each Federal 6
broadband program; 7
(8) address the extent to which covered agency 8
policies and practices do or do not establish a tech-9
nologically neutral program; 10
(9) recommend incentives, legislative solutions, 11
and administrative actions to help State, local, and 12
Tribal governments more efficiently— 13
(A) distribute, and effectively administer, 14
funding received from Federal broadband pro-15
grams and avoid duplication of— 16
(i) existing infrastructure with respect 17
to broadband internet access service; and 18
(ii) funded projects with respect to 19
broadband internet access service or such 20
projects otherwise subject to enforceable 21
deployment obligations; 22
(B) resolve conflicts with respect to the 23
funding described in subparagraph (A); 24
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(C) use the Deployment Locations Map as 1
a key resource in carrying out subparagraphs 2
(A) and (B); and 3
(D) promote access to infrastructure or 4
rights of way necessary for deployment of 5
broadband internet access service, whether pri-6
vately or government owned or cooperatively or-7
ganized for broadband communications; 8
(10) recommend incentives, legislative solutions, 9
and administrative actions to— 10
(A) improve the coordination and manage-11
ment of Federal broadband programs; and 12
(B) eliminate duplication with respect to 13
Federal broadband programs and non-Federal 14
programs with respect to broadband internet 15
access service; 16
(11) describe current, as of the date on which 17
the Strategy is submitted, efforts by covered agen-18
cies, Federal land management agencies, and State, 19
local, and Tribal governments to streamline the 20
process for granting a permit or access to an ease-21
ment, right of way, or lease to, in, over, or on a 22
building or any other property owned or controlled 23
by a government for the right to install, construct, 24
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modify, or maintain infrastructure with respect to 1
broadband internet access service; 2
(12) identify gaps and limitations with respect 3
to allowing regional, interstate, or cross-border eco-4
nomic development organizations to participate in 5
Federal broadband programs; 6
(13) address specific issues relating to closing 7
the gap on Tribal lands with respect to broadband 8
internet access service; and 9
(14) identify measures to prevent fraud and 10
misuse of amounts made available to carry out Fed-11
eral broadband programs, ensure accountability for 12
the use of such funding, and implement effective re-13
porting requirements to measure the success of Fed-14
eral broadband programs. 15
SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 17
date on which the Assistant Secretary submits the Strat-18
egy to the appropriate committees of Congress under sec-19
tion 3(a), the Assistant Secretary shall develop and submit 20
to the appropriate committees of Congress an implementa-21
tion plan for the Strategy. 22
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION PLAN.—The Implementation 23
Plan shall, at a minimum— 24
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(1) provide a plan for implementing the roles, 1
responsibilities, goals, objectives, and performance 2
measures for the management of Federal broadband 3
programs and interagency coordination efforts iden-4
tified in the Strategy; 5
(2) if the Strategy identifies policy and prac-6
tices that result in programmatic differences among 7
covered agencies with respect to Federal broadband 8
programs, provide a plan to streamline and create 9
consistent policies and practices across all covered 10
agencies for the purposes of Federal broadband pro-11
grams; 12
(3) for Federal broadband programs that are 13
not technologically neutral, determine a ceiling on 14
the amount of a subsidy or funding award to provide 15
broadband internet access service to a single loca-16
tion, to be consistently applied and adopted by all 17
covered agencies for the funding of infrastructure 18
with respect to broadband internet access service; 19
(4) provide a plan for holding the covered agen-20
cies accountable for the roles, responsibilities, goals, 21
objectives, and performance measures identified in 22
the Strategy; 23
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(5) describe the roles and responsibilities of the 1
covered agencies, and the interagency mechanisms, 2
to coordinate the implementation of the Strategy; 3
(6) provide a plan for coordination among Fed-4
eral broadband programs and for permitting proc-5
