Every Child Connected Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1381 To require the Federal Communications Commission to make amendments to the E-rate program of the Commission, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 27, 2021 Mrs. CAPITO (for herself and Ms. KLOBUCHAR) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To require the Federal Communications Commission to make amendments to the E-rate program of the Commission, 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 ‘‘Every Child Connected 4 Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. E-RATE PROGRAM. 6 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 7 (1) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal 8 Communications Commission; 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:58 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1381.IS S1381 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1381 IS (2) the term ‘‘covered household’’ means a 1 household with a child eligible to receive free or re- 2 duced price lunch under the Richard B. Russell Na- 3 tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or 4 free or reduced price school breakfasts under the 5 Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et 6 seq.); 7 (3) the term ‘‘distance learning’’ has the mean- 8 ing given the term in section 8101 of the Elemen- 9 tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 10 U.S.C. 7801); and 11 (4) the term ‘‘E-rate program’’ means the uni- 12 versal service program set forth under subpart F of 13 part 54 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations (or 14 any successor regulations). 15 (b) UPDATES TO E-RATE PROGRAM.— 16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 17 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commis- 18 sion shall amend the E-rate program to provide 19 that— 20 (A) activities that are integral, immediate, 21 and proximate to the education of a student, 22 even if those activities are performed in a cov- 23 ered household, qualify as activities that are for 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:58 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1381.IS S1381 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1381 IS educational purposes for the purposes of the E- 1 rate program; 2 (B) a covered household in which a student 3 is engaged or participating in distance learning 4 shall be deemed to be a classroom for the pur- 5 poses of the E-rate program; and 6 (C) the eligibility of a school under the E- 7 rate program, or any support received by a 8 school through the E-rate program, shall not be 9 diminished if the school extends services ob- 10 tained through the E-rate program to a covered 11 household. 12 (2) COORDINATION.—In making the amend- 13 ments required under paragraph (1), the Commis- 14 sion shall coordinate with the Secretary of Edu- 15 cation and appropriate instrumentalities of State 16 and local governments. 17 (3) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND- 18 MENTS.—Section 254 of the Communications Act of 19 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254) is amended— 20 (A) in subsection (b)(6), by inserting ‘‘cov- 21 ered households (as defined in section 2(a) of 22 the Every Child Connected Act and solely for 23 the purposes described in section 2(b)(1) of 24 that Act),’’ after ‘‘schools and classrooms,’’; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:58 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1381.IS S1381 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1381 IS (B) in subsection (c)(3), by inserting ‘‘cov- 1 ered households (as defined in section 2(a) of 2 the Every Child Connected Act and solely for 3 the purposes described in section 2(b)(1) of 4 that Act),’’ after ‘‘schools,’’; and 5 (C) in subsection (h)— 6 (i) in paragraph (1)(B), in the first 7 sentence of the matter preceding clause (i), 8 by inserting ‘‘covered households (as de- 9 fined in section 2(a) of the Every Child 10 Connected Act and solely for the purposes 11 described in section 2(b)(1) of that Act),’’ 12 after ‘‘secondary schools,’’; and 13 (ii) in paragraph (2)— 14 (I) in subparagraph (A), by in- 15 serting ‘‘covered households (as de- 16 fined in section 2(a) of the Every 17 Child Connected Act and solely for 18 the purposes described in section 19 2(b)(1) of that Act),’’ after ‘‘class- 20 rooms,’’; and 21 (II) in subparagraph (B), by in- 22 serting ‘‘or household’’ after ‘‘public 23 institutional’’. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:58 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1381.IS S1381 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS