S. 323 — PLAN for Broadband Act

This section defines terms used throughout the Act, including "(1) appropriate committees of Congress" (i.e., Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and House Committee on Energy and Commerce); "(2) Assistant Secretary" (i.e., Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information); "(3) broadband internet access service" (as defined in 47 C.F.R. §8.1(b) or successor); "(4) covered agencies" (i.e., 15 entities such as the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Agriculture, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Department of Housing and Urban Development); "(5) Deployment Locations Map" (as defined in 47 U.S.C. 1704(a)); "(6) Federal broadband program" (i.e., any program administered by a covered agency to increase broadband deployment, access, affordability, or adoption); "(7) Federal land management agency" (i.e., National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and others); "(8) Implementation Plan"; and "(9) Strategy".

This section directs the Assistant Secretary, in consultation with covered agencies, to develop and submit to the appropriate congressional committees of Congress a National Strategy to Synchronize Federal Broadband Programs not later than one year after the date of enactment. The strategy must support efficient management of Federal broadband programs (i.e., grants and other initiatives to expand high-speed, affordable broadband access); synchronize interagency coordination on program administration and approvals for broadband infrastructure on federal property; and reduce participation barriers, costs, and administrative burdens. It must also (1) list all Federal broadband programs and relevant state and local programs; (2) describe current coordination efforts and identify gaps, including laws, regulations, and agency policies; (3) establish agency roles, goals, and performance measures; (4) address implementation costs, resources, cost-increasing factors, program effectiveness, technological neutrality, permitting processes, Tribal land gaps, and fraud prevention; and (5) recommend incentives, legislative solutions, and administrative actions to improve coordination, eliminate duplication, leverage tools such as the Deployment Locations Map, and enhance state, local, Tribal, and regional participation.

This section requires the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to develop and submit to the appropriate congressional committees, not later than 120 days after submitting the Strategy under section 3(a), an implementation plan for the Strategy that, at a minimum— (1) provides for implementing the Strategy's roles, responsibilities, goals, objectives, and performance measures for Federal broadband programs and interagency coordination; (2) streamlines and creates consistent policies and practices across covered agencies if the Strategy identifies programmatic differences; (3) determines a uniform ceiling on subsidies or funding awards for non-technologically neutral Federal broadband programs to a single location; (4) holds covered agencies accountable for the Strategy's roles, responsibilities, goals, objectives, and performance measures; (5) describes covered agencies' roles and responsibilities and interagency coordination mechanisms; (6) coordinates Federal broadband programs and permitting processes for broadband infrastructure; (7) regularly evaluates and publicly reports on Federal broadband programs, permitting processes, and Strategy implementation progress; (8) adopts common data sets (including maps under 47 U.S.C. 641 et seq. and the Deployment Locations Map), applications under 47 U.S.C. 1307(e), and rules prohibiting awards in served areas or areas with existing obligations; (9) monitors, publicly reports on, and reduces waste, fraud, and abuse (including from overlapping programs) in Federal broadband programs; (10) requires consistent obligation and expenditure reporting aligned with 47 U.S.C. 1307(c)(2) and the Deployment Locations Map; (11) increases awareness of and participation in Federal broadband affordability and adoption programs; and (12) describes necessary administrative and legislative actions. The Assistant Secretary must publish a draft plan in the Federal Register for at least 60 days of notice and comment (including reply comments).

This section directs the Assistant Secretary and representatives from covered agencies to brief the appropriate congressional committees on Strategy implementation within 21 days after submitting the Implementation Plan required under section 4(a). It further requires the Assistant Secretary to implement the Strategy per the Plan and to brief those committees on progress within 90 days of beginning implementation and every 90 days thereafter until fully implemented. It specifies that these requirements do not affect the Federal Communications Commission's authority or empower the Assistant Secretary or any executive agency to direct FCC actions.

This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to commence, not later than one year after the Assistant Secretary submits the Implementation Plan under Section 4(a), a study that (1) examines (A) the efficacy of the Strategy and Implementation Plan in coordinating federal funding for broadband internet access service, (B) recommendations to improve the Strategy and Implementation Plan, (C) existing or new performance goals and measures for federal broadband programs, (D) awards by covered agencies under federal broadband programs or by state, local, and tribal broadband programs in areas identified as served or that duplicate other awards, and (E) programmatic changes to prevent such awards; and (2) submits the results to the appropriate congressional committees.

This section directs the head of each covered agency to submit to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information (i.e., NTIA Administrator) and the appropriate congressional committees, not later than 60 days after enactment, a report on measures taken since May 15, 2023, to coordinate with NTIA under section 1307(c)(2)(A) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 1307(c)(2)(A))—which requires NTIA to track federally supported broadband infrastructure in a central database (i.e., the Deployment Locations Map)—and the FCC to populate that database. The report must describe the agency's complete and timely submission of required data and identify any outstanding challenges.

This section requires executive agencies to track and improve processing times for applications for easements, rights-of-way, or leases on federal property to install, construct, modify, or maintain communications facilities (i.e., those subject to the 270-day processing deadline under 47 U.S.C. 1455(b)(3)(A)). Specifically, agencies must (1) develop data controls to ensure accurate and complete tracking of each application's processing time; (2) analyze delay factors as they occur, take actions to address them, and submit annual reports on such factors to the Senate Committees on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and on Energy and Natural Resources, the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and on Natural Resources, and each committee of Congress with jurisdiction over the agency; and (3) establish methods to alert staff to applications at risk of exceeding the 270-day deadline.

This section modifies the definition of covered project under the FAST Act to include, as a new category, broadband infrastructure construction projects that are subject to NEPA and likely to require a total investment of more than $5 million (from $200 million under the general threshold). (Covered projects qualify for coordinated environmental reviews and permitting by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council.)

This section provides a rule of construction stating that nothing in this Act or its amendments confers authority on the federal government or any state, local, or tribal government to regulate broadband internet access service.