BEAD FEE Act of 2025
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Broadband Expansion And Deployment Fee Equity and Efficiency Act of 2025 or the BEAD FEE Act of 2025
This bill limits the nature of fees that states and territories receiving Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funding may impose on applicants seeking authorization to construct or deploy broadband infrastructure.
(The BEAD Program is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and provides funding to eligible entities for broadband deployment, connectivity, mapping, and adoption projects. Eligible entities include U.S. states, territories, and the District of Columbia.)
Under the bill, BEAD funds may not be provided to an eligible entity if the entity or a political subdivision of the entity charges fees (1) to consider a request to place, construct, or modify broadband infrastructure; or (2) for the use of a right-of-way owned or managed by the entity or a political subdivision, or for the use of infrastructure within such a right-of-way, to place, construct, or modify broadband infrastructure. However, this restriction does not apply to fees that are competitively neutral, technology neutral, nondiscriminatory, publicly disclosed, and based on actual, direct, and objectively reasonable costs. Any such fee must be described to applicants in a manner that distinguishes between (1) recurring and nonrecurring fees, and (2) the use of infrastructure on which there is no existing broadband infrastructure and the use of infrastructure on which there is existing broadband infrastructure as of the date of the application.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on March 10, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 10, 2025: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Rick Allen (R-GA) introduced it on March 10, 2025. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on March 10, 2025, 549 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 549 days ago, on March 10, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers