119 HR 1975 IH: Broadband Expansion And Deployment Fee Equity and Efficiency Act of 2025 U.S. House of Representatives 2025-03-10 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I119th CONGRESS1st SessionH. R. 1975IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESMarch 10, 2025Mr. Allen introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and CommerceA BILLTo amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require States and political subdivisions of States to streamline certain fees relating to broadband infrastructure in order to receive grant funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Broadband Expansion And Deployment Fee Equity and Efficiency Act of 2025 or the BEAD FEE Act of 2025.

2.

Streamlining of certain fees relating to broadband infrastructure required to receive grant funds under BEAD Program

Section 60102(e) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702(e)) is amended by adding at the end the following: (5)

Streamlining of certain fees relating to broadband infrastructure required

After the date of the enactment of this paragraph, the Assistant Secretary may not make available to an eligible entity grant funds under this section (except for grant funds under paragraph (1)(C)) if the eligible entity, or any political subdivision of the eligible entity, charges a fee to consider a request for authorization to place, construct, or modify infrastructure for the provision of broadband service, or a fee for use of a right-of-way or infrastructure in a right-of-way owned or managed by the entity or political subdivision for the placement, construction, or modification of infrastructure for the provision of broadband service, unless such fee is— (A)competitively neutral, technology neutral, and nondiscriminatory; (B)publicly disclosed; (C)calculated— (i)based on actual and direct costs, such as costs for— (I)review and processing of requests; and (II)repairs and replacement of— (aa)components and materials resulting from and affected by the placement, construction, or modification (including the installation or improvement) of infrastructure for the provision of broadband service; or (bb)equipment that facilitates the placement, construction, or modification (including the installation or improvement) of such infrastructure; and (ii)using, for purposes of clause (i), only costs that are objectively reasonable; and (D)described to a requesting party in a manner that distinguishes between— (i)nonrecurring fees and recurring fees; and (ii)the use of infrastructure on which infrastructure for the provision of broadband service is already located and infrastructure on which there is no infrastructure for the provision of broadband service as of the date on which the request is received by the eligible entity or political subdivision..