Broadband Internet for Small Ports Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5486 To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to improve access to broadband telecommunications services in rural areas, including by en- couraging the provision of broadband loans and grants to increase broadband service in emerging harbor projects, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 18, 2019 Ms. PLASKETT (for herself, Mr. YOHO, and Miss GONZA´LEZ-COLO´N of Puerto Rico) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Com- merce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic- tion of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to improve access to broadband telecommunications services in rural areas, including by encouraging the provision of broadband loans and grants to increase broadband serv- ice in emerging harbor projects, 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 ‘‘Broadband Internet 4 for Small Ports Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5486 IH SEC. 2. ACCESS TO BROADBAND TELECOMMUNICATIONS 1 SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS. 2 Section 601 of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 3 (7 U.S.C. 950bb) is amended— 4 (1) in subsection (c)— 5 (A) in paragraph (2)— 6 (i) in subparagraph (A)— 7 (I) in clause (i)— 8 (aa) by striking ‘‘of at 9 least—’’ and inserting a semi- 10 colon; and 11 (bb) by striking subclauses 12 (I) and (II); 13 (II) in clause (iii), by striking 14 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 15 (III) in clause (iv), by striking 16 the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 17 and’’; and 18 (IV) by adding at the end the fol- 19 lowing: 20 ‘‘(v) give priority to applications for 21 projects to provide rapid and expanded de- 22 ployment of fixed and mobile broadband on 23 cropland and ranchland within a service 24 territory for use in various applications of 25 precision agriculture.’’; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5486 IH (ii) in subparagraph (B)— 1 (I) in clause (i)— 2 (aa) in subclause (III), by 3 inserting ‘‘or’’ after the semi- 4 colon; 5 (bb) in subclause (IV), by 6 striking ‘‘or’’ and inserting 7 ‘‘and’’; and 8 (cc) by striking subclause 9 (V); and 10 (II) in clause (ii)— 11 (aa) in the matter preceding 12 subclause (I), by striking ‘‘2’’ 13 and inserting ‘‘1’’; 14 (bb) in subclause (IV), by 15 inserting ‘‘and’’ after the semi- 16 colon; 17 (cc) in subclause (V), by 18 striking ‘‘; and’’ and inserting a 19 period at the end; and 20 (dd) by striking subclause 21 (VI); and 22 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 23 lowing: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 5486 IH ‘‘(C) EMERGING HARBOR PROJECT PRI- 1 ORITY.—In addition to the priority given under 2 subparagraph (B), the Secretary shall give 3 equal priority to an application for a project 4 that would increase the availability of 5 broadband service in an emerging harbor 6 project (as defined in section 210(f) of the 7 Water Resources Development Act of 1986 (33 8 U.S.C. 2238(f))), without regard to whether the 9 application is from an emerging harbor project. 10 ‘‘(D) IDENTIFICATION OF UNSERVED COM- 11 MUNITIES.— 12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the case of an 13 application given the highest priority under 14 subparagraph (A)(i), the Secretary shall 15 confirm that each unserved rural commu- 16 nity identified in the application is eligible 17 for funding by— 18 ‘‘(I) conferring with and obtain- 19 ing data from the Federal Commu- 20 nications Commission and the Assist- 21 ant Secretary of Commerce for Com- 22 munications and Information with re- 23 spect to the service area proposed in 24 the application; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 5486 IH ‘‘(II) reviewing any other source 1 that is relevant to service data valida- 2 tion, as determined by the Secretary; 3 and 4 ‘‘(III) performing site-specific 5 testing to verify the unavailability of 6 any residential broadband service in 7 the unserved rural community. 8 ‘‘(ii) ADJUSTMENTS.—Not less often 9 than once every 2 years, the Secretary 10 shall review, and may adjust through no- 11 tice published in the Federal Register, the 12 unserved communities identified under 13 clause (i).’’; and 14 (B) in paragraph (3), by striking subpara- 15 graphs (C) and (D) and inserting the following: 16 ‘‘(C) MAXIMUM.—Except as provided in 17 subparagraph (D), the amount of any grant 18 made under this section shall not exceed 50 19 percent of the development costs of the project 20 for which the grant is provided. 21 ‘‘(D) SECRETARIAL AUTHORITY TO AD- 22 JUST.—The Secretary may make grants of up 23 to 75 percent of the development costs of the 24 project for which the grant is provided to an el- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 5486 IH igible entity if the Secretary determines that 1 the project serves— 2 ‘‘(i) an area of rural households de- 3 scribed in paragraph (2)(A)(ii); and 4 ‘‘(ii) a rural community described in 5 any of subclauses (I) through (IV) of para- 6 graph (2)(B)(i).’’; 7 (2) in subsection (d)— 8 (A) in paragraph (1)— 9 (i) in subparagraph (B), by striking 10 ‘‘subsection (j)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection 11 (l)’’; and 12 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 13 lowing: 14 ‘‘(C) RELATION TO UNIVERSAL SERVICE 15 HIGH-COST SUPPORT.—The Secretary shall co- 16 ordinate with the Federal Communications 17 Commission to ensure that any grants, loans, or 18 loan guarantees made under this section com- 19 plement and do not conflict with universal serv- 20 ice high-cost support (as defined in section 54.5 21 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any 22 successor regulation) provided by the Commis- 23 sion.’’; 24 (B) in paragraph (2)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 5486 IH (i) in subparagraph (A)— 1 (I) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘50’’ 2 and inserting ‘‘90’’; and 3 (II) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘3’’ 4 and inserting ‘‘2’’; and 5 (C) by adding at the end the following: 6 ‘‘(6) APPLICATION PROCESS.—The Secretary 7 shall provide to an applicant of a grant, loan, or 8 loan guarantee under this section feedback and deci- 9 sions on funding in a timely manner.’’; 10 (3) by redesignating subsections (j) and (k) as 11 subsections (l) and (m), respectively; 12 (4) by inserting after subsection (i) the fol- 13 lowing: 14 ‘‘(j) BROADBAND BUILDOUT DATA.—As a condition 15 of receiving a grant, loan, or loan guarantee under this 16 section, a recipient of assistance shall provide to the Sec- 17 retary complete, reliable, and precise geolocation informa- 18 tion that indicates the location of new broadband service 19 that is being provided or upgraded within the service terri- 20 tory supported by the grant, loan, or loan guarantee not 21 later than 30 days after the earlier of— 22 ‘‘(1) the date of completion of any project mile- 23 stone established by the Secretary; or 24 ‘‘(2) the date of completion of the project. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 5486 IH ‘‘(k) ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS.—The Secretary 1 may obligate, but not disperse, funds under this Act before 2 the completion of otherwise required environmental, his- 3 torical, or other types of reviews if the Secretary deter- 4 mines that a subsequent site-specific review shall be ade- 5 quate and easily accomplished for the location of towers, 6 poles, or other broadband facilities in the service area of 7 the borrower without compromising the project or the re- 8 quired reviews.’’; and 9 (5) in subsection (l)(2)(A) (as so redesig- 10 nated)— 11 (A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 12 end; 13 (B) in clause (ii), by striking the period at 14 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 15 (C) by adding at the end the following: 16 ‘‘(iii) set aside at least 1 percent to be 17 used for— 18 ‘‘(I) conducting oversight under 19 this section; and 20 ‘‘(II) implementing accountability 21 measures and related activities au- 22 thorized under this section.’’. 23 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Dec 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5486.IH H5486 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS