Local government organizations are voicing their strong opposition to the American Broadband Deployment Act, an industry friendly proposal being cooked up in the House that would take public rights of way management and property decisions away from state, local, and tribal governments through federal preemption and industry-friendly defaults.

The American Broadband Deployment Act (HR 2289) saw initial approval by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee last January. It’s being presented by telecom companies as a way to dramatically streamline government broadband permitting and regulation.

With bill proponents insisting it will speed up the deployment of fast, affordable broadband access, the massive 100-page omnibus bill integrates more than 20 different permitting and preemption changes that would impact cellular tower siting, wireline broadband deployment, cable franchising, and federal review processes in ways favorable to industry.

Image

But organizations representing local governments say the sales pitch for the bill is the latest in a long line of misleading gambits by industry, designed to eliminate oversight of heavily-taxpayer subsidized providers at the cost of state, local, and tribal autonomy and public safety.