Local Government Groups Warn Senate Commerce on 5G Broadband Barriers Bill

Schatz, D-Hawaii, that aims to ease barriers to 5G and other broadband deployments. The groups urged Senate Commerce members to “work with local governments and our national organizations as you continue to shape this legislation.” The groups were known to have concerns with language in the draft, released in October, that would seek to pre-empt state, local and tribal laws seen as barriers to deployments (see 1710310057 and 1711240024). The groups noted several provisions in letters to Thune and other Senate Commerce members, including language that would pre-empt “the authority of local governments to regulate the use of, and effectively manage public rights-of-way.” The bill would “unfairly and unreasonably reduce the time provided to local governments to respond to requests to build or alter wireless service facilities within our jurisdictions, as well as reduce revenue that local governments may charge for access to our property,” the groups said. “We are concerned with the draft’s new 'shot clock' time limits local governments have to process broadband infrastructure siting applications for telecommunications service providers.” That language would limit the timeline to 90 days. “Dig once” language in the draft shows Thune and Schatz “are headed in the right direction,” the localities said. Senate Commerce "understands the concerns and continues work to improve the draft," a spokesman said.