Local Telecom Expansion Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2665 To direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish a program to make grants to States for the deployment of broadband service in underserved areas by small business broadband providers, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 19, 2021 Mr. VAN DREW introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To direct the Federal Communications Commission to estab- lish a program to make grants to States for the deploy- ment of broadband service in underserved areas by small business broadband providers, 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 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Local Telecom Expan- 4 sion Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2665.IH H2665 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2665 IH SEC. 2. SMALL BUSINESS BROADBAND PROVIDER GRANT 1 PROGRAM. 2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Commission shall estab- 3 lish a program to make grants on a competitive basis to 4 States for the deployment of broadband service in under- 5 served areas by small business broadband providers. 6 (b) ELIGIBILITY OF STATES.—The Commission may 7 only award a grant under this section to a State that— 8 (1) meets such eligibility criteria as the Com- 9 mission may establish; and 10 (2) submits an application at such time, in such 11 form, and with such information and assurances as 12 the Commission may require. 13 (c) SUBGRANTS TO SMALL BUSINESS BROADBAND 14 PROVIDERS.—A State that receives a grant under this sec- 15 tion shall use the grant funds to make subgrants to small 16 business broadband providers to enable such providers to 17 deploy broadband service in underserved areas in the 18 State. 19 (d) USE OF SUBGRANT FUNDS.—A small business 20 broadband provider that receives a subgrant from a State 21 under subsection (c) shall use the subgrant funds to de- 22 ploy, in underserved areas in the State, broadband service 23 with— 24 (1) a download speed of at least 25 megabits 25 per second; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2665.IH H2665 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2665 IH (2) an upload speed of at least 10 megabits per 1 second; and 2 (3) latency that is sufficiently low to allow real- 3 time, interactive applications. 4 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 5 (1) BROADBAND SERVICE.—The term 6 ‘‘broadband service’’ means broadband internet ac- 7 cess service (as defined in section 8.1(b) of title 47, 8 Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regu- 9 lation)). 10 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 11 means the Federal Communications Commission. 12 (3) SMALL BUSINESS BROADBAND PROVIDER.— 13 The term ‘‘small business broadband provider’’ 14 means a provider of broadband service that is a 15 small business concern (as defined under section 3 16 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632)). 17 (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 18 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 19 each commonwealth, territory, or possession of the 20 United States, and each federally recognized Indian 21 Tribe. 22 (5) UNDERSERVED AREA.—The term ‘‘under- 23 served area’’ means an area in which only 1 provider 24 of broadband service offers broadband service with— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2665.IH H2665 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2665 IH (A) a download speed of at least 25 mega- 1 bits per second and not more than 99 megabits 2 per second; 3 (B) an upload speed of at least 10 mega- 4 bits per second; and 5 (C) latency that is sufficiently low to allow 6 real-time, interactive applications. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2665.IH H2665 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS