CABLE Leadership Act

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7364 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7364

 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to preserve cable franchising 
                   authority, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 25, 2020

   Mr. Long introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to preserve cable franchising 
                   authority, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Cable Access for Broadband and Local 
Economic Leadership Act'' or the ``CABLE Leadership Act''.

SEC. 2. PRESERVATION OF CABLE FRANCHISING AUTHORITY.

    Section 621 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 541) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) Timing of Decisions on Requests for Franchises and Other 
Authorizations.--
            ``(1) Request for new franchise.--Not later than 120 days 
        after the date on which a franchising authority receives a 
        complete request for the grant of a franchise (other than a 
        renewal thereof), the franchising authority shall approve or 
        deny such request.
            ``(2) Nonemergency requests.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Not later than 90 days after a 
                franchising authority receives a complete nonemergency 
                request, as determined by the Commission, from a cable 
                operator for authorization to modify or upgrade a cable 
                system or facilities for the cable system, the 
                franchising authority shall grant or deny such request.
                    ``(B) Denial of nonemergency request.--Any decision 
                by a franchising authority to deny a nonemergency 
                request described under subparagraph (A) shall be--
                            ``(i) in writing;
                            ``(ii) supported by substantial evidence 
                        contained in a written record; and
                            ``(iii) publicly released, 
                        contemporaneously with the decision.
            ``(3) Deemed grants.--
                    ``(A) Deemed grant of new franchise.--If the 
                franchising authority does not grant or deny a request 
                under paragraph (1) by the day after the date on which 
                the time period ends under such paragraph, such request 
                shall be deemed granted on such day.
                    ``(B) Deemed grant of nonemergency request.--If 
                franchising authority does not grant or deny such 
                request by the day after the date on which the time 
                period ends under such paragraph or denies such 
                request, but fails to comply with paragraph (2)(B) with 
                respect to the denial, such request shall be deemed 
                granted on such day.
            ``(4) When request considered complete; received.--For the 
        purposes of this subsection, a request under this subsection 
        shall be considered--
                    ``(A) complete if--
                            ``(i) the cable operator makes the request 
                        by submitting to the franchising authority the 
                        form required to be used for making the 
                        request;
                            ``(ii) the form submitted contains all of 
                        the information specified by the form as being 
                        required to be included in form; and
                            ``(iii) the cable operator has not received 
                        a written notice from the franchising authority 
                        within 10 business days after the date on which 
                        the request is received by the franchising 
                        authority--
                                    ``(I) stating that the form does 
                                not contain all of the information 
                                required to be included in the form; 
                                and
                                    ``(II) identifying the information 
                                required to be included in the form 
                                that was not included; and
                    ``(B) received by the franchising authority--
                            ``(i) in the case of a request submitted 
                        electronically, on the date on which the form 
                        required to be used for making the request is 
                        transmitted;
                            ``(ii) in the case of a request submitted 
                        in person, on the date on which the form 
                        required to be used for making the request is 
                        delivered to the individual or at the location 
                        specified in the form for in-person submission; 
                        and
                            ``(iii) in the case of a request submitted 
                        in any other manner, on the date determined by 
                        the franchising authority for the manner in 
                        which the request is made.''.
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