Federal Broadband Deployment Tracking Act Requires NTIA to Track Form 299 Processing

H.L.C.

Union Calendar No. H. R. 1343

119 CONGRESS TH 1 SST FESSION

[Report No. 119-]

To require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to submit to Congress a plan for the Assistant Secretary to track the acceptance, processing, and disposal of certain Form 299s, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

13, 2025 EBRUARY Mr. P(for himself and Mr. S) introduced the following bill; which FLUGEROTO was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce D--, 2025 ECEMBER Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed

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H.L.C.

A BILL

To require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Commu- nications and Information to submit to Congress a plan for the Assistant Secretary to track the acceptance, proc- essing, and disposal of certain Form 299s, and for other purposes.

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H.L.C.

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 ''Federal Broadband 4 Deployment Tracking Act''. 5

SEC. 2. PLAN FOR ASSISTANT SECRETARY TO TRACK THE 6 ACCEPTANCE, PROCESSING, AND DISPOSAL 7 OF CERTAIN FORM 299S. 8

.--Not later than 180 days after the date 9(a) PLAN of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary shall 10 submit to the appropriate congressional committees a plan 11 containing a description of-- 12 (1) the process by which the Assistant Sec-13 retary proposes to-- 14 (A) track the acceptance, processing, and 15 disposal of each Form 299 for communications 16 use authorization; 17 (B) provide applicants additional trans-18 parency with respect to the status of the appli-19 cable Form 299 for communications use au-20 thorization; and 21 (C) most expeditiously implement the plan; 22 and 23 (2) any potential barriers to implementing the 24 plan that are identified by the Assistant Secretary. 25

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H.L.C.

.--In this section: 1(b) DEFINITIONS -2(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT .--The term ''appropriate congressional com-3TEES mittees'' means-- 4 (A) the Committee on Energy and Com-5 merce of the House of Representatives; and 6 (B) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 7 and Transportation of the Senate. 8 .--The term ''Assist-9(2) ASSISTANT SECRETARY ant Secretary'' means the Assistant Secretary of 10 Commerce for Communications and Information. 11 .--The term 12(3) COMMUNICATIONS FACILITY ''communications facility'' has the meaning given the 13 term communications facility installation in section 14 6409(d) of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job 15 Creation Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455(d)). 16 .--The term ''com-17(4) COMMUNICATIONS USE munications use'' means the placement and oper-18 ation of a communications facility. 19 .-- 20(5) COMMUNICATIONS USE AUTHORIZATION The term ''communications use authorization'' 21 means an easement, right-of-way, lease, license, or 22 other authorization-- 23 (A) provided by the Secretary of the Inte-24 rior or the Secretary of Agriculture; 25

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H.L.C.

(B) to locate or modify a communications 1 facility on covered land; and 2 (C) for the primary purpose of authorizing 3 the occupancy and use of such covered land for 4 communications use. 5 .--The term ''covered land'' 6(6) COVERED LAND means-- 7 (A) public lands; and 8 (B) National Forest System land. 9 .--The term ''Form 299'' means 10(7) FORM 299 the form established under section 6409(b)(2)(A) of 11 the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act 12 of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455(b)(2)(A)), or any successor 13 form. 14 .--The term 15(8) NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM ''National Forest System'' has the meaning given 16 the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Range-17 land Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 18 U.S.C. 1609(a)). 19 .--The term ''public lands'' 20(9) PUBLIC LANDS means land under the management of-- 21 (A) the Bureau of Land Management; 22 (B) the National Park Service; 23 (C) the United States Fish and Wildlife 24 Service; or 25

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H.L.C.

(D) the Bureau of Reclamation. 1

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