I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7022 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to take certain actions 

to accelerate the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 27, 2020 

Mr. CLYBURN (for himself and Mr. UPTON) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to take 

certain actions to accelerate the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction, 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 ‘‘Rural Broadband Ac5 celeration Act.’’ 

6 SEC. 2. ACCELERATION OF RURAL DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY 

7 FUND PHASE I