Broadband Resiliency and Flexible Investment Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1045 To amend the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 to amend the definition of eligible facilities request, to codify the 60-day time frame for certain eligible facilities requests and certain eligible telecommunications facilities requests, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 15, 2021 Mr. CRENSHAW introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 to amend the definition of eligible facilities request, to codify the 60-day time frame for certain eligible facilities requests and certain eligible tele- communications facilities requests, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Broadband Resiliency 4 and Flexible Investment Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045 2 •HR 1045 IH SEC. 2. CODIFYING 60-DAY TIME FRAME FOR CERTAIN RE- 1 QUESTS. 2 Section 6409(a) of the Middle Class Tax Relief and 3 Job Creation Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455(a)) is amend- 4 ed— 5 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘any eligible 6 facilities request’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘any 7 complete— 8 ‘‘(A) eligible facilities request for a modi- 9 fication of an existing wireless tower, base sta- 10 tion, or eligible support structure that does not 11 substantially change the physical dimensions of 12 such tower, base station, or eligible support 13 structure; and 14 ‘‘(B) eligible telecommunications facilities 15 request for a modification of any existing tele- 16 communications service facility in or on an eli- 17 gible support infrastructure that does not sub- 18 stantially change the physical dimensions of 19 such facility.’’; 20 (2) by amending paragraph (2) to read as fol- 21 lows: 22 ‘‘(2) TIME FRAME.— 23 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 24 days after the date on which a State or local 25 government receives a complete request de- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045 3 •HR 1045 IH scribed under paragraph (1), the State or local 1 government shall approve such request. 2 ‘‘(B) DEEMED APPROVAL.—If a State or 3 local government does not approve a request by 4 the date required under subparagraph (A), the 5 request is deemed approved on the day after 6 such date. 7 ‘‘(C) WHEN REQUEST CONSIDERED COM- 8 PLETE; RECEIVED.— 9 ‘‘(i) WHEN REQUEST CONSIDERED 10 COMPLETE.— 11 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—For the pur- 12 poses of this paragraph, a request to 13 a State or local government shall be 14 considered complete if the requesting 15 party has not received a written notice 16 from the State or local government 17 within 10 business days after the date 18 on which the request is received by 19 the State or local government— 20 ‘‘(aa) stating that all the in- 21 formation (including any form or 22 other document) required by the 23 State or local government to be 24 submitted for the request to be 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045 4 •HR 1045 IH considered complete has not been 1 submitted; and 2 ‘‘(bb) identifying the infor- 3 mation required to be submitted 4 that was not submitted. 5 ‘‘(II) DEFINITION.—In this 6 clause, the term ‘received by the State 7 or local government’ means— 8 ‘‘(aa) in the case of a re- 9 quest submitted electronically, on 10 the date on which the request is 11 transmitted; 12 ‘‘(bb) in the case of a re- 13 quest submitted in person, on the 14 date on which the request is de- 15 livered to the individual or at the 16 location specified by the State or 17 local government for in-person 18 submission; and 19 ‘‘(cc) in the case of a re- 20 quest submitted in any other 21 manner, on the date determined 22 under regulations promulgated by 23 the Commission for the manner 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045 5 •HR 1045 IH in which the request is sub- 1 mitted. 2 ‘‘(ii) WHEN COMPLETE REQUEST CON- 3 SIDERED RECEIVED.—For the purposes of 4 this paragraph, a complete request shall be 5 considered received on the date on which 6 the requesting party submits to the State 7 or local government all information (in- 8 cluding any form or other document) re- 9 quired by the State or local government to 10 be submitted for the request to be consid- 11 ered complete.’’; and 12 (3) by adding at the end the following: 13 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 14 ‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE FACILITIES REQUEST.— 15 The term ‘eligible facilities request’ means any 16 request for modification of an existing wireless 17 tower, base station, or eligible support structure 18 that involves— 19 ‘‘(i) collocation of new transmission 20 equipment; 21 ‘‘(ii) removal of transmission equip- 22 ment; 23 ‘‘(iii) replacement of transmission 24 equipment; or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045 6 •HR 1045 IH ‘‘(iv) placement, modification, or con- 1 struction of equipment that— 2 ‘‘(I) improves the resiliency of 3 the wireless tower, base station, or eli- 4 gible support structure; and 5 ‘‘(II) provides a direct benefit to 6 public safety, such as— 7 ‘‘(aa) providing backup 8 power for the wireless tower, base 9 station, or eligible support struc- 10 ture; 11 ‘‘(bb) hardening the wireless 12 tower, base station, or other eligi- 13 ble support structure; or 14 ‘‘(cc) providing more reliable 15 connection capability using the 16 wireless tower, base station, or 17 other eligible support structure. 18 ‘‘(B) ELIGIBLE TELECOMMUNICATIONS FA- 19 CILITIES REQUEST.—The term ‘eligible tele- 20 communications facilities request’ means any 21 request for modification of an existing tele- 22 communications service facility in or on an eli- 23 gible support infrastructure that involves— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045 7 •HR 1045 IH ‘‘(i) collocation of new telecommuni- 1 cations service facility equipment; 2 ‘‘(ii) removal of telecommunications 3 service facility equipment; or 4 ‘‘(iii) replacement of telecommuni- 5 cations service facility equipment. 6 ‘‘(C) ELIGIBLE SUPPORT INFRASTRUC- 7 TURE.—The term ‘eligible support infrastruc- 8 ture’ means infrastructure that supports or 9 houses a facility for communication by wire (or 10 is designed to and capable of supporting or 11 housing such a facility) at the time when a 12 complete request to a State or local government 13 or instrumentality thereof for authorization to 14 place, construct, or modify a telecommuni- 15 cations service facility in or on the infrastruc- 16 ture is received by the government or instru- 17 mentality. 18 ‘‘(D) ELIGIBLE SUPPORT STRUCTURE.— 19 The term ‘eligible support structure’ means a 20 structure that supports a personal wireless serv- 21 ice facility at the time at which the eligible fa- 22 cilities request is made. 23 ‘‘(E) PERSONAL WIRELESS SERVICE FA- 24 CILITY.—The term ‘personal wireless service fa- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045 8 •HR 1045 IH cility’ means a facility necessary for the provi- 1 sion of— 2 ‘‘(i) commercial mobile service; 3 ‘‘(ii) commercial mobile data service 4 (as that term is defined in section 6001 of 5 the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Cre- 6 ation Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1401)); 7 ‘‘(iii) unlicensed wireless service; and 8 ‘‘(iv) common carrier wireless ex- 9 change access service. 10 ‘‘(F) TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE FA- 11 CILITY.—The term ‘telecommunications service 12 facility’ means a facility for the provision of any 13 interstate or intrastate telecommunications 14 service.’’. 15 SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION. 16 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact- 17 ment of this Act, the Federal Communications Commis- 18 sion shall issue final rules implementing section 2 of this 19 Act, and the amendments made by such section. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:05 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1045.IH H1045