To amend the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 to authorize additional funds for the Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund, to provide grants to States and Tribal Entities to strengthen the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier, to provide for Federal coordination between the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier and the National Accuracy Clearinghouse, and for other purposes.

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1721 To amend the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 to authorize additional funds for the Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund, to provide grants to States and Tribal Entities to strengthen the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier, to provide for Federal coordination between the Na- tional Lifeline Eligibility Verifier and the National Accuracy Clearing- house, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 9, 2021 Mr. VEASEY (for himself and Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Com- merce, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider- ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 to authorize additional funds for the Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund, to provide grants to States and Trib- al Entities to strengthen the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier, to provide for Federal coordination between the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier and the National Accuracy Clearinghouse, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 May 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1721.IH H1721 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1721 IH SECTION 1. AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR 1 THE EMERGENCY BROADBAND 2 CONNECTIVITY FUND. 3 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Emer- 4 gency Broadband Connectivity Fund established under 5 subsection (i) of section 904 of title IX of division N of 6 the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 7 116–260) $6,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2022 for the pur- 8 poses described in paragraph (3) of such subsection, and 9 such amount is authorized to remain available until fiscal 10 year 2026. 11 SEC. 2. GRANTS TO STATES TO STRENGTHEN NATIONAL 12 LIFELINE ELIGIBILITY VERIFIER. 13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 45 days after the 14 date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 15 establish a program to provide a grant, from amounts ap- 16 propriated under subsection (d), to each eligible entity for 17 the purpose described under subsection (b). 18 (b) PURPOSE.—The Commission shall make a grant 19 to each eligible entity for the purpose of establishing or 20 amending a connection between the databases of such en- 21 tity that contain information concerning the receipt by a 22 household, or a member of a household, of benefits under 23 a program administered by such entity (including any ben- 24 efit provided under the supplemental nutrition assistance 25 program under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 May 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1721.IH H1721 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1721 IH U.S.C. 2011 et seq.)) and the National Lifeline Eligibility 1 Verifier so that the receipt by a household, or a member 2 of a household, of benefits under such benefits program— 3 (1) is reflected in the National Lifeline Eligi- 4 bility Verifier; and 5 (2) can be used to verify eligibility for— 6 (A) the Lifeline program established under 7 subpart E, part 54, of title 47, Code of Federal 8 Regulations (or any successor regulation); and 9 (B) the Emergency Broadband Benefit 10 Program established under section 904(b) of 11 title IX of division N of the Consolidated Ap- 12 propriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116–260). 13 (c) DISBURSEMENT OF GRANT FUNDS.—Not later 14 than 60 days after the program established under sub- 15 section (a) is established, funds provided under each grant 16 made under such subsection shall be disbursed to the enti- 17 ty receiving such grant. 18 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATION.—There are 19 authorized to be appropriated $200,000,000 for fiscal year 20 2022 for the purposes of carrying out this section, and 21 such amount is authorized to remain available until fiscal 22 year 2026. 23 (e) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—In this section, the term 24 ‘‘eligible entity’’ means an entity that— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 May 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1721.IH H1721 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1721 IH (1) is a State or Tribal entity; and 1 (2) not later than 30 days after the date of the 2 enactment of this Act, submits to the Commission 3 an application containing such information as the 4 Commission may require. 5 SEC. 3. FEDERAL COORDINATION BETWEEN NATIONAL ELI- 6 GIBILITY VERIFIER AND NATIONAL ACCU- 7 RACY CLEARINGHOUSE. 8 Notwithstanding section 11(x)(2)(C)(i) of the Food 9 and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2020(x)(2)(C)(i)), 10 not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment 11 of this Act, the Commission shall, in coordination with the 12 Secretary of Agriculture, establish an automated connec- 13 tion, to the maximum extent practicable, between the Na- 14 tional Lifeline Eligibility Verifier and the National Accu- 15 racy Clearinghouse established under section 11(x) of the 16 Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2020(x)) for 17 the supplemental nutrition assistance program. 18 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 19 In this Act: 20 (1) AUTOMATED CONNECTION.—The term 21 ‘‘automated connection’’ means a connection be- 22 tween two or more information systems where the 23 manual input of information in one system leads to 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 May 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1721.IH H1721 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1721 IH the automatic input of the same information into 1 any other connected system. 2 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 3 means the Federal Communications Commission. 4 (3) NATIONAL LIFELINE ELIGIBILITY 5 VERIFIER.—The term ‘‘National Lifeline Eligibility 6 Verifier’’ has the meaning given such term in section 7 54.400 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations (or 8 any successor regulation). 9 (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean- 10 ing given such term in section 3 of the Communica- 11 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153). 12 (5) TRIBAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘Tribal entity’’ 13 means any of the following: 14 (A) The governing body of any Indian or 15 Alaska Native Tribe, band, nation, pueblo, vil- 16 lage, community, component band, or compo- 17 nent reservation, individually recognized (in- 18 cluding parenthetically) in the list published 19 most recently as of the date of enactment of 20 this Act pursuant to section 104 of the Feder- 21 ally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 22 (25 U.S.C. 5131). 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 May 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1721.IH H1721 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1721 IH (B) The Department of Hawaiian Home 1 Lands. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 May 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1721.IH H1721 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS