Highway Rights-of-Way Permitting Efficiency Act of 2017
Latest action · Mar 9, 2017 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedMar 9, 2017
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Highway Rights-of-Way Permitting Efficiency Act of 2017
This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA), with respect to National Forest System land, and the Department of the Interior, with respect to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, to establish a program to enter into memoranda of understanding with states to allow for the permitting of broadband within an operational right-of-way to enable broadband providers to install infrastructure that allows users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video telecommunications.
The "operational right-of-way" is defined as all real property interests (including easements) acquired for the construction or operation of a project.
A state's governor, or a state's top-ranking transportation official in charge of highway construction, may enter into such a memorandum for a term not to exceed 10 years if the state consents to: (1) federal court jurisdiction, (2) federal environmental review procedures, (3) judicial review of decisions regarding the public availability of documents, (4) maintenance of necessary financial resources, and (5) the provision of any information that USDA or Interior needs to ensure that the state is carrying out its responsibilities.
USDA and Interior must designate projects within an existing operational right-of-way as actions categorically excluded from federal regulations relating to environmental assessments or environmental impact statements.
Interior must establish a Federal Permit Streamlining Project in each BLM field office with responsibility for issuing permits for broadband projects. Under the program, Interior acts as the lead agency for the issuance of a single permit on behalf of all other federal agencies involved in a broadband project through a memorandum of understanding with USDA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Cosponsors 4
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Mar 9, 2017 to Apr 4, 2017, with 2 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-NE | Deb Fischer | Original | Mar 9, 2017 |
| R-MT | Steve Daines | Original | Mar 9, 2017 |
| R-WV | Shelley Moore Capito | Mar 23, 2017 | |
| R-IA | Joni Ernst | Apr 4, 2017 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Mar 9, 2017Introduced in Senate
- Mar 9, 2017Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Related bills 1
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 4824 | Rural Broadband Permitting Efficiency Act of 2018 | Related bill | Sep 17, 2018 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Transportation and Public Works.
- Environmental assessment, monitoring, research
- Forests, forestry, trees
- Intergovernmental relations
- Internet and video services
- Internet, web applications, social media
- Land use and conservation
- Licensing and registrations
- Roads and highways
- State and local government operations
- Telephone and wireless communication
- Transportation and Public Works
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Mar 9, 2017Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.