Keep It Moving Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Keep It Moving Act creates a mandatory timetable for FCC applications to transfer control or assign a license or other FCC authorization, and for applications to transfer control of a spectrum lessee. The FCC has 15 days to decide whether an application is complete and five days after an amendment to reassess it. Missing either deadline causes the application to be deemed complete. Public notice is due within seven days after actual or deemed completeness.
The FCC generally must issue a final order approving a covered application within 180 days after public notice. The deadline becomes one year if the agency makes a formal additional-information request or refers the matter to Team Telecom. A Team Telecom secondary assessment can add no more than 90 days. Formal information requests must issue by the earlier of 30 days after comments close or 120 days after public notice.
If a substantial and material factual question prevents approval, the FCC must designate the application for a hearing and finish the hearing with an approval or denial within 15 months after public notice. A denial or hearing designation requires a majority vote of sitting commissioners; approval may be delegated.
When the FCC misses an approval or hearing deadline, the applicant is entitled to a writ within 72 hours compelling immediate approval or requiring the FCC to file a District of Columbia federal-court complaint seeking permission to deny. The court may permit denial only if the FCC proves by clear and convincing evidence that approval is not in the public interest. After the writ, the FCC cannot deny without that court order.
A major amendment or waiver request can add at most 30 days. An FCC information request and the applicant's response do not toll or restart the clock. Pro forma transactions require no advance FCC approval and instead require written notice within 30 days after completion. The deadlines apply to pending covered applications as though filed on enactment, which can compress review of old matters.
The bill also makes a finding that an application is not complete, a hearing designation, and specified conditional grants directly reviewable under the Communications Act. The structure accelerates transactions but can force approval before public-interest, competition, or national-security review is complete.
Who Benefits and How
Telecommunications, broadcast, and spectrum applicants receive fixed review dates, deemed completeness, tightly limited tolling, expedited court relief, and a demanding standard for late denial. Investors gain greater timing certainty. Parties to pro forma transactions avoid advance approval.
Who Bears the Burden and How
FCC staff must complete reviews under rigid clocks and can lose practical authority to deny after a missed deadline. Team Telecom, courts, and commissioners face compressed review and litigation duties. Consumers, competitors, public-interest advocates, and national-security reviewers bear greater risk that a transaction is approved before concerns are fully resolved.
Key Provisions
- Requires completeness decisions within 15 days.
- Requires amended-application decisions within five days.
- Establishes deemed completeness after missed deadlines.
- Requires public notice within seven days.
- Requires approval within 180 days in ordinary cases.
- Extends review to one year for formal requests or Team Telecom referrals.
- Limits a secondary assessment extension to 90 days.
- Requires hearing resolution within 15 months.
- Creates a writ within 72 hours after a missed deadline.
- Requires clear and convincing evidence for court-authorized late denial.
- Limits amendment or waiver extensions to 30 days.
- Prohibits information requests from tolling the clock.
- Requires majority votes for denials and hearing designations.
- Exempts pro forma transactions from advance approval.
- Expands direct review of specified FCC orders.
- Applies the new clocks to pending applications.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Forces the FCC to resolve applications involving license transfers, assignments, and spectrum-lease control on fixed schedules, makes applications complete when agency deadlines lapse, requires approval absent a timely hearing or court-authorized denial, broadens review of completeness and related orders, and removes advance approval for pro forma transactions.
Key Policy Areas
FCC Licensing, Communications Transactions, Spectrum Leases, Administrative Procedure, Judicial Review
Primary Purpose
Forces the FCC to resolve applications involving license transfers, assignments, and spectrum-lease control on fixed schedules, makes applications complete when agency deadlines lapse, requires approval absent a timely hearing or court-authorized denial, broadens review of completeness and related orders, and removes advance approval for pro forma transactions.
Policy Domains
Sections 2 through 4 completeness, public notice, decision deadlines, hearings, missed-deadline writs, tolling limits, delegation, pro forma transactions, pending applications, and appellate review
Identified Gains
- Telecommunications license transfer applicants
- Broadcast license transfer applicants
- Spectrum lease transfer applicants
- Communications transaction investors
- Pro forma transaction parties
Identified Costs
- FCC application review staff
- Federal Communications Commission
- Team Telecom review officials
- District of Columbia federal judges
- Appellate judges reviewing FCC orders
- Public-interest communications advocates
- Communications market competitors
- Communications service consumers
- National security reviewers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
Mr. Pfluger (for himself and Mr. Gottheimer) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Communications market competitors, Communications service consumers, Pro forma transaction parties
Appellate judges reviewing FCC orders, District of Columbia federal judges, FCC appellate litigation staff
Public-interest communications advocates
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "applicant"
- → Person seeking transfer or assignment approval
- "commission"
- → FCC deciding completeness and the merits
- "district_court"
- → Federal court deciding whether a late denial is permitted
- "appellate_court"
- → Court reviewing specified FCC orders
- "security_reviewer"
- → Team Telecom official reviewing foreign participation
- "public_participant"
- → Person commenting on transaction effects
Note: {'scope_ids': ['fcc_transfer_application_deadlines'], 'description': 'The measure does not merely require agency action: most covered applications must be approved by the deadline, pending matters inherit immediate clocks, requested information does not toll review, and a late denial becomes unavailable without expedited court authorization under a heightened burden of proof.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An application containing all information FCC regulations require, including one deemed complete after the agency misses its determination deadline.
The FCC notice date or, if notice is late, the actual or deemed completeness date that starts the merits clock.
An application to transfer control or assign an FCC license or authorization, or to transfer control of a spectrum lessee.
A transfer or assignment considered insubstantial or pro forma under FCC rules and policies.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology