Facilitating DIGITAL Applications Act
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The bill would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to report to Congress every 60 days on whether the Interior Department and Forest Service have built online portals for processing communications facility permit applications on public and forest lands.
It would also require those agencies to notify NTIA within three business days once they establish such a portal, aiming to speed up broadband and wireless infrastructure siting on federal land by tracking bureaucratic delays.
What this bill would do
What it would do
The bill would require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information (who leads the National Telecommunications and Information Administration) to report to designated congressional committees on the status of online portals for accepting, processing, and disposing of Form 299 applications — the paperwork companies file to get easements, rights-of-way, leases, or licenses to place communications facilities on public lands or National Forest System land. The first report would be due within 90 days of enactment, with follow-up reports every 60 days until both the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service have established their portals.
Each report would state whether the relevant department has established its portal and describe any barriers to doing so. Once a portal is established, that department would have to notify the Assistant Secretary within three business days. The bill does not itself require the portals to be built, fund their construction, or change the underlying permitting process.
Key provisions
- 1Would require NTIA to report to Congress within 90 days of enactment on whether Interior and the Forest Service have established online Form 299 portals
- 2Would require follow-up reports every 60 days until both departments' portals are established, describing any barriers
- 3Would require the Secretary of the Interior or Agriculture to notify NTIA within 3 business days after establishing a portal
Who would be affected
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Department of the Interior, and the Forest Service (within the Department of Agriculture) would bear new reporting duties. Telecommunications and wireless companies seeking to site communications facilities on public or National Forest System land, and the congressional committees receiving the reports, would also be affected.
Why it matters
By forcing recurring public reporting, the bill would create pressure on Interior and the Forest Service to build the online portals and would give Congress and industry visibility into specific barriers slowing digital permitting for cell towers and other communications infrastructure on federal land, without mandating the portals be completed by any deadline.
What would change
Changes to existing law
Creates Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455) (Sec. 2(b))
Uses this Act's Form 299 and communications facility definitions to establish a new reporting requirement; does not amend the Act itself
Agencies directed to act
Effective dates
- First NTIA report on portal status and barriers
- Subsequent NTIA reports until portals are established
- Notification to NTIA after a department establishes its portal
Funding and costs
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates H.R. 1588 would have no effect on direct spending, revenues, or the deficit over the 2026–2036 period; any discretionary spending would be less than $500,000.
CBO estimates that H.R. 1588, the Facilitating DIGITAL Applications Act, would have no effect on direct (mandatory) spending, revenues, or the federal deficit over the 2026–2036 scoring window. The bill would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to report to Congress on whether the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service have created online portals for processing requests to place communications facilities on federal land. Any spending for those reports would be subject to appropriated funds and is estimated to be less than $500,000 in total — between zero and that threshold. CBO identified no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates in the bill.
How implementation would work
NTIA would compile recurring status reports drawing on updates from the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service about their progress building online Form 299 portals. The two departments would self-report to NTIA when a portal goes live, triggering the end of the 60-day reporting cycle for that department. Reports would go to four specified House and Senate committees, creating a paper trail Congress could use to press the agencies if portals stall, though the bill sets no deadline for actually completing the portals.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Reported by the Committee on Energy and Commerce. H. Rept. 119-486, Part I.
Official CRS summary
Show the CRS summaryHide the CRS summary
This bill requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to periodically report on the development of online portals for the acceptance, processing, and disposal of applications for communications use authorizations. Communications use authorizations are requests for easements, rights-of-way, leases, licenses, or other authorizations to locate or modify a transmitting device, support structure, or other communications facility on public lands or National Forest System land.
Specifically, the NTIA must report to Congress about (1) whether the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service have each established a portal, and (2) any barriers to establishing the portals. The NTIA must submit the first report within 90 days of the enactment of the bill and additional reports every 60 days thereafter until the portals are established.
Additionally, Interior and the Forest Service must notify the NTIA within three business days of establishing their respective portals.
Legislative subjects
Broadcasting, cable, digital technologies; Government information and archives; Government studies and investigations; Internet, web applications, social media; Performance measurement; Science, Technology, Communications
Committee report
H. Rept. 119-486