Small Business Last Mile Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8040 To direct the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to establish a grant program to facilitate the provision of high-speed broadband service to small business concerns in rural areas, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AUGUST 14, 2020 Mr. GOLDEN (for himself and Mr. STAUBER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small Business A BILL To direct the Administrator of the Small Business Adminis- tration to establish a grant program to facilitate the provision of high-speed broadband service to small busi- ness concerns in rural areas, 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 ‘‘Small Business Last 4 Mile Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8040 IH SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE HIGH-SPEED 1 BROADBAND SERVICE. 2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 3 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator 4 of the Small Business Administration shall establish a pro- 5 gram (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Program’’) to facili- 6 tate the provision of high-speed broadband service to rural 7 small business concerns. 8 (b) GRANT AUTHORITY.—In carrying out the Pro- 9 gram, the Administrator shall award a grant to each eligi- 10 ble State that submits an application. 11 (c) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS.— 12 (1) ELIGIBLE STATE.—The Administrator shall 13 award a grant under the Program each year to a 14 State that submits an application pursuant to sub- 15 section (d). 16 (2) ELIGIBLE SUBGRANT RECIPIENT.— 17 (A) IN GENERAL.—An eligible State may 18 award a subgrant under the Program to any 19 entity, or group of entities, determined by the 20 eligible State to have the authority and capa- 21 bility to carry out a project described in sub- 22 section (d). 23 (B) NOT REQUIRED TO BE ELIGIBLE 24 TELECOMMUNICATION CARRIER.—A determina- 25 tion of authority and capability under subpara- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8040 IH graph (A) may not require a subgrant recipient 1 to be designated as an eligible telecommuni- 2 cations carrier under section 214(e) of the 3 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 4 214(e)). 5 (d) APPLICATION.—To be eligible for a grant under 6 the Program, a State shall submit to the Administrator 7 an application that demonstrates that the State— 8 (1) prior to the date of application for a grant 9 under the Program, has experience managing a 10 State or Federal grant program to facilitate the pro- 11 vision of high-speed broadband service; 12 (2) maintains a State broadband plan; 13 (3) has updated the State broadband plan 14 under paragraph (2) in the five years prior to the 15 date a State submits an application for a grant 16 under the Program; 17 (4) agrees to subgrant any awarded funds to an 18 eligible subgrant recipient; 19 (5) agrees to conduct a periodic financial audit 20 of eligible subgrant recipients who have received a 21 subgrant under the Program; 22 (6) ensures proper disbursement and account- 23 ing for Federal funds awarded under the Program, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8040 IH including demonstrating that if awarded a subgrant 1 under the Program— 2 (A) such award has been used to assist an 3 eligible project; and 4 (B) that a State has recovered an award 5 from a subgrant recipient who has not complied 6 with the requirements of the Program; and 7 (7) possesses any other administrative or tech- 8 nical capacity that the Administrator deems nec- 9 essary for the success of the Program. 10 (e) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.— 11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Grant funds awarded under 12 the Program may only be used to assist a project 13 that makes available eligible infrastructure necessary 14 to provide high-speed broadband service to a rural 15 small business concern. 16 (2) RESTRICTION ON DUPLICATION.— 17 (A) IN GENERAL.—Grant funds awarded 18 under the Program may not be used to assist 19 a project that makes available duplicative eligi- 20 ble infrastructure to a small business concern 21 located in a rural area. 22 (B) DETERMINATION OF DUPLICATIVE IN- 23 FRASTRUCTURE.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8040 IH (i) IN GENERAL.—An eligible State 1 shall determine the presence of duplicative 2 eligible infrastructure using broadband in- 3 frastructure geolocation data from Federal, 4 State, or commercial sources. 5 (ii) PROCESS TO CHALLENGE DETER- 6 MINATION.— 7 (I) PUBLICATION REQUIRE- 8 MENT.—An eligible State shall make 9 available to the public the location of 10 proposed eligible infrastructure for 11 which a subgrant application has been 12 submitted to the eligible State. 13 (II) OPPORTUNITY TO CHAL- 14 LENGE DETERMINATION.—Not later 15 than 15 days prior to the award of a 16 subgrant, an eligible State shall allow 17 a provider of eligible infrastructure 18 the opportunity to submit information 19 regarding the location of such infra- 20 structure so that the eligible State 21 may determine whether a project to 22 be awarded a subgrant will make 23 available duplicative eligible infra- 24 structure. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8040 IH (f) PRIORITY.—In making a grant under the Pro- 1 gram, the Administrator shall give priority to an eligible 2 project based on the number of small business concerns 3 located in a rural area provided high-speed broadband 4 service by the project. 5 (g) GRANT AMOUNT AWARDED.—In making a grant 6 under the Program, the Administrator shall award an eli- 7 gible State the amount equaling the ratio of the number 8 of individuals in the eligible State who reside in a rural 9 area divided by the number of individuals who reside in 10 a rural area in all eligible States that have been approved 11 under the Program, multiplied by the total amount of 12 funds authorized to be appropriated under subsection 13 (k)(2). 