Governors' Broadband Development Fund Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4411 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish in the Federal Communications Commission the Broadband Development Grant Program. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES AUGUST 4, 2020 Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. WARNER, and Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish in the Federal Communications Commission the Broad- band Development Grant Program. 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 ‘‘Governors’ Broadband 4 Development Fund Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. GOVERNORS’ BROADBAND DEVELOPMENT FUND. 6 Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 7 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 8 following: 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4411 IS ‘‘SEC. 14. BROADBAND DEVELOPMENT GRANT PROGRAM. 1 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 2 ‘‘(1) the term ‘anchor institution’ means— 3 ‘‘(A) a public or private elementary school 4 or secondary school, as those terms are defined 5 in section 8101 of the Elementary and Sec- 6 ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7 7801); 8 ‘‘(B) a library; 9 ‘‘(C) a medical or healthcare provider; 10 ‘‘(D) a museum; 11 ‘‘(E) a public safety entity; 12 ‘‘(F) public housing; 13 ‘‘(G) an institution of higher education, as 14 that term is defined in section 101 of the High- 15 er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001), in- 16 cluding a community college; or 17 ‘‘(H) any other community support organi- 18 zation or agency; 19 ‘‘(2) the term ‘broadband’ has the meaning 20 given the term ‘broadband internet access service’ in 21 section 8.1(b) of title 47, Code of Federal Regula- 22 tions, or any successor regulation; 23 ‘‘(3) the term ‘covered entity’— 24 ‘‘(A) means an entity that— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4411 IS ‘‘(i) is owned by, controlled by, affili- 1 ated with, or acting at the direction of an 2 entity that is organized under the laws of, 3 or otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of, 4 a country, the government of which is on 5 the priority watch list established by the 6 United States Trade Representative pursu- 7 ant to section 182(a) of the Trade Act of 8 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2242(a)); and 9 ‘‘(ii) has engaged in an action that is 10 prohibited under— 11 ‘‘(I) section 1(a) of Executive 12 Order 13873 (84 Fed. Reg. 22689; 13 relating to securing the information 14 and communications technology and 15 services supply chain); or 16 ‘‘(II) any regulations issued in 17 response to the Executive order de- 18 scribed in subclause (I); and 19 ‘‘(B) includes any subsidiary, affiliate, em- 20 ployee, or representative of, and any related 21 party with respect to, an entity described in 22 subparagraph (A), without regard to the loca- 23 tion or jurisdiction of incorporation of that sub- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4411 IS sidiary, affiliate, employee, representative, or 1 party, as applicable; 2 ‘‘(4) the term ‘Program’ means the Broadband 3 Development Grant Program established under this 4 section; 5 ‘‘(5) the term ‘public housing’— 6 ‘‘(A) has the meaning given the term in 7 section 3(b) of the United States Housing Act 8 of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)); and 9 ‘‘(B) includes housing receiving tenant- 10 based rental assistance provided under section 11 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 12 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)); 13 ‘‘(6) the term ‘qualified opportunity zone’ has 14 the meaning given the term in section 1400Z–1(a) 15 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and 16 ‘‘(7) the term ‘unserved anchor institution’ 17 means an anchor institution that does not have ac- 18 cess to broadband offered with— 19 ‘‘(A) a download speed of at least 100 20 megabits per second; and 21 ‘‘(B) an upload speed of at least 10 mega- 22 bits per second. 23 ‘‘(b) PROGRAM.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4411 IS ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.—There is 1 established in the Commission the Broadband Devel- 2 opment Grant Program. 3 ‘‘(2) GRANTS.—From the amounts made avail- 4 able to carry out this section, the Commission shall 5 make grants under the Program to each State that 6 has submitted an application for such a grant that 7 the Commission has approved. 8 ‘‘(c) APPLICATIONS.— 9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall— 10 ‘‘(A) not later than 90 days after the date 11 of enactment of this section, issue a notice in- 12 viting States to submit applications with respect 13 to the Program, which shall contain the amount 14 available to each State; and 15 ‘‘(B) not later than 60 days after the date 16 on which the Commission receives an applica- 17 tion described in subparagraph (A), approve or 18 deny the application. 19 ‘‘(2) RULES FOR STATES.— 20 ‘‘(A) LIMITATION.—A State may submit 21 only 1 application under this section with re- 22 spect to the State, which may contain a com- 23 prehensive overview of multiple project pro- 24 posals, each of which shall satisfy the require- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4411 IS ments of this section and any rules issued 1 under this section. 2 ‘‘(B) TIMELINE.—A State shall submit to 3 the Commission an application under paragraph 4 (1) not later than 90 days after the date on 5 which the Commission issues the notice under 6 that paragraph. 7 ‘‘(d) AMOUNT OF GRANT.—The amount of a grant 8 that a State receives under this section shall be deter- 9 mined as follows, subject to the availability of appropria- 10 tions: 11 ‘‘(1) Each State receiving a grant under this 12 section shall receive a grant in an amount that is 13 not less than $75,000,000. 