Sponsors
The bill speeds and lowers the cost of deploying FCC-jurisdiction communications facilities in floodplains by cutting federal environmental and historic reviews, at the cost of reduced flood-safety and cultural/historic protections and potential taxpayer exposure to resulting damages.
Utilities and telecom providers can deploy or modify communications facilities in floodplains with fewer federal reviews, speeding broadband and wireless rollout to rural and urban communities.
Providers face reduced regulatory delays and permitting costs for FCC-jurisdiction communications projects, lowering deployment expenses that may reduce rollout costs or prices.
Residents near covered projects (rural and urban) may lose environmental review protections that identify flood risks and required mitigation, increasing local flood-safety and property damage risk.
Removing NEPA/NHPA reviews could shift the costs of flood damage or required mitigation to local governments and taxpayers if poorly sited facilities cause harm.
Communities, including tribal and historical stakeholders, may lose NHPA review and consultation, risking harm to historic sites and cultural resources.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Exempts communications facility projects entirely inside specified floodplains and under FCC jurisdiction from NEPA "major Federal action" review and NHPA "undertaking" review.
Removes NEPA and NHPA procedural review for communications facility projects that are located entirely within a federally defined floodplain and fall under FCC jurisdiction. Covered projects that otherwise would require federal permits or approvals would not be treated as "major Federal actions" under NEPA or as "undertakings" under the National Historic Preservation Act, shortening or eliminating federal environmental and historic-review steps for those projects.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Gus Bilirakis · Last progress April 10, 2025