# 119-hr-278: BROADBAND Leadership Act

119-hr-278, BROADBAND Leadership Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Griffith, H. Morgan [R-VA-9] (R-VA); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-07-25).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-278
- As of: 2026-07-25
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-278
- Congress: 119
- Title: BROADBAND Leadership Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-01-09
- Sponsor: Rep. Griffith, H. Morgan [R-VA-9] (R-VA)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-07-25

## Summary

**Removes local barriers to broadband deployment** and would impose clear, faster rules for how states and cities approve the placement, construction, or modification of telecommunications facilities. It would ban technology-based discrimination and set strict timelines and fee rules to make approvals more predictable. - Providers: Telecom companies would get firm approval clocks. Requests tied to existing support infrastructure must be decided in 90 days and other requests in 150 days, and a missed deadline is treated as approval. - State and local governments: States and localities could not adopt rules that discriminate by technology or effectively block service improvements. They may still manage rights-of-way and protect public safety and service quality but must issue written, evidence-backed denials and publish them promptly. - Rural areas and oversight: States could require designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier for providers in rural service areas with some exemptions. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can preempt inconsistent rules and must act on preemption petitions within 120 days, and affected parties have expedited judicial review with challenges due within 30 days.

## Provisions PRIA read

- Ban on local rules that block service: benefit, high. If enacted, states and localities would not be allowed to have laws that prohibit or effectively prohibit anyone from providing or improving phone or internet service. Governments could not treat telecom facilities differently because of the technology used or the services provided, and must treat…
- Faster permits, fixes, and court review: benefit, high. If enacted, governments would have to approve or deny telecom siting requests quickly: 90 days for requests using existing support infrastructure and 150 days for others. Timelines could only pause in narrow ways (a 30-day initial written incompleteness notice, then a 10-day window after supplement…
- Limits on local rights-of-way fees: benefit, high. If enacted, state and local governments could still charge fees to review requests or to use public rights-of-way. But fees would have to be set in advance, be public, and be competitively and technology neutral. Fees could only cover objectively reasonable, actual direct costs like review, process…
- Mobile and cable rules left unchanged: benefit, low. If enacted, the bill would not change existing rules that apply to mobile phone companies or cable operators. It would leave the current special protections and statutory rules for commercial mobile service and cable operators in place.
- State power to protect universal service: mixed, medium. If enacted, States would keep the ability to impose fair, neutral rules to preserve universal service, protect public safety, keep service quality, and safeguard consumers. Those state rules must be competitively neutral and follow federal standards. The bill would also allow a State to require a c…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-8413: SECURE Data Act
- 119-hr-9298: Stopping Harmful and Outrageous Torts Act
- 119-hr-7212: Hemp Enforcement, Modernization, and Protection Act
- 119-hr-3235: MOMS Act
- 119-hr-10204: Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act
- 119-hr-3887: SNAP Anti-Theft and Victim Compensation Act of 2025

## Sources
- [119-hr-278 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/278)

## Related
- [119-hr-8413: SECURE Data Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-8413)
- [119-hr-9298: Stopping Harmful and Outrageous Torts Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9298)
- [119-hr-7212: Hemp Enforcement, Modernization, and Protection Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7212)
- [119-hr-3235: MOMS Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3235)
- [119-hr-10204: Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-10204)
- [119-hr-3887: SNAP Anti-Theft and Victim Compensation Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3887)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-278 (as of 2026-07-25).