CABLE Leadership Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1148 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to preserve cable franchising authority, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 18, 2021 Mr. LONG introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to preserve cable franchising authority, and for other purposes. 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 ‘‘Cable Access for 4 Broadband and Local Economic Leadership Act’’ or the 5 ‘‘CABLE Leadership Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. REQUEST FOR NEW FRANCHISE. 7 Section 621 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 8 U.S.C. 541) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 9 lowing: 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:19 Mar 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1148.IH H1148 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1148 IH ‘‘(g) TIMING OF DECISION ON REQUEST FOR FRAN- 1 CHISE.— 2 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 3 after the date on which a franchising authority re- 4 ceives a complete request for the grant of a fran- 5 chise (other than a renewal thereof), the franchising 6 authority shall approve or deny such request. 7 ‘‘(2) DEEMED GRANT OF NEW FRANCHISE.—If 8 the franchising authority does not approve or deny 9 a request under paragraph (1) by the day after the 10 date on which the time period ends under such para- 11 graph, such request shall be deemed granted on such 12 day. 13 ‘‘(3) APPLICABILITY.—Notwithstanding any 14 provision of this title, the timeframe under para- 15 graph (1) shall apply collectively to all proceedings 16 required by a franchising authority for the approval 17 of the request. 18 ‘‘(4) NO TOLLING.—A timeframe under para- 19 graph (1) may not be tolled by any moratorium, 20 whether express or de facto, imposed by a fran- 21 chising authority on the consideration of any request 22 for a franchise. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:19 Mar 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1148.IH H1148 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1148 IH ‘‘(5) WRITTEN DECISION AND RECORD.—Any 1 decision by a franchising authority to deny a com- 2 plete request for a franchise shall be— 3 ‘‘(A) in writing; 4 ‘‘(B) supported by substantial evidence 5 contained in a written record; and 6 ‘‘(C) publicly released, contemporaneously 7 with the decision. 8 ‘‘(6) WHEN REQUEST CONSIDERED COMPLETE; 9 RECEIVED.— 10 ‘‘(A) WHEN REQUEST CONSIDERED COM- 11 PLETE.— 12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—For the purposes 13 of this subsection, a request to a fran- 14 chising authority shall be considered com- 15 plete if the requesting party has not re- 16 ceived a written notice from the fran- 17 chising authority within 10 business days 18 after the date on which the request is re- 19 ceived by the franchising authority— 20 ‘‘(I) stating that all the informa- 21 tion (including any form or other doc- 22 ument) required by the franchising 23 authority to be submitted for the re- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:19 Mar 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1148.IH H1148 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1148 IH quest to be considered complete has 1 not been submitted; and 2 ‘‘(II) identifying the information 3 required to be submitted that was not 4 submitted. 5 ‘‘(ii) DEFINITION.—In this paragraph, 6 the term ‘received by the franchising au- 7 thority’ means— 8 ‘‘(I) in the case of a request sub- 9 mitted electronically, on the date on 10 which the request is transmitted; 11 ‘‘(II) in the case of a request 12 submitted in person, on the date on 13 which the request is delivered to the 14 individual or at the location specified 15 by franchising authority for in-person 16 submission; and 17 ‘‘(III) in the case of a request 18 submitted in any other manner, on 19 the date determined under regulations 20 promulgated by the Commission for 21 the manner in which the request is 22 submitted. 23 ‘‘(B) WHEN COMPLETE REQUEST CONSID- 24 ERED RECEIVED.—For the purposes of this 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:19 Mar 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1148.IH H1148 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1148 IH subsection, a complete request shall be consid- 1 ered received on the date on which the request- 2 ing party submits to the franchising authority 3 all information (including any form or other 4 document) required by the franchising authority 5 to be submitted for the request to be considered 6 complete.’’. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:19 Mar 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1148.IH H1148 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS