Last Thursday, members of the House Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed the Enhancing Administrative Reviews for Broadband Deployment Act. The bill would direct the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to study their departments’ regulations and identify what barriers they pose to broadband deployment—wired or wireless—on federal land. This bodes well for America’s broadband ecosystem, as it signals bipartisan support for speeding infrastructure buildout and upgrades. Congress should continue to review long-standing regulatory regimes to make sure they still make sense today.
The bill directs the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture (DOI and DOA) to study and report on any administrative barriers to timely reviews for authorizing, building ,and operating a communications facility on public or National Forest System land. From there, the DOI and DOA would examine revisions to current regulations that could make these reviews more efficient and make a plan to ensure more timely reviews going forward.
This intentional, sector-specific approach is a prime example of good broadband governance for two big reasons. First, broadband is of critical importance for consumers, and this bill can accelerate network buildout. Research consistently finds that when consumers have access to a reliable internet connection, they gain access to a wider variety of information, goods, and services.
Reliable internet means keeping in touch with loved ones, expanded access to healthcare through telehealth, and new opportunities for education and work. Accelerating network buildout can extend these benefits to hard-to-reach rural consumers who still live without internet access or who are dependent on slow digital subscriber line technology. This bill pairs well with ongoing federal efforts to close the digital divide.
Second, this Congressional approach rightly scrutinizes long-standing regulatory procedures and asks, “Can we do this better?” Periodically questioning and updating rules can help keep laws focused on the goals they are meant to achieve rather than the checkboxes along the way. A 2021 analysis from the Regulatory Review finds that such approaches to governance can generate better outcomes for consumers, as burdensome rules that fail to deliver on their stated goal can be identified and removed. Meanwhile, rules that successfully fulfill lawmakers’ vision can be identified and emulated. Periodically taking stock of existing rules and their effectiveness is a good way to keep regulations focused on delivering real benefits for consumers rather than bureaucracy.
Congress should also look for opportunities to apply this style of policymaking in other areas outside of broadband deployment. Within the broadcasting side of broadband, for example, longstanding regulations within the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 impose strict limitations, including rate regulation, service tier requirements, and retransmission rules on cable providers. These policies were created to prevent carriers from taking advantage of broadcasters and harming consumers through limited choice and higher prices. 30 years later, the media marketplace is profoundly different, with more choices than ever for consumers to watch their preferred entertainment—cable monopolization is no longer a realistic danger. But research from the International Center for Law & Economics finds that cable providers are still subject to the same laws of yesteryear while their unregulated competitors operate freely.
With the Enhancing Administrative Reviews for Broadband Deployment Act advancing through committee by unanimous consent, committee Republicans and Democrats alike are signaling support for improved network infrastructure by reducing administrative burdens. They rightly recognize that increasing internet access is good for consumers and targeted regulatory reviews can help streamline the federal process. Going forward, Congress should continue to scrutinize existing processes to ensure they still deliver the pro-consumer outcomes they’re meant to. This approach to broadband governance can give a welcome boost to ongoing deployment efforts and beyond.
Nate Karren is a policy analyst with the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. Follow Nate on X @NateKarrenOnX.