14 ‘‘(2) Of the amounts remaining to carry out 15 this section after carrying out paragraph (1), the 16 Commission shall use the following calculation with 17 respect to the State: 18 ‘‘(A) Divide the number of individuals liv- 19 ing in the State by the total number of individ- 20 uals living in the United States. 21 ‘‘(B) Multiply the total amount made avail- 22 able to carry out this section after carrying out 23 paragraph (1) by the quotient obtained under 24 subparagraph (A). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 4411 IS ‘‘(e) USES OF FUNDS.— 1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A State that receives a 2 grant under the Program— 3 ‘‘(A) shall— 4 ‘‘(i) expend not less than 30 percent 5 of the grant funds in qualified opportunity 6 zones within the State; 7 ‘‘(ii) prioritize expending grant funds 8 in areas or locations that are not served by 9 existing broadband networks; 10 ‘‘(iii) expend not less than 5 percent 11 of the grant funds in a technologically neu- 12 tral manner to support the adoption of 13 broadband by populations within the State 14 that are identified as facing barriers to 15 digital equity; and 16 ‘‘(iv) prioritize project proposals 17 that— 18 ‘‘(I) would provide broadband not 19 later than 60 days after the date on 20 which the project is initiated; and 21 ‘‘(II) rely on advanced broadband 22 capabilities and technologies; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 4411 IS ‘‘(B) may expend any of the grant funds, 1 including in a manner described in subpara- 2 graph (A), to— 3 ‘‘(i) construct, acquire, or lease facili- 4 ties, spectrum, land, or buildings to deploy 5 broadband for— 6 ‘‘(I) residential and business cus- 7 tomers; or 8 ‘‘(II) unserved anchor institu- 9 tions, which, in the case of an 10 unserved anchor institution that is a 11 medical or healthcare provider, may 12 use the deployed broadband for tele- 13 health purposes; 14 ‘‘(ii) provide broadband service free of 15 charge, or with reduced charges, to 16 unserved anchor institutions for a period of 17 2 years; or 18 ‘‘(iii) expand, construct, acquire, or 19 make improvements to a community center 20 that provides internet access to the public; 21 and 22 ‘‘(C) may not expend— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 4411 IS ‘‘(i) any of the grant funds to pur- 1 chase products, materials, or services from 2 a covered entity; or 3 ‘‘(ii) more than 5 percent of the grant 4 funds for administrative purposes. 5 ‘‘(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 6 Congress that a State that receives a grant under 7 the Program should partner with private entities to 8 engage in the uses required and permitted under 9 paragraph (1). 10 ‘‘(f) REALLOCATION.—If, as of the date that is 5 11 years after the date on which a State receives grant funds 12 under the Program, a State has not allocated any portion 13 of those funds— 14 ‘‘(1) the State shall return those remaining 15 funds to the Commission; and 16 ‘‘(2) the Commission shall, in accordance with 17 subsection (d)(2), reallocate the funds received 18 under paragraph (1) to the remaining States for 19 which the Commission has approved applications. 20 ‘‘(g) DIRECT PROVISION OF BROADBAND.— 21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Program shall contain 22 sufficient measures to ensure that a State that uses 23 grant funds received under the Program to directly 24 provide broadband to consumers applies and en- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 4411 IS forces, without discrimination, with respect to the 1 State and any other provider of broadband within 2 the jurisdiction of the State, all applicable laws, reg- 3 ulations, and other requirements, including laws, 4 regulations, and requirements relating to— 5 ‘‘(A) taxation; 6 ‘‘(B) zoning; 7 ‘‘(C) land use; 8 ‘‘(D) the building of facilities or other obli- 9 gations to serve; 10 ‘‘(E) the imposition of regulatory fees; 11 ‘‘(F) customer service; 12 ‘‘(G) public, educational, and governmental 13 access channel mandates; and 14 ‘‘(H) technical quality of service. 15 ‘‘(2) RATES.—If a State directly provides 16 broadband to consumers using grant funds received 17 under the Program, the State may not charge a rate 18 for the service in an amount that is less than or 19 equal to the cost of providing the service. 20 ‘‘(h) IMPACT OF OTHER FEDERAL GRANT PRO- 21 GRAMS.—Participation by a State in the Program shall 22 not impact the eligibility of, or otherwise disadvantage, the 23 State with respect to participation in any other Federal 24 broadband program. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 4411 IS ‘‘(i) REPORTS.—A State that, in a year, receives 1 grant funds under the Program shall submit to the Com- 2 mission— 3 ‘‘(1) a report for the applicable year regarding 4 how the State expended the funds; and 5 ‘‘(2) a certification that the State, for that 6 year, has complied with the requirements of this sec- 7 tion and with any additional requirements prescribed 8 by the Commission, including a description of each 9 service provided with the grant funds and the num- 10 ber of locations in which service was provided using 11 the grant funds. 12 ‘‘(j) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 13 is authorized to be appropriated to the Commission 14 $10,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2020 to carry out the Pro- 15 gram, which shall remain available through fiscal year 16 2026.’’. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:00 Aug 19, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4411.IS S4411 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS