CABLE Leadership Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3287 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to preserve cable franchising authority, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 15, 2023 Mr. BALDERSON 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. SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cable Access for 2 Broadband and Local Economic Leadership Act’’ or the 3 ‘‘CABLE Leadership Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. REQUEST FOR NEW FRANCHISE. 5 Section 621 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 6 U.S.C. 541) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 7 lowing: 8 ‘‘(g) TIMING OF DECISION ON REQUEST FOR FRAN- 9 CHISE.— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:17 May 27, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3287.IH H3287 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3287 IH ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 1 after the date on which a franchising authority re- 2 ceives a complete request for the grant of a fran- 3 chise (other than a renewal thereof), the franchising 4 authority shall approve or deny such request. 5 ‘‘(2) DEEMED GRANT OF NEW FRANCHISE.—If 6 the franchising authority does not approve or deny 7 a request under paragraph (1) by the day after the 8 date on which the time period ends under such para- 9 graph, such request shall be deemed granted on such 10 day. 11 ‘‘(3) APPLICABILITY.—Notwithstanding any 12 provision of this title, the timeframe under para- 13 graph (1) shall apply collectively to all proceedings 14 required by a franchising authority for the approval 15 of the request. 16 ‘‘(4) NO TOLLING.—The timeframe under para- 17 graph (1) may not be tolled by any moratorium, 18 whether express or de facto, imposed by a fran- 19 chising authority on the consideration of any request 20 for a franchise. 21 ‘‘(5) WRITTEN DECISION AND RECORD.—Any 22 decision by a franchising authority to deny a com- 23 plete request for a franchise shall be— 24 ‘‘(A) in writing; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:17 May 27, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3287.IH H3287 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3287 IH ‘‘(B) supported by substantial evidence 1 contained in a written record; and 2 ‘‘(C) publicly released, and provided to the 3 requesting party, on the same day such decision 4 is made. 5 ‘‘(6) WHEN REQUEST CONSIDERED COMPLETE; 6 RECEIVED.— 7 ‘‘(A) WHEN REQUEST CONSIDERED COM- 8 PLETE.— 9 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—For the purposes 10 of this subsection, a request to a fran- 11 chising authority shall be considered com- 12 plete if the requesting party— 13 ‘‘(I) has taken the first proce- 14 dural step within the control of the re- 15 questing party that the franchising 16 authority requires as part of the proc- 17 ess of the franchising authority for re- 18 viewing requests related to franchises; 19 and 20 ‘‘(II) has not received a written 21 notice from the franchising authority 22 within 30 days after the date on 23 which the request is received by the 24 franchising authority— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:17 May 27, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3287.IH H3287 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3287 IH ‘‘(aa) stating that all the in- 1 formation (including any form or 2 other document) required by the 3 franchising authority to be sub- 4 mitted for the request to be con- 5 sidered complete, has not been 6 submitted; 7 ‘‘(bb) identifying the infor- 8 mation required to be submitted 9 that was not submitted; and 10 ‘‘(cc) that includes a citation 11 to a specific provision of a pub- 12 licly available rule, regulation, or 13 standard issued by the fran- 14 chising authority requiring that 15 the information be submitted 16 with such a request. 17 ‘‘(ii) DEFINITION.—In this subpara- 18 graph, the term ‘the date on which the re- 19 quest is received by the franchising author- 20 ity’ means— 21 ‘‘(I) in the case of a request sub- 22 mitted electronically, the date on 23 which the request is transmitted; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:17 May 27, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3287.IH H3287 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3287 IH ‘‘(II) in the case of a request 1 submitted in person, the date on 2 which the request is delivered to the 3 individual or at the location specified 4 by franchising authority for in-person 5 submission; and 6 ‘‘(III) in the case of a request 7 submitted in any other manner, the 8 date determined under regulations 9 promulgated by the Commission for 10 the manner in which the request is 11 submitted. 12 ‘‘(B) WHEN COMPLETE REQUEST CONSID- 13 ERED RECEIVED.—For the purposes of this 14 subsection, a complete request shall be consid- 15 ered received— 16 ‘‘(i) except as provided in clause (ii), 17 on the date on which the requesting party 18 submits to the franchising authority all in- 19 formation (including any form or other 20 document) required by the franchising au- 21 thority to be submitted for the request to 22 be considered complete; or 23 ‘‘(ii) in the case of a request with re- 24 spect to which all such information is not 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:17 May 27, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3287.IH H3287 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3287 IH submitted and that is considered complete 1 under subparagraph (A)(i) because the re- 2 questing party has not received a written 3 notice from the franchising authority with- 4 in the period described in such subpara- 5 graph, on the day after the last day of 6 such period.’’. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:17 May 27, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3287.IH H3287 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS