S. 4448

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4448 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4448

To require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and 
Information to create tools for tracking the progress of grant 
recipients under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, 
to require the Assistant Secretary to help executive agencies improve 
compliance with the statutory deadline for processing communications 
use applications, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

April 30, 2026

Mr. Thune (for himself, Mr. Lujan, and Mr. Barrasso) introduced the 
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and 
Information to create tools for tracking the progress of grant 
recipients under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, 
to require the Assistant Secretary to help executive agencies improve 
compliance with the statutory deadline for processing communications 
use applications, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Accelerating Broadband Permits Act 
of 2026''.

SEC. 2. TRACKING BEAD PROGRESS AND PERMITS.

(a) Progress Dashboard.--Section 60102(j) of the Infrastructure 
Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702(j)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following:
``(5) Progress dashboard.--The Assistant Secretary shall 
make available on a public website a dashboard that tracks the 
progress of each eligible entity through major milestones under 
the Program, including--
``(A) the amount of grant funds received under this 
section that the eligible entity has expended; and
``(B) the number of locations at which broadband 
service has been made available using grant funds 
received by the eligible entity under this section, and 
the number of those locations at which broadband 
service has been utilized.''.
(b) Tracking Permits.--Section 60102(h) of the Infrastructure 
Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702(h)) is amended--
(1) by redesignating paragraph (6) as paragraph (7); and
(2) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following:
``(6) Tracking permits.--The Assistant Secretary shall 
create a tool to help each eligible entity--
``(A) identify the relevant Federal permit 
requirements for each subgrantee of the eligible 
entity; and
``(B) monitor the progress of each subgrantee of 
the eligible entity toward obtaining Federal 
permits.''.

SEC. 3. TRACKING AND IMPROVING PROCESSING TIMES FOR COMMUNICATIONS USE 
APPLICATIONS.

Section 6409(b)(3) of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation 
Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455(b)(3)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
``(E) Tracking and improving processing times.--
``(i) Data controls.--Not later than 90 
days after the date of enactment of the 
Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026, the 
Assistant Secretary shall develop controls to 
ensure that data is sufficiently accurate and 
complete for an executive agency to track the 
processing time for each application described 
in subparagraph (A) received by the executive 
agency.
``(ii) Requirement to analyze, address, and 
report on delay factors.--With respect to the 
factors that contribute to delays in processing 
applications described in subparagraph (A), the 
Assistant Secretary shall--
``(I) analyze the factors as the 
delays are occurring;
``(II) take actions to address the 
factors; and
``(III) provide an annual report on 
the factors to--
``(aa) the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate;
``(bb) the Committee on 
Energy and Natural Resources of 
the Senate;
``(cc) the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce of the 
House of Representatives; and
``(dd) the Committee on 
Natural Resources of the House 
of Representatives.
``(iii) Method for alerting staff to at-
risk applications.--Not later than 90 days 
after the date of enactment of the Accelerating 
Broadband Permits Act of 2026, the Assistant 
Secretary shall establish a method to alert 
employees of an executive agency to any 
application described in subparagraph (A) with 
respect to which the executive agency is at 
risk of failing to meet the 270-day deadline 
under that subparagraph.''.

SEC. 4. MINIMUM BROADBAND PROJECT COST.

Section 41001(6)(A) of the FAST Act (42 U.S.C. 4370m(6)(A)) is 
amended--
(1) in clause (iii), by striking ``or'' at the end;
(2) by redesignating clause (iv) as clause (v); and
(3) by inserting after clause (iii) the following:
``(iv)(I) is subject to NEPA;
``(II) involves the construction of 
infrastructure for broadband; and
``(III) is likely to require a total 
investment of more than $5,000,000; or''.
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