I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 827 

To require the Comptroller General to submit to Congress a report on the 

capacity of federally assisted housing to support broadband service, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 2, 2023 

Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia (for herself and Mr. TIMMONS) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To require the Comptroller General to submit to Congress 

a report on the capacity of federally assisted housing 

to support broadband service, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Home Internet Acces5 sibility Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT ON THE CAPAC2 ITY OF FEDERALLY ASSISTED HOUSING TO 

3 SUPPORT BROADBAND SERVICE. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

5 date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 

6 of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 

7 on the capacity of federally assisted housing to support 

8 broadband service. 

9 (b) CONTENTS.—The report required under sub10 section (a) shall include— 

11 (1) an analysis that identifies which federally 

12 assisted housing has access to broadband service and 

13 which such housing does not have access to 

14 broadband service, disaggregated by State, congres15 sional district, ZIP Code, and census tract, that in16 cludes demographic information and any Federal 

17 agency responsible for such housing; 

18 (2) an analysis of which such housing does not 

19 currently have the capacity to support broadband 

20 service deployment and would require retrofitting to 

21 support broadband service deployment, 

22 disaggregated by State, congressional district, ZIP 

23 Code, and census tract, that includes demographic 

24 information and any Federal agency responsible for 

25 such housing; 


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1 (3) an analysis of the estimated costs and time2 frame necessary for all federally assisted housing to 

3 have the capacity to support broadband service; 

4 (4) an analysis of the challenges to more wide5 spread deployment of broadband service, including 

6 the comparative market dynamics to expansion in 

7 rural areas and low-income urban and suburban 

8 areas, and the challenges to pursuing retrofits for all 

9 federally assisted housing to have the capacity to 

10 support broadband service; 

11 (5) descriptions of lessons learned from pre12 vious retrofitting actions; 

13 (6) an evaluation of the ConnectHome pilot 

14 program of the Secretary of Housing and Urban De15 velopment; and 

16 (7) recommendations for Congress to allow for 

17 all federally assisted housing to have the capacity to 

18 support broadband service under a range of specific 

19 projected timelines. 

20 SEC. 3. PLAN FOR BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY IN FEDER21 ALLY ASSISTED HOUSING. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Housing and 

23 Urban Development, in consultation with the Comptroller 

24 General and other relevant heads of Federal agencies, 

25 shall— 


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1 (1) develop a plan for retrofitting federally as2 sisted housing, as necessary, to support broadband 

3 service; and 

4 (2) submit such plan to the Congress not later 

5 than 18 months after the date of the enactment of 

6 this Act. 

7 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 

8 (1) BROADBAND SERVICE.—The term 

9 ‘‘broadband service’’ has the meaning given the term 

10 ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ in section 8.1(b) 

11 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any suc12 cessor regulation. 

13 (2) FEDERALLY ASSISTED HOUSING.—The 

14 term ‘‘federally assisted housing’’ means any dwell15 ing that constitutes or contains a housing unit that 

16 is assisted under a program administered by the 

17 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development or the 

18 Secretary of Agriculture. 

19 (3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 

20 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 

21 Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American 

22 Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern 

23 Mariana Islands. 

Æ 


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