Oppose H.R. 2298: Protect Federal Lands from Unregulated Development

I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 2298, the misleadingly named "Reducing Barriers for Broadband on Federal Lands Act." This bill, introduced by Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID), is not the rural broadband solution it claims to be. Instead, it's a thinly veiled attempt to bypass crucial environmental protections and open our cherished public lands to unchecked industrialization. H.R. 2298 would exempt so-called "broadband projects" on federal land from review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act. This exemption is dangerously broad, applying to a wide range of structures including communications towers, equipment buildings, and other above-ground facilities. The bill's sweeping language could permit significant development across our national forests, wildlife refuges, recreation areas, Bureau of Land Management lands, and even our treasured national parks. While improving rural broadband access is indeed an urgent and worthy goal, this bill is not a good-faith effort to address that need. Instead, it's a wolf in sheep's clothing – a broadband bill in name only that would create a sweeping and permanent exemption from bedrock environmental and historic preservation laws. The lack of exclusions or protections for important natural and cultural sites is particularly alarming. If the authors were truly concerned about rural broadband access, they could have crafted a responsible bill with common-sense safeguards. For example, they could have limited its scope to underground wireline installation in already-disturbed roadside corridors, with appropriate protections for national parks, tribal cultural sites, historic landscapes, and wilderness-adjacent areas. I urge you to stand firm in opposition to H.R. 2298. Our public lands and environmental protections should not be sacrificed under the guise of broadband expansion. Please work towards solutions that genuinely address rural connectivity needs without compromising the integrity of our federal lands and the laws that protect them.