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 Federal  Communications  Commission  FCC  05-  176 
 JOINT  CONCURRING  STATEMENT  OF  CHAIRMAN  KEVIN  J.  MARTIN 
 AND  COMMISSIONER  KATHLEEN  Q.  ABERNATHY 


 Re:  Clarification  of  Procedures  for  Participation  of  Federally  Recognized  Indian  Tribes  and  Native  Hawaiian  Organizations  under  the  Nationwide  Programmatic  Agreement, 
 Declaratory  Ruling 


 We  support  the  Commission’s  goals  in  this  Declaratory  Ruling,  which  interprets  and  clarifies  the  application  of  the  Nationwide  Programmatic  Agreement  for  Review  of  Effects  on 
 Historic  Properties  for  Certain  Undertakings  Approved  by  the  Federal  Communications  Commission  (Nationwide  Agreement)  1  when  a  federally  recognized  Indian  tribe  or  Native 
 Hawaiian  organization  (NHO)  does  not  timely  respond  to  the  good  faith  efforts  of  an  “applicant”  or  the  Commission  to  contact  the  Indian  tribe  or  NHO  regarding  a  proposed  communications 
 tower  or  antenna.  While  we  support  the  goals  of  this  item,  we  nevertheless  concur  in  the  result. 
 Since  the  Nationwide  Agreement  became  effective,  a  significant  backlog  of  tower  referrals  has  developed  at  the  Commission.  We  supported  several  proposals  intended  to  resolve 
 this  backlog.  We  continue  to  believe  that  siting  of  towers  or  antennas  is  not  a  federal  or  federally  assisted  undertaking,  2  and  we  would  have  preferred  that  the  Commission  reconsider  its  decision 
 on  that  issue.  We  also  would  have  preferred  an  even  more  streamlined  review  process  that  would  have  allowed  construction  to  proceed  even  faster.  Finally,  we  supported  the  “three-  strikes” 
 process  submitted  by  CTIA,  which  was  endorsed  by  industry  and  the  United  South  and  Eastern  Tribes,  3  and  to  which  we  received  no  opposition.  While  we  concur  in  today’s  ruling,  we  worry 
 that  this  process  may  still  add  needless  layers  of  bureaucracy  to  the  tower  siting  process  and  lead  to  unnecessary  delay. 


 1  47  C.  F.  R.  Part  1,  Appendix  B. 
 2  See  Nationwide  Programmatic  Agreement  Regarding  the  Section  106  National  Historic  Preservation 
 Act  Review  Process,  WT  Docket  No.  03-  128,  Report  and  Order,  20  FCC  Rcd  1073,  1230-  32  (2004)  (Abernathy,  K.,  dissenting  in  part,  Martin,  K.,  approving  in  part  and  dissenting  in  part). 


 3  See  Letter  from  James  T.  Martin,  Executive  Director,  United  South  and  Eastern  Tribes,  Inc.,  to  Monica 
 Desai,  Acting  Bureau  Chief,  Consumer  and  Governmental  Affairs  Bureau,  and  Catherine  Seidel,  Acting  Bureau  Chief,  Wireless  Telecommunications  Bureau,  Federal  Communications  Commission  (Aug.  15, 


 2005). 
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