House Begins Debate on Moving Forward Act Infrastructure Package

Substantial broadband funding like what's in HR-2 “will revolutionize healthcare and education and energy,” Clyburn said during a CTA-Northern Virginia Technology Council webinar. “There’s going to be challenges” to getting the full $100 billion proposed in the measure and “we may not get it all this year.” But “if we’re going to have a successful future for our children and our grandchildren, if we’re going to leave this country in a better place than we found it, that’s what’s going to be required,” Clyburn said. He and other members of the all-Democratic House Task Force on Rural Broadband also filed HR-2’s broadband language (see 2006240069) as the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act (HR-7302).

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., highlighted HR-2’s broadband language during a floor speech. The COVID-19 pandemic “starkly demonstrated the need to ensure families all across the nation have access,” he said. “Kids all around the nation need access to broadband to participate in their classes online for the fall and potentially much longer."

House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., criticized “the partisan process fouls that encumber” HR-2. “Building better American infrastructure is a public policy that’s almost always brought us together as a Congress and a country” until that measure, he said on the House floor. “Republicans have proposed more than two dozen policies to help get high speed broadband to all Americans” (see 2006250068). “Unfortunately, the work and ideas of” House Commerce Republicans “were not included” in HR-2, Walden said. “Heck, we weren’t even consulted. What could be a bipartisan bill destined to become law, will instead likely never get to [Trump’s] desk and become law."

Amendments

A manager’s amendment from House Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., is designed to clarify broadband funding should be prioritized for areas “where at least 90 percent of the population has no access to broadband service or does not have access to broadband service offered with a download speed of at least 25 [Mbps] with an upload speed of at least 3 [Mbps], and with latency that is sufficiently low to allow real-time, interactive applications.”

Broadband amendments the House Rules Committee approved for floor consideration include one from Commerce Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., that would require the U.S. comptroller general to study connectivity in federally assisted housing, and require the secretary of housing and urban development to submit a plan to Congress for retrofitting those buildings and units to support broadband.

Three amendments focus on requirements for the proposed NTIA Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth, carried over from language in the Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand (Access Broadband) Act (HR-1328/S-1046). One proposal from Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., would require the office study “the impact of monopolistic business practices" of ISPs.

A proposal from Brindisi and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., would require the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth to study the extent to which ISPs utilizing federal programs are delivering required speeds. Language from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., would require the NTIA office to do a study on the extent to which federal funds expanded access to and adoption of broadband service by socially disadvantaged individuals. Omar withdrew a similar amendment that would have required the office’s report on broadband deployment’s information on number of residents served be disaggregated by gender, race and ethnicity.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., proposed amending eligibility for HR-2’s low-income additional broadband benefit to include households in which at least one member received a federal Pell Grant in the most recent academic year. Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., wants to attach the text of his Tribal Internet Expansion Act (HR-4449), which would include Indian Country and areas with high Native American populations in the priority areas for broadband expansion under the USF. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., sought an amendment requiring GAO to report on the efficacy of the FCC process involving setting speed thresholds.

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., proposes directing GAO study broadband deployment to cities and towns with populations between 2,500 and 50,000. An amendment from Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., would annul the FCC's 2019 declaratory rulemaking that partially pre-empted San Francisco's Police Code Article 52 ordinance that requires sharing of in-use multi-tenant environment building wiring (see 1907110015). Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, is proposing to direct the Department of Transportation to study the infrastructure state of colonias, including broadband infrastructure.

Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., unsuccessfully sought to attach the text of his Universal Broadband Act (HR-6723), which would increase the USF contribution base to include all broadband services, rather than the existing model that draws support from phone services (see 2005050064). Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., and John Katko, R-N.Y., failed to attach language from the IoT Readiness Act (HR-3789), which would direct the FCC to collect and maintain data on the growth in usage of IoT devices, and devices that use 5G mobile networks. The measure requires the FCC to report to Congress on whether currently available spectrum meets the current demand of IoT devices, and determine the amount of spectrum necessary to meet future demand.

Other Legislation

Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., filed the Telehealth Response for E-prescribing Addiction Therapy Services (Treats) Act Tuesday to expand telehealth services for substance use disorder treatment. The measure would make permanent what had been temporary waivers of restrictions during the pandemic on prescribing substance use disorder therapies and using Medicare funding for audio-only telehealth services. “As we move forward and look to life beyond this pandemic, we must make sure that the advances to care and access that telehealth is currently providing are not lost,” Portman said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., led filing Monday of a Senate companion to the Emergency Broadband Connections Act. HR-6881, filed in May by Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas (see 2005130059), mirrors broadband funding language from the House-passed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act (HR-6800). “There’s every indication the fallout from the coronavirus will drag on for months,” Wyden said. “Our legislation will make sure workers and families in need don’t find themselves stranded offline at the same time they lose a paycheck.” The measure has three Democratic co-sponsors: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai criticized Clyburn’s separate Rural Broadband Acceleration Act in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. HR-7022 is aimed at allowing disbursal of some Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I money before the auction’s late October start (see 2005280048). Wicker has filed the Accelerating Broadband Connectivity Act (see 2006220059). S-4021 would allocate $6 billion to an FCC-run Accelerating Broadband Connectivity Fund that would provide money to RDOF phases I and II awardees that commit to begin construction within 180 days of receiving the money and make broadband service available using the infrastructure within one year.

HR-7022 “could force us to take more time to spend more money to connect fewer Americans to digital opportunity,” Pai said. Given “the significant changes we would have to make to our Phase I auction at this late stage and the need to divert staff resources to implement the legislation, Commission staff expect that, under the bill, the start of the Phase I auction would be delayed from October 2020 to at least mid-April 2021. And we would not expect to authorize support for winning bidders until at least August 2021. By contrast, assuming that the bill were adopted today, we estimate that the earliest we would be able to start authorizing support for symmetrical gigabit applicants under [HR-7022] would be February 2021 -- just one month earlier than the current timeframe.”