State Legislatures Prepare for Federal Funds
Anticipating federal infrastructure and COVID-19 relief funding, state legislators reflected on their broadband roles at hearings this week. An Oregon committee weighed a bill Wednesday to get the state ready for funding, and a Maine panel Thursday mulled what connectivity work will be left when federal dollars dwindle. “All these states are figuring out how to now regulate broadband in a more comprehensive manner, especially as we see so much money being devoted,” noted Hawaii House Majority Leader Della Au Belatti (D) at a webcast hearing.
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Wisconsin’s Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee voted 10-4 for a bill requiring the governor to allocate $70 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission for grants that would be awarded by Oct. 1, 2024, for wireless broadband and cellular service infrastructure in areas the FCC considers unserved or underserved. AB-573 would give the PSC $5 million from ARPA to develop a broadband map and update it twice yearly. Also 10-4, the panel adopted an amendment requiring data confidentiality.
A bill aims to prepare Oregon for at least $200 million in federal funding, said Rep. Pam Marsh (D) at a hearing on her HB-4092. It would update membership and responsibilities of the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council, direct the state broadband office to develop broadband and diversity action plans and require the office to collect geospatial and other data from ISPs and others with broadband infrastructure to assess grant and loan eligibility. It would direct the Public Utility Commission to recommend to the legislature by June 1, 2023, how to update the state Lifeline program to help low-income residents get broadband.
“While the FCC is promising to provide much better data than it has in the past, we need mapping capacity at the state level to guide our own grant decisions,” Marsh said. The bill would protect companies’ proprietary information, she said, answering a question from Rep. Jami Cate (R): It’s in their interest to provide data to prevent overbuilding. Sen. Lee Beyer (D), former Oregon PUC chairman, supported restructuring envisioned by HB-4092. Rep. Mark Owens (R) supports it because companies had spread broadband everywhere there was a return on investment, he said: “We're at a phase now where we need that public-private relationship to get that last mile out there."
HB-4092 seeks targeted data that will be protected, said Oregon Telecommunications Association Executive Vice President Brant Wolf. CTIA, now opposed, would go neutral with clarification that “the broadband maps are only provided upon the application of a broadband grant,” said Assistant Vice President-State Legislative Affairs Bethanne Cooley. “HB-4092 reads as a broad, sweeping data collection mandate on the entire broadband ecosystem, including wireless, outside of the broadband grant process.”
When federal dollars arrive, "we have a tendency to say, ‘There, that's going to fix it,’” but the money might last only two years and there could still be areas without service, warned Sen. David McCrea (D) at a livestreamed Maine Joint Taxation Committee hearing. Senate Chairman Ben Chipman (D) proposed establishing a working group rather than adopt McCrea’s LD-80, which would provide 33% of online sales tax revenue for infrastructure deployment in unserved and underserved areas. McCrea said he was open to and would participate in a work group, but House Chair Maureen Terry (D) thinks the state already has people thinking about current and future funding, she said. Terry and most other members voted against the bill, including Chipman’s alternative.
Hawaii’s House Higher Education and Technology Committee voted 11-0 for Majority Leader Belatti’s HB-2397 to create and fund a state authority to oversee broadband infrastructure. The House Economic Development Committee heard testimony on HB-1782 to empower electric utilities to provide broadband networks. A similar Senate bill (SB-2173) cleared that chamber’s Energy Committee Friday by 5-0. That panel unanimously supported SB-2076 meant to support digital equity.
In Washington state, the Senate Environment, Energy and Technology Committee voted 10-0 for SB-5715 to update the state’s broadband definition to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload from 25/3 Mbps. And the House Appropriations Committee voted 18-14 to adopt HB-1723 establishing broadband adoption programs (see 2201280026).