esses for infrastructure with respect to broadband 6
internet access service; 7
(7) provide a plan for regular evaluation and 8
public reporting of Federal broadband programs 9
against clear objectives and performance measures, 10
permitting processes for infrastructure with respect 11
to broadband internet access service, and progress in 12
implementing the Strategy; 13
(8) with respect to the awarding of Federal 14
funds or subsidies to support the deployment of 15
broadband internet access service, provide a plan for 16
the adoption of— 17
(A) common data sets regarding those 18
awards, including a requirement that covered 19
agencies use the maps created under title VIII 20
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 21
641 et seq.) and the Deployment Locations 22
Map; 23
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(B) applications regarding those awards, 1
as described in section 903(e) of the ACCESS 2
BROADBAND Act (47 U.S.C. 1307(e)); and 3
(C) rules for prohibiting awards by covered 4
agencies in areas identified as served by the 5
maps created under title VIII of the Commu-6
nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 641 et seq.) 7
or in areas already subject to an award or en-8
forceable deployment obligations by a covered 9
agency under a Federal broadband program or 10
a State, local, or Tribal program with respect to 11
broadband internet access service; 12
(9) provide a plan to monitor, publicly report, 13
and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in Federal 14
broadband programs, including wasteful spending re-15
sulting from fragmented, overlapping, and duplica-16
tive programs; 17
(10) require consistent obligation and expendi-18
ture reporting by covered agencies for Federal 19
broadband programs, which shall be consistent with 20
section 903(c)(2) of the ACCESS BROADBAND 21
Act (47 U.S.C. 1307(c)(2)) and the Deployment Lo-22
cations Map; 23
(11) provide a plan to increase awareness of, 24
and participation in, Federal broadband programs 25
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relating to the affordability and adoption of 1
broadband internet access service; and 2
(12) describe the administrative and legislative 3
action that is necessary to carry out the Strategy. 4
(c) P
UBLICCOMMENT.—In developing the Implemen-5
tation Plan, the Assistant Secretary shall publish a draft 6
version of the Implementation Plan in the Federal Reg-7
ister for a period of notice and comment (and reply com-8
ment) that is not less than 60 days. 9
SEC. 5. BRIEFINGS AND IMPLEMENTATION. 10
(a) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 21 days after the date 11
on which the Assistant Secretary submits the Implementa-12
tion Plan to the appropriate committees of Congress under 13
section 4(a), the Assistant Secretary, and appropriate rep-14
resentatives from the covered agencies involved in the for-15
mulation of the Strategy, shall provide a briefing on the 16
implementation of the Strategy to the appropriate commit-17
tees of Congress. 18
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary 20
shall— 21
(A) implement the Strategy in accordance 22
with the terms of the Implementation Plan; and 23
(B) not later than 90 days after the date 24
on which the Assistant Secretary begins to im-25
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plement the Strategy, and not less frequently 1
than once every 90 days thereafter until the 2
date on which the Implementation Plan is fully 3
implemented, brief the appropriate committees 4
of Congress on the progress in implementing 5
the Implementation Plan. 6
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 7
subsection may be construed to affect the authority 8
or jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Com-9
mission or confer upon the Assistant Secretary or 10
any executive agency the power to direct the actions 11
of the Federal Communications Commission, either 12
directly or indirectly. 13
SEC. 6. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE STUDY 14
AND REPORT. 15
Not later than 1 year after the date on which the 16
Assistant Secretary submits the Implementation Plan to 17
the appropriate committees of Congress under section 18
4(a), the Comptroller General of the United States shall 19
commence a study— 20
(1) that shall— 21
(A) examine the efficacy of the Strategy 22
and the Implementation Plan in coordinating 23
funding across the Federal Government with re-24
spect to broadband internet access service; 25
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(B) make recommendations regarding how 1
to improve the Strategy and the Implementa-2