14 (h) LIMITATIONS ON A SUBGRANT AMOUNT.—The 15 amount of a subgrant under the Program— 16 (1) if awarded to an entity providing high-speed 17 broadband service to a single small business concern, 18 may not exceed $15,000; or 19 (2) if awarded to an entity providing high-speed 20 broadband service to more than one small business 21 concern, may not exceed $35,000. 22 (i) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of the cost 23 of a project assisted with a grant under the Program shall 24 not exceed 75 percent. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 8040 IH (j) EVALUATION OF PROGRAM.— 1 (1) REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR.—Not later 2 than 30 months after the date of the enactment of 3 this Act, each eligible State shall submit to the Ad- 4 ministrator a report demonstrating the information 5 required pursuant to subsection (d)(6). 6 (2) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 7 three years after the date of the enactment of this 8 Act, the Administrator shall submit to the Com- 9 mittee on Small Business of the House of Rep- 10 resentatives and the Committee on Small Business 11 and Entrepreneurship of the Senate a report on the 12 Program that includes a description of— 13 (A) the number of grants awarded under 14 the Program; 15 (B) the total amount of funding expended 16 on eligible infrastructure pursuant to the Pro- 17 gram; 18 (C) the number of small business concerns 19 in rural areas provided eligible infrastructure as 20 a result of the Program during the two-year pe- 21 riod beginning on the date on which the Admin- 22 istrator first awards a grant under the Pro- 23 gram; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 8040 IH (D) the number of miles of eligible infra- 1 structure made available pursuant to the Pro- 2 gram. 3 (k) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 4 (1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 5 appropriated to carry out the Program $25,000,000 6 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2023. 7 (2) RESERVATION FOR GRANTS.—Not less than 8 97 percent of funds appropriated for the Program 9 shall be reserved for providing grants to eligible 10 States. 11 (3) RESERVATION FOR ADMINISTRATION.—Not 12 more than 3 percent of funds appropriated for the 13 Program may be used by the Administrator to ad- 14 minister the Program. 15 SEC. 3. STUDY AND REPORT ON BROADBAND SERVICE 16 SPEEDS AND PRICING. 17 (a) STUDY.—The Administrator of the Small Busi- 18 ness Administration shall conduct a survey of a represent- 19 ative sample of small business concerns located in rural 20 areas on— 21 (1) the speeds of broadband service available to 22 small business concerns located in rural areas; 23 (2) the prices for broadband service available to 24 small business concerns located in rural areas; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 8040 IH (3) the types of broadband service technology 1 used by small business concerns located in rural 2 areas; 3 (4) the type of broadband service available to 4 small business concerns located in rural areas, spe- 5 cifically whether it is best-effort service or service 6 with guaranteed quality-of-service benchmarks; and 7 (5) the primary purposes for which small busi- 8 ness concerns located in rural areas use their 9 broadband connections and whether their current 10 broadband service enables them to satisfactorily 11 carry out each of these purposes. 12 (b) REPORT.—Not later than three years after the 13 date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 14 submit to the Committee on Small Business of the House 15 of Representatives and the Committee on Small Business 16 and Entrepreneurship of the Senate a report on the re- 17 sults of the study conducted under subsection (a) that in- 18 cludes policy recommendations for improving the access 19 of small business concerns to affordable high-speed 20 broadband service. 21 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 22 In this Act: 23 (1) ELIGIBLE INFRASTRUCTURE.—The term 24 ‘‘eligible infrastructure’’ means infrastructure of a 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 8040 IH type with the demonstrated capability to facilitate 1 broadband service for which— 2 (A) 95 percent or more of all peak period 3 measurements of— 4 (i) downstream transmission capacity 5 are at or above 50 Mbps; 6 (ii) upstream transmission capacity 7 are at or above 50 Mbps; and 8 (iii) network round trip latency are at 9 or below 100 milliseconds; and 10 (B) an end-user’s monthly data cap is at 11 or above 2 terabytes. 12 (2) RURAL AREA.—The term ‘‘rural area’’ has 13 the meaning given such term under section 14 601(b)(3) of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 15 (7 U.S.C. 950bb(b)(3)). 16 (3) RURAL SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN.—The 17 term ‘‘rural small business concern’’ means a small 18 business concern that has its principal office located 19 in a rural area. 20 (4) SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN.—The term 21 ‘‘small business concern’’ has the meaning given 22 such term under section 3 of the Small Business Act 23 (15 U.S.C. 632). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 8040 IH (5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean- 1 ing given such term under section 12052 of the 2 Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Im- 3 provements Act of 2008 (15 U.S.C. 636e). 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:24 Sep 02, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8040.IH H8040 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS