I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3279 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to streamline siting processes 
for personal wireless service facilities, including small personal wireless 
service facilities, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 15, 2023 
Mr. LATTA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to streamline 
siting processes for personal wireless service facilities, 
including small personal wireless service facilities, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Winning the Inter-
national Race for Economic Leadership and Expanding 
Service to Support Leadership Act’’ or the ‘‘WIRELESS 
Leadership Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. PRESERVATION OF LOCAL ZONING AUTHORITY. 
Section 332(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 332(c)) is amended by striking paragraph (7) 
and inserting the following: 
‘‘(7) PRESERVATION
OF
LOCAL
ZONING
AU-
THORITY.— 
‘‘(A) GENERAL
AUTHORITY.—Except as 
provided in this paragraph, nothing in this Act 
shall limit or affect the authority of a State or 
local government or instrumentality thereof over 
decisions regarding the placement, construction, 
or modification of personal wireless service fa-
cilities. 
‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The regulation of 
the placement, construction, or modifica-
tion of a personal wireless service facility 
by any State or local government or instru-
mentality thereof— 
‘‘(I) shall not discriminate among 
personal wireless service facilities or 
providers of communications service, 
including by providing exclusive or 
preferential use of facilities to a par-
ticular provider or class of providers 
of personal wireless service; and 
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‘‘(II) shall not prohibit or have 
the effect of prohibiting the provision, 
improvement, or enhancement of per-
sonal wireless service. 
‘‘(ii) ENGINEERING STANDARDS; AES-
THETIC REQUIREMENTS.—It is not a viola-
tion of clause (i) for a State or local gov-
ernment or instrumentality thereof to es-
tablish for personal wireless service facili-
ties, or structures that support such facili-
ties, objective, reasonable, and nondiscrim-
inatory— 
‘‘(I) structural engineering stand-
ards based on generally applicable 
codes; 
‘‘(II) safety requirements; or 
‘‘(III) aesthetic or concealment 
requirements (unless such require-
ments prohibit or have the effect of 
prohibiting the installation or modi-
fication of such facilities or struc-
tures). 
‘‘(iii) TIMEFRAMES.— 
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Except in the 
case of an eligible facilities request to 
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which section 6409(a) of the Middle 
Class Tax Relief and Job Creation 
Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 1455(a)) ap-
plies, a State or local government or 
instrumentality thereof shall grant or 
deny a complete request for authoriza-
tion to place, construct, or modify a 
personal wireless service facility not 
later than— 
‘‘(aa) in the case of a re-
quest for authorization to place, 
construct, or modify a personal 
wireless service facility that is 
not a small personal wireless 
service facility— 
‘‘(AA) if the request is 
for authorization to place, 
construct, or modify such fa-
cility 
using 
an 
existing 
structure, including with re-
spect to an area that has 
not previously been zoned 
for personal wireless service 
facilities (other than small 
personal wireless service fa-
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cilities), 90 days after the 
date on which the complete 
request is received by the 
government or instrumen-
tality; or 
‘‘(BB) if the request is 
for any other action relating 
to such facility, 150 days 
after the date on which the 
complete request is received 
by the government or instru-
mentality; and 
‘‘(bb) in the case of a re-
quest for authorization to place, 
construct, or modify a small per-
sonal wireless service facility— 
‘‘(AA) if the request is 
for authorization to place, 
construct, or modify such fa-
cility 
using 
an 
existing 
structure, 60 days after the 
date on which the complete 
request is received by the 
government or instrumen-
tality; or 
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‘‘(BB) if the request is 
for any other action relating 
to such facility, 90 days 
after the date on which the 
complete request is received 
by the government or instru-
mentality. 
‘‘(II) TREATMENT OF BATCHED 
REQUESTS.—In the case of complete 
requests described in subclause (I) 
that are submitted as part of a single 
batch and received by the government 
or instrumentality on the same day, 
the applicable timeframe under such 
subclause for each request in the 
batch shall be the longest timeframe 
under such subclause that would be 
applicable to any request in the batch 
if such requests were submitted sepa-
rately. 
‘‘(III) APPLICABILITY.—The ap-
plicable timeframe under subclause (I) 
shall apply collectively to all pro-
ceedings required by a State or local 
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government or instrumentality thereof 
for the approval of the request. 
‘‘(IV) NO
TOLLING.—A time-
frame under subclause (I) may not be 
tolled by any moratorium, whether ex-
press or de facto, imposed by a State 
or local government or instrumentality 
thereof on the submission, acceptance, 
or consideration of any request for au-
thorization to place, construct, or 
modify a personal wireless service fa-
cility. 
