S. 4561 — CLOSE THE GAP Act

This section defines 14 terms for purposes of the Act, including communications facility, communications site, communications use, communications use authorization, cost recovery fee, covered land, electronic SF–299, Federal land, Federal land management agency, organizational unit, previously analyzed Federal land, Secretary concerned, Standard Form 299, and working group.

This section requires the Secretary concerned to promulgate regulations within one year of enactment that standardize the application process for locating or modifying communications facilities on covered land across organizational units. The regulations must require competitively neutral, technology-neutral, and nondiscriminatory consideration of applications; limit cost-recovery fees to actual processing and oversight costs assessed annually; establish public tracking of applications received, approved, and denied, with written denial reasons and cure or appeal opportunities; set minimum lease terms of 30 years; and direct simultaneous reviews while eliminating overlapping requirements.

This section requires the Secretaries concerned, acting jointly, to establish standardized procedures within 1 year for tracking data on broadband project permit applications on Federal land, including the numbers pending, approved, denied, or withdrawn by or after the applicable deadline, average processing times, and average days of delay. It also requires submission of a report to the specified Senate and House committees within 1 year thereafter that analyzes factors causing delays and recommends steps to accelerate permitting.

This section designates communications projects as covered projects under the FAST Act permitting process. It defines a communications project as any construction project at a communications site on federal land managed by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, or Bureau of Indian Affairs. It eliminates the $200 million investment threshold for communications projects while retaining it for all other covered projects.

This section directs each Federal land management agency to establish, within 30 days of enactment, a new categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act for projects that improve public safety on Federal land by upgrading existing communications facilities, such as by adding backup power, improving supporting infrastructure, or providing more reliable connections, or to adopt an existing categorical exclusion from another agency for those projects.

This section exempts applications for communications use authorizations on Federal land from National Environmental Policy Act and historic preservation review requirements if the communications equipment is located in or on existing infrastructure or the facility is on previously analyzed Federal land. It also bars the Secretary concerned from reinitiating consultation under those laws for such applications on previously analyzed land, regardless of new information.

This section requires each Federal land management agency to establish an online portal to accept electronic SF–299 forms not later than one year after enactment. It also directs the agencies to coordinate with each other to create uniform versions of the portals.

This section establishes a special Treasury account for each federal land management agency to retain cost recovery fees from communications use authorizations on federal land. Fees may be collected only as provided in advance in appropriations acts, assessed annually based solely on application processing and oversight costs, and imposed on a competitively neutral and technology-neutral basis. Retained amounts may be spent on administering authorizations, preparing needs assessments and management plans, training, obtaining sites, and hiring personnel to streamline permitting; the Secretary of the Interior may enter cooperative agreements to carry out those activities.

This section establishes the Federal Land Management Agency Working Group, composed of one representative from each federal land management agency appointed by the Secretary concerned. The group must periodically meet to coordinate and expedite review of communications use authorizations and coordinate with the Federal Communications Commission to identify unserved locations that may need federal rights-of-way using broadband location data.