House to Consider Broadband, AI Amendments to NTIA-USDA Funding 'Minibus'

Agriculture Department. The House Rules Committee ultimately chose Tuesday to allow eight telecom and privacy-related amendments to be included among the bill's 290 that will be considered on the House floor (see 1906170056). Another of the allowed amendments, from Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., would decrease NTIA's FY 2020 salaries and expenses funding to FY 2019 levels, to increase funding for NOAA by $3.5 million. Two proposals target broadband mapping. One led by Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y., would bar NTIA from using its funding to update broadband coverage maps using data collected only via Form 477. The other, from Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M., designates $1 million of NTIA’s funding be used for broadband mapping. A compromise amendment led by Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., would increase funding for the Rural Utilities Service's $600 million ReConnect rural broadband funding program (see 1812130064) by $55 million, which would be paid for by decreasing funding for USDA administration, the department's chief information officer and the department's general counsel. A proposal led by Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., would increase funding for RUS' distance learning and telemedicine grant program by $25 million by cutting an equal amount of funding from the CIO's office. Language led by Rep. David Trone, D-Md., would increase funding for community connect grants by $5 million for broadband deployments in underserved rural areas. An amendment from Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., would allocate $1 million of the Distance Learning program funding to “express the importance of broadband access to rural communities, schools and small businesses.” House Rules also allowed an amendment from Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., that would direct $1 million of the National Science Foundation's funding to be used to report to Congress on “its efforts to incorporate social impact assessments into the artificial intelligence research it funds.”