The federal government is investing billions of dollars in expanding broadband access. Some new infrastructure—such as cell towers—will be sited on federal land. Federal agencies are required to process applications for such permits within 270 days. Congress asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review federal broadband permit processing.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service process most of these applications. Between 2018-2022, both agencies missed the deadline for some applications and for others couldn’t determine if they processed the applications on time, according to the GAO. The GAO recommended, among other things, the agencies improve their processes to better track and meet the 270-day deadline.
The GAO found that the BLM and the Forest Service did not have sufficiently reliable — meaning, accurate and complete data — to determine the processing time for 42 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of their communications use applications. These agencies lacked the necessary controls to ensure staff entered key information, such as start and end dates, in their electronic systems. Without accurate, complete data to determine processing times, the agencies cannot track the extent to which they are complying with the statutory requirement that they grant or deny applications within 270 days.
For those communications using applications with sufficient data, BLM and Forest Service reduced their average processing time by 57 percent from fiscal years 2018 through 2022. However, despite this overall improvement, about half of the applications either exceeded the 270-day deadline or did not have sufficiently accurate and complete information to determine if they met the deadline.
Officials from BLM and Forest Service said that applicant non-responsiveness and staffing issues contributed to the delays in processing communications use applications. The Forest Service has taken some steps to improve processing, including hiring additional staff, but neither agency has fully analyzed or addressed reasons why many applications’ processing time exceeded the deadline. Moreover, neither agency has a method to alert staff to applications that are at risk of exceeding the 270-day deadline.
The GAO finds that “until BLM and Forest Service address issues that contribute to delays and establish methods to flag at-risk applications, the agencies may continue to miss the deadline at similar rates, which could cause delays and increased costs in deploying needed broadband infrastructure.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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