tion Plan; 3
(C) examine any existing or new perform-4
ance goals and measures for Federal broadband 5
programs; 6
(D) examine any awards made by covered 7
agencies under Federal broadband programs, or 8
under State, local, and Tribal programs with 9
respect to broadband internet access service— 10
(i) in areas identified as served with 11
respect to broadband internet access serv-12
ice; or 13
(ii) that are duplicative of other 14
awards under such a program; and 15
(E) identify programmatic changes that 16
would prevent occurrences described in subpara-17
graph (D) in the future; and 18
(2) the results of which the Comptroller Gen-19
eral shall submit to the appropriate committees of 20
Congress. 21
SEC. 7. BROADBAND FUNDING MAP REPORTING. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 23
date of enactment of this Act, the head of each covered 24
agency shall submit to the Assistant Secretary and the ap-25
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propriate committees of Congress a report containing a 1
comprehensive update on the measures that each respec-2
tive covered agency has taken since May 15, 2023, to co-3
ordinate with the National Telecommunications and Infor-4
mation Administration, pursuant to subsection (c)(2)(A) 5
of the ACCESS BROADBAND Act (47 U.S.C. 6
1307(c)(2)(A)), and the Federal Communications Com-7
mission to populate the Deployment Locations Map. 8
(b) C
ONTENTS.—Each report required under sub-9
section (a) shall include— 10
(1) a description of the extent to which the cov-11
ered agency submitting the report is submitting the 12
data necessary to populate the Deployment Loca-13
tions Map in a complete and timely manner; and 14
(2) identification of any outstanding challenges 15
associated with the requirement for the submission 16
of data described in paragraph (1). 17
SEC. 8. TRACKING AND IMPROVING PROCESSING TIMES 18
FOR COMMUNICATIONS USE APPLICATIONS. 19
Section 6409(b)(3) of the Middle Class Tax Relief 20
and Job Creation Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455(b)(3)) is 21
amended by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(E) T
RACKING AND IMPROVING PROC -23
ESSING TIMES.— 24
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‘‘(i) DATA CONTROLS.—An executive 1
agency shall develop controls to ensure 2
that data is sufficiently accurate and com-3
plete to track the processing time for each 4
application described in subparagraph (A). 5
‘‘(ii) R
EQUIREMENT TO ANALYZE , AD-6
DRESS, AND REPORT ON DELAY FAC -7
TORS.—With respect to the factors that 8
contribute to delays in processing applica-9
tions described in subparagraph (A), an 10
executive agency shall— 11
‘‘(I) analyze the factors as the 12
delays are occurring; 13
‘‘(II) take actions to address the 14
factors; and 15
‘‘(III) provide an annual report 16
on the factors to— 17
‘‘(aa) the Committee on 18
Commerce, Science, and Trans-19
portation of the Senate; 20
‘‘(bb) the Committee on En-21
ergy and Natural Resources of 22
the Senate; 23
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‘‘(cc) the Committee on En-1
ergy and Commerce of the House 2
of Representatives; 3
‘‘(dd) the Committee on 4
Natural Resources of the House 5
of Representatives; and 6
‘‘(ee) each committee of 7
Congress with jurisdiction over 8
the executive agency. 9
‘‘(iii) M
ETHOD FOR ALERTING STAFF 10
TO AT-RISK APPLICATIONS.—An executive 11
agency shall establish a method to alert 12
employees of the executive agency to any 13
application described in subparagraph (A) 14
with respect to which the executive agency 15
is at risk of failing to meet the 270-day 16
deadline under that subparagraph.’’. 17
SEC. 9. MINIMUM BROADBAND PROJECT COST. 18
Section 41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 19
4370m(6)(A)) is amended— 20
(1) in clause (iii)(III), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 21
end; 22
(2) by redesignating clause (iv) as clause (v); 23
and 24
(3) by inserting after clause (iii) the following: 25
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‘‘(iv)(I) is subject to NEPA; 1
‘‘(II) involves the construction of in-2
frastructure for broadband; and 3
‘‘(III) is likely to require a total in-4
vestment of more than $5,000,000; or’’. 5
SEC. 10. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 6
Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this 7
Act, may be construed to confer authority on the Federal 8
Government, or any State, local, or Tribal government, to 9
regulate broadband internet access service. 10
Æ
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