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To amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require States and political subdivisions of States to streamline certain fees relating to broadband infrastructure in order to receive grant funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill would require states and local governments to streamline and standardize the fees they charge for broadband infrastructure placement and right-of-way use in order to receive federal grant funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Fees would need to be competitively neutral, publicly disclosed, and based only on actual and direct costs such as review processing and infrastructure repair. States and local governments would also need to clearly distinguish between different types of fees and explain the basis for each fee to requesting parties.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Rick W. Allen’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $19,594
- OSCAR'S LIQUOR $7,000
- YANCEY BROS. CO. $6,600
- MACUCH STEEL PRODUCTS $6,600
- HILLWOOD $6,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Rick W. Allen → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Mar 10, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. · house
- Mar 10, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 10, 2025
Mr. Allen introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require States and political subdivisions of States to streamline certain fees relating to broadband infrastructure in order to receive grant funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, 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 “Broadband Expansion And Deployment Fee Equity and Efficiency Act of 2025” or the “BEAD FEE Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. STREAMLINING OF CERTAIN FEES RELATING TO BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIRED TO RECEIVE GRANT FUNDS UNDER BEAD PROGRAM.
Section 60102(e) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702(e)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(5) Streamlining of certain fees relating to broadband infrastructure required.—After the date of the enactment of this paragraph, the Assistant Secretary may not make available to an eligible entity grant funds under this section (except for grant funds under paragraph (1)(C)) if the eligible entity, or any political subdivision of the eligible entity, charges a fee to consider a request for authorization to place, construct, or modify infrastructure for the provision of broadband service, or a fee for use of a right-of-way or infrastructure in a right-of-way owned or managed by the entity or political subdivision for the placement, construction, or modification of infrastructure for the provision of broadband service, unless such fee is—
“(A) competitively neutral, technology neutral, and nondiscriminatory;
“(B) publicly disclosed;
“(C) calculated—
“(i) based on actual and direct costs, such as costs for—
“(I) review and processing of requests; and
“(II) repairs and replacement of— “(aa) components and materials resulting from and affected by the placement, construction, or modification (including the installation or improvement) of infrastructure for the provision of broadband service; or “(bb) equipment that facilitates the placement, construction, or modification (including the installation or improvement) of such infrastructure; and
“(ii) using, for purposes of clause (i), only costs that are objectively reasonable; and
“(D) described to a requesting party in a manner that distinguishes between—
“(i) nonrecurring fees and recurring fees; and
“(ii) the use of infrastructure on which infrastructure for the provision of broadband service is already located and infrastructure on which there is no infrastructure for the provision of broadband service as of the date on which the request is received by the eligible entity or political subdivision.”. <all>
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