‘‘(iv) DEEMED GRANTED.— 
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—If a State or 
local government or instrumentality 
thereof fails to take final action to 
grant or deny a complete request 
within the applicable timeframe under 
subclause (I) of clause (iii), the re-
quest shall be deemed granted on the 
date on which the government or in-
strumentality receives a written notice 
of the failure from the requesting 
party. 
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‘‘(II) 
RULE
OF
CONSTRUC-
TION.—In the case of a request that 
is deemed granted under subclause 
(I), the placement, construction, or 
modification requested in the request 
shall be considered to be authorized, 
without any further action by the gov-
ernment or instrumentality, beginning 
on the date on which the request is 
deemed granted under such subclause. 
‘‘(v) 
WRITTEN
DECISION
AND 
RECORD.—Any decision by a State or local 
government or instrumentality thereof to 
deny a request for authorization to place, 
construct, or modify a personal wireless 
service facility shall be— 
‘‘(I) in writing; 
‘‘(II) supported by substantial 
evidence 
contained 
in 
a 
written 
record; and 
‘‘(III) publicly released, and pro-
vided to the requesting party, on the 
same day such decision is made. 
‘‘(vi) ENVIRONMENTAL
EFFECTS
OF 
RADIO FREQUENCY EMISSIONS.—No State 
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or local government or instrumentality 
thereof may regulate the operation, place-
ment, construction, or modification of per-
sonal wireless service facilities on the basis 
of the environmental effects of radio fre-
quency emissions to the extent that such 
facilities or structures comply with the 
Commission’s regulations concerning such 
emissions. 
‘‘(vii) FEES.—To the extent permitted 
by law, a State or local government or in-
strumentality thereof may charge a fee to 
consider a request for authorization to 
place, construct, or modify a personal wire-
less service facility or a fee for use of a 
right-of-way or a facility in a right-of-way 
owned or managed by the government or 
instrumentality for the placement, con-
struction, or modification of a personal 
wireless service facility, if the fee is— 
‘‘(I) competitively neutral, tech-
nology 
neutral, 
and 
nondiscrim-
inatory; 
‘‘(II) established in advance and 
publicly disclosed; 
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‘‘(III) calculated— 
‘‘(aa) based on actual and 
direct costs for— 
‘‘(AA) review and proc-
essing of requests; and 
‘‘(BB) repairs and re-
placement 
of 
components 
and materials resulting from 
and affected by the place-
ment, construction, or modi-
fication (including the in-
stallation or improvement) 
of personal wireless service 
facilities or repairs and re-
placement of equipment that 
facilitates 
the 
placement, 
construction, or modification 
(including the installation or 
improvement) of such facili-
ties; and 
‘‘(bb) using, for purposes of 
item (aa), only costs that are ob-
jectively reasonable; and 
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‘‘(IV) described to a requesting 
party in a manner that distinguishes 
between— 
‘‘(aa) nonrecurring fees and 
recurring fees; and 
‘‘(bb) the use of facilities on 
which personal wireless service 
facilities are already located and 
facilities on which there are no 
personal wireless service facilities 
as of the date on which the com-
plete request is received by the 
government or instrumentality. 
‘‘(C) JUDICIAL
OR
ADMINISTRATIVE
RE-
VIEW.— 
‘‘(i) JUDICIAL REVIEW.—Any person 
adversely affected by any final action or 
failure to act by a State or local govern-
ment or any instrumentality thereof that is 
inconsistent with this paragraph may, 
within 30 days after the action or failure 
to act, commence an action in any court of 
competent jurisdiction, which shall hear 
and decide the action on an expedited 
basis. 
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‘‘(ii) ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW.— 
‘‘(I) IN
GENERAL.—Any person 
adversely affected by any final action 
or failure to act by a State or local 
government or any instrumentality 
thereof that is inconsistent with this 
paragraph may petition the Commis-
sion to review such action or failure to 
act. 
‘‘(II) TIMING.—Not later than 
120 days after receiving a petition 
under subclause (I), the Commission 
shall grant or deny such petition. 
‘‘(D) WHEN REQUEST CONSIDERED COM-
PLETE; RECEIVED.— 
‘‘(i) WHEN
REQUEST
CONSIDERED 
COMPLETE.— 
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—For the pur-
poses of this paragraph, a request to 
a State or local government or instru-
mentality thereof shall be considered 
complete if the requesting party— 
‘‘(aa) has taken the first 
procedural step within the control 
of the requesting party— 
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