[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 102 (Wednesday, July 24, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REASONABLE RIGHT-OF-WAY FEES ACT OF 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. CHRIS CANNON

                                of utah

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 22, 2002

  Mr. CANNON. Mr. Speaker, Last evening, the House approved H.R. 3258, 
a bill sponsored by my friend and colleague from Wyoming, Mrs. Cubin. I 
believe that the Reasonable Rights-of-Way Fees Act of 2002 is a 
significant and worthy piece of legislation, and I hope that the other 
body will act on it favorably before the end of the current Congress.
  H.R. 3258 will ensure that the fees paid by telecommunications 
providers for the use of rights-of-way on Federal lands are reasonable. 
This is especially important in parts of the rural West like my 
district in Utah where it is difficult to deploy the long-haul 
facilities needed to connect small towns to the Internet and the public 
switched telephone network without at some point crossing Federal 
lands.
  However, as good a bill as H.R. 3258 is, it is only a first step. The 
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must strive across the board to 
attain a reasonable balance between government's need to manage public 
rights-of-way and industry and consumers equally important need to have 
non-discriminatory, inexpensive, and timely access to these rights-of-
way for the deployment of critical telecommunications infrastructure.
  Specifically, the FCC, in conjunction with Federal land management 
agencies, must take steps to ensure that:
  (1) All telecommunications providers have non-discriminatory access 
to public rights-of-way for the purpose of providing intrastate, 
interstate or international telecommunications or telecommunications 
services or deploying facilities to be used directly or indirectly in 
the provision of such services;
  (2) Government entities should act on a request for public rights-of-
way access within a reasonable and fixed period of time from the date 
that the request for such access is submitted, or such request should 
be deemed approved;
  (3) The fees charged for public rights-of-way access should reflect 
only the actual and direct costs incurred in managing the public 
rights-of-way and the amount of public rights-of-way actually used by 
the telecommunications provider;
  (4) All telecommunications providers should be treated uniformly and 
in a competitively neutral manner with respect to terms and conditions 
of access to public rights-of-way;
  (5) Entities that do not have physical facilities in, require access 
to, or actually use the public rights-of-way, such as resellers and 
lessees of network elements from facilities-based telecommunications 
providers, should not be subject to public rights-of-way management 
practices or fees; and
  (6) Waivers of the right to challenge the lawfulness of particular 
governmental requirements as a condition of receiving any public 
rights-of-way access should be invalid.
  I believe that, consistent with the Telecommunications Act, the 
Federal Communications Commission should vigorously enforce existing 
law and use expedited procedures for resolving preemption petitions 
involving access to public rights-of-way.
  Expeditious removal of barriers to right-of-way access will help 
ensure that all telecommunications providers--incumbent local exchange 
carriers, competitive local exchange carriers, wireless carriers, and 
cable providers--can better deploy telecommunications services to the 
greatest number of Americans at reasonable costs.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________