The Push for Permitting Reform

There is currently a bill being considered in Congress that would mandate a new set of permitting requirements for wireless and wired infrastructure. The bill is H.R. 2289–the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2025. The bill first started with the goal of making it easier to get permits for BEAD and other federally grant-funded projects, but the bill has grown to encompass all local and state permitting for telecommunications infrastructure. The heart of the changes that would come from the passage of the bill are as follows:

• The legislation would create a shot clock from 60 to 150 days during which a state or local government must approve or deny a request for a permit to construct a wireless or wireline project. If the locality doesn’t respond in that time frame, the request is automatically assumed to be “deemed granted”.
• The legislation would create similar shot clock rules for any carrier seeking a cable franchise.
• The bill would eliminate the need for environmental impact studies or historic preservation reviews for any project not considered to be a major federal action under NEPA rules.
• The law would make it easier to get permits on tribal lands.
• The law would restrict permitting fees to recover only actual costs, instead of the traditional standard of reasonable costs.