To direct the Federal Communications Commission to take certain actions to accelerate the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, and for other purposes.

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7447 To direct the Federal Communications Commission to take certain actions to accelerate the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 1, 2020 Mr. CLYBURN (for himself, Mr. UPTON, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. COX of California, Mrs. BUSTOS, Mr. REED, Mr. BALDERSON, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. RICE of South Carolina, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. NORMAN, Ms. SPANBERGER, Mr. TRONE, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. PALAZZO, Mr. WRIGHT, and Mr. GOTTHEIMER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on En- ergy and Commerce A BILL To direct the Federal Communications Commission to take certain actions to accelerate the Rural Digital Oppor- tunity Fund Phase I auction, 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. ACCELERATION OF RURAL DIGITAL OPPOR- 3 TUNITY FUND PHASE I AUCTION. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—With respect to the Rural Digital 5 Opportunity Fund Phase I auction (in this section re- 6 ferred to as the ‘‘auction’’) provided for in the Report and 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:36 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7447.IH H7447 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7447 IH Order in the matter of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund 1 and Connect America Fund adopted by the Commission 2 on January 30, 2020 (FCC 20–5), the Commission shall 3 modify the framework for the auction adopted in such Re- 4 port and Order as follows: 5 (1) The Commission shall accept long-form ap- 6 plications before the auction, during the period that 7 begins not earlier than the date that is 30 days after 8 the date on which the Commission begins accepting 9 short-form applications and ends on September 15, 10 2020, from such applicants as are willing to commit 11 to the schedule described in paragraph (3)(C) for de- 12 ployment of networks capable of providing gigabit 13 broadband internet access service. 14 (2) If the long-form applications accepted pur- 15 suant to paragraph (1) indicate that, for any census 16 block or census block group that, as of July 31, 17 2020, was identified on the List of Eligible Areas 18 maintained by the Commission, there is only 1 quali- 19 fied applicant willing to commit to provide gigabit 20 broadband internet access service pursuant to the 21 schedule described in paragraph (3)(C), the Commis- 22 sion shall, not later than the earlier of October 15, 23 2020, or 14 days before the start of the auction— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:36 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7447.IH H7447 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7447 IH (A) award to such applicant Rural Digital 1 Opportunity Fund Phase I support for such 2 census block or census block group, at 100 per- 3 cent of the reserve price (in this paragraph re- 4 ferred to as the ‘‘award’’); 5 (B) remove such census block or census 6 block group from the auction; and 7 (C) reduce the budget for the auction by 8 50 percent of the amount of the award and re- 9 duce the budget for the Rural Digital Oppor- 10 tunity Fund Phase II auction provided for in 11 such Report and Order by 50 percent of the 12 amount of the award. 13 (3) The Commission shall require an applicant 14 submitting a long-form application pursuant to para- 15 graph (1), in order for such application to be consid- 16 ered complete— 17 (A) to demonstrate project readiness by 18 providing a network design for a fiber optic 19 cable or hybrid fiber optic and coaxial cable net- 20 work (which may include other technology used 21 in conjunction with the foregoing solely on an 22 ancillary basis) to be deployed to provide gig- 23 abit broadband internet access service to loca- 24 tions in each census block or census block 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:36 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7447.IH H7447 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 7447 IH group covered by the application, except that an 1 applicant that has offered gigabit broadband 2 internet access service (despite consumer equip- 3 ment limitations) for at least 2 years before the 4 date on which the application is submitted shall 5 be presumed to have demonstrated project read- 6 iness; 7 (B) to demonstrate financial stability by 8 providing a letter of commitment from a bank 9 or other documentation to establish that suffi- 10 cient credit would be available to such applicant 11 if such applicant becomes a winning bidder and 12 is awarded support; and 13 (C) to commit to— 14 (i) begin construction not later than 6 15 months following funding authorization; 16 and 17 (ii) begin to make service available in 18 at least one awarded census block not later 19 than 1 year following funding authoriza- 20 tion. 21 (4) A recipient of an award of support under 22 paragraph (2)(A) shall have a reasonable oppor- 23 tunity, of not less than 90 days after the date on 24 which such award of support is made, to cure any 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:36 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7447.IH H7447 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 7447 IH deficiencies in a long-form application submitted 1 pursuant to paragraph (1). 2 (5) If a recipient of an award of support under 3 paragraph (2)(A) for a census block or census block 4 group fails to meet the deployment schedule to 5 which the recipient committed under paragraph 6 (3)(C), the Commission shall revoke such award of 7 support and include such census block or census 8 block group for competitive bidding in the Rural 9 Digital Opportunity Fund Phase II auction provided 10 for in such Report and Order, unless such deploy- 11 ment schedule is extended by the Commission for 12 good cause, due to extenuating circumstances out- 13 side the control of the recipient and the Commission 14 finds that the recipient is making good faith efforts 15 to overcome such circumstances. 16 (6) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 17 the Commission shall not require any short-form or 18 long-form applicant to be designated as an eligible 19 telecommunications carrier under section 214(e) of 20 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 214(e)) 21 in order to receive Rural Digital Opportunity Fund 22 Phase I or Phase II support. 23 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:36 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7447.IH H7447 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 7447 IH (1) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 1 The term ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ has 2 the meaning given such term in section 8.1(b) of 3 title 47, Code of Federal Regulations (or any suc- 4 cessor regulation). 5 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 6 means the Federal Communications Commission. 7 (3) GIGABIT BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS 8 SERVICE.—The term ‘‘gigabit broadband internet ac- 9 cess service’’ means broadband internet access serv- 10 ice with a downstream speed of at least 1 gigabit per 11 second. 12 SEC. 2. ENSURING THE FCC CREATES ACCURATE SERVICE 13 MAPS. 14 (a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Title 15 VIII of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 641 16 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 17 ‘‘SEC. 807. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 18 ‘‘There is authorized to be appropriated to the Com- 19 mission to carry out this title— 20 ‘‘(1) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2020; and 21 ‘‘(2) $9,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 22 2021 through 2027.’’. 23 (b) DEADLINE FOR CREATION OF MAPS.—Section 24 802(c)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:36 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7447.IH H7447 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 7447 IH 642(c)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘create’’ and inserting 1 ‘‘create, not later than October 1, 2020’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:36 Jul 23, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7447.IH H7447 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS