[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4448 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4448
To require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and
Information to create tools for tracking the progress of grant
recipients under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program,
to require the Assistant Secretary to help executive agencies improve
compliance with the statutory deadline for processing communications
use applications, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 30, 2026
Mr. Thune (for himself, Mr. Lujan, and Mr. Barrasso) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and
Information to create tools for tracking the progress of grant
recipients under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program,
to require the Assistant Secretary to help executive agencies improve
compliance with the statutory deadline for processing communications
use applications, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Accelerating Broadband Permits Act
of 2026''.
SEC. 2. TRACKING BEAD PROGRESS AND PERMITS.
(a) Progress Dashboard.--Section 60102(j) of the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702(j)) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
``(5) Progress dashboard.--The Assistant Secretary shall
make available on a public website a dashboard that tracks the
progress of each eligible entity through major milestones under
the Program, including--
``(A) the amount of grant funds received under this
section that the eligible entity has expended; and
``(B) the number of locations at which broadband
service has been made available using grant funds
received by the eligible entity under this section, and
the number of those locations at which broadband
service has been utilized.''.
(b) Tracking Permits.--Section 60102(h) of the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702(h)) is amended--
(1) by redesignating paragraph (6) as paragraph (7); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following:
``(6) Tracking permits.--The Assistant Secretary shall
create a tool to help each eligible entity--
``(A) identify the relevant Federal permit
requirements for each subgrantee of the eligible
entity; and
``(B) monitor the progress of each subgrantee of
the eligible entity toward obtaining Federal
permits.''.
SEC. 3. TRACKING AND IMPROVING PROCESSING TIMES FOR COMMUNICATIONS USE
APPLICATIONS.
Section 6409(b)(3) of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation
Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455(b)(3)) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(E) Tracking and improving processing times.--
``(i) Data controls.--Not later than 90
days after the date of enactment of the
Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026, the
Assistant Secretary shall develop controls to
ensure that data is sufficiently accurate and
complete for an executive agency to track the
processing time for each application described
in subparagraph (A) received by the executive
agency.
``(ii) Requirement to analyze, address, and
report on delay factors.--With respect to the
factors that contribute to delays in processing
applications described in subparagraph (A), the
Assistant Secretary shall--
``(I) analyze the factors as the
delays are occurring;
``(II) take actions to address the
factors; and
``(III) provide an annual report on
the factors to--
``(aa) the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate;
``(bb) the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources of
the Senate;
``(cc) the Committee on
Energy and Commerce of the
House of Representatives; and
``(dd) the Committee on
Natural Resources of the House
of Representatives.
``(iii) Method for alerting staff to at-
risk applications.--Not later than 90 days
after the date of enactment of the Accelerating
Broadband Permits Act of 2026, the Assistant
Secretary shall establish a method to alert
employees of an executive agency to any
application described in subparagraph (A) with
respect to which the executive agency is at
risk of failing to meet the 270-day deadline
under that subparagraph.''.
SEC. 4. MINIMUM BROADBAND PROJECT COST.
Section 41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 4370m(6)(A)) is
amended--
(1) in clause (iii), by striking ``or'' at the end;
(2) by redesignating clause (iv) as clause (v); and
(3) by inserting after clause (iii) the following:
``(iv)(I) is subject to NEPA;
``(II) involves the construction of
infrastructure for broadband; and
``(III) is likely to require a total
investment of more than $5,000,000; or''.
<all>