[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 102 (Wednesday, July 24, 2002)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E1331] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] REASONABLE RIGHT-OF-WAY FEES ACT OF 2002 ______ speech of HON. CHRIS CANNON of utah in the house of representatives Monday, July 22, 2002 Mr. CANNON. Mr. Speaker, Last evening, the House approved H.R. 3258, a bill sponsored by my friend and colleague from Wyoming, Mrs. Cubin. I believe that the Reasonable Rights-of-Way Fees Act of 2002 is a significant and worthy piece of legislation, and I hope that the other body will act on it favorably before the end of the current Congress. H.R. 3258 will ensure that the fees paid by telecommunications providers for the use of rights-of-way on Federal lands are reasonable. This is especially important in parts of the rural West like my district in Utah where it is difficult to deploy the long-haul facilities needed to connect small towns to the Internet and the public switched telephone network without at some point crossing Federal lands. However, as good a bill as H.R. 3258 is, it is only a first step. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must strive across the board to attain a reasonable balance between government's need to manage public rights-of-way and industry and consumers equally important need to have non-discriminatory, inexpensive, and timely access to these rights-of- way for the deployment of critical telecommunications infrastructure. Specifically, the FCC, in conjunction with Federal land management agencies, must take steps to ensure that: (1) All telecommunications providers have non-discriminatory access to public rights-of-way for the purpose of providing intrastate, interstate or international telecommunications or telecommunications services or deploying facilities to be used directly or indirectly in the provision of such services; (2) Government entities should act on a request for public rights-of- way access within a reasonable and fixed period of time from the date that the request for such access is submitted, or such request should be deemed approved; (3) The fees charged for public rights-of-way access should reflect only the actual and direct costs incurred in managing the public rights-of-way and the amount of public rights-of-way actually used by the telecommunications provider; (4) All telecommunications providers should be treated uniformly and in a competitively neutral manner with respect to terms and conditions of access to public rights-of-way; (5) Entities that do not have physical facilities in, require access to, or actually use the public rights-of-way, such as resellers and lessees of network elements from facilities-based telecommunications providers, should not be subject to public rights-of-way management practices or fees; and (6) Waivers of the right to challenge the lawfulness of particular governmental requirements as a condition of receiving any public rights-of-way access should be invalid. I believe that, consistent with the Telecommunications Act, the Federal Communications Commission should vigorously enforce existing law and use expedited procedures for resolving preemption petitions involving access to public rights-of-way. Expeditious removal of barriers to right-of-way access will help ensure that all telecommunications providers--incumbent local exchange carriers, competitive local exchange carriers, wireless carriers, and cable providers--can better deploy telecommunications services to the greatest number of Americans at reasonable costs. I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________