USTelecom is calling on the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to cut through bureaucratic delays and align with new White House guidance — a campaign that reflects mounting industry frustration with slow-moving federal approvals.
The broadband industry’s push to reform federal permitting processes is gaining momentum, with trade group USTelecom leading a coordinated effort to prod federal land management agencies into action. At the center of the campaign: expanding the use of regulatory shortcuts that could dramatically speed up the deployment of internet infrastructure on public lands.
Broadband Industry: The Ask
USTelecom President and CEO Jonathan Spalter recently sent letters to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urging both departments to implement recent White House guidance that would expedite broadband permitting on federal lands. The letters commended the departments for their existing work on infrastructure deployment while pressing them to go further — specifically through expanded use of what are known as categorical exclusions, or CEs.
Categorical exclusions are a mechanism under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that allow agencies to bypass lengthy environmental reviews for projects deemed to have minimal environmental impact. The White House guidance, issued by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) on April 9, recommends that federal agencies expand their use of CEs and further adopt exclusions already established by other federal agencies. Light Reading
CEQ Chairman Katherine Scarlett put it bluntly: “It should never take longer to permit a critical infrastructure project than it takes to build it.”
A Year in the Making
The White House guidance didn’t materialize by accident. USTelecom CEO Spalter acknowledged at the Connected America conference in Dallas that his organization had worked behind the scenes for a year to get the White House to advance this principle to federal agencies. Broadband Breakfast
The group’s core argument is straightforward: duplicative reviews on already-studied land are slowing down broadband builds. “Cut duplication. Where infrastructure already exists, don’t study the same ground twice,” Spalter said.
USTelecom has also pushed for 30-day shot clocks for permits on federal lands — “If there’s not a decision, that’s the decision,” Spalter said — along with provisions that would allow construction to continue when permitting delays are deemed unreasonable.
What USTelecom Wants for the Broadband Industry
In its letters to the two Cabinet secretaries, USTelecom specifically urged greater adoption and standardization of categorical exclusions across Interior and Agriculture agencies and bureaus, alignment with Department of Commerce and NTIA exclusions — particularly for routine broadband activities — and expedited approvals for projects in existing rights-of-way, equipment upgrades, and small-footprint infrastructure.
A key model cited by the group: NTIA and FirstNet’s categorical exclusion for the construction of buried and aerial telecommunications lines, cables, and related facilities, which USTelecom argues would “standardize and simplify application across bureaus and reduce case-by-case review.” Light Reading
Legislative Momentum
The administrative push is running parallel to activity on Capitol Hill. USTelecom, along with other broadband industry associations, has thrown its support behind the American Broadband Deployment Act in the House, which would allow for broader categorical exclusions, limit local authorities’ management of public rights-of-way, and impose shot clocks for permit approvals. That bill currently has only Republican support and is opposed by organizations representing local governments.
Separately, the House recently passed the Expediting Federal Broadband Deployment Reviews Act, which would establish an interagency strike force to support federal land management agencies’ review of requests for communications use authorizations.
Broader Context
The White House’s deregulatory posture has created an opening for the industry’s permitting agenda. The CEQ’s new guidance is intended to relieve infrastructure projects from excessive permitting burdens and further the administration’s deregulatory agenda, and includes newly launched technology tools like the Categorical Exclusion Explorer — an online searchable database of existing CEs across federal agencies — as well as CE Works, a platform that digitizes the process of completing a CE.
Local governments, however, remain cautious. Local officials have opposed shot clock proposals, arguing they either lack the resources to process permits as quickly as the industry desires, or need adequate time to review projects to ensure public safety.
For its part, USTelecom frames the effort as compatible with environmental stewardship. “We stand ready to partner with federal leaders to ensure broadband deployment proceeds efficiently while maintaining strong environmental protections,” Spalter said. The coming months will test whether Interior and Agriculture move with the urgency the industry is demanding — and whether Congress can find bipartisan ground on a package that the telecom sector sees as essential to closing the digital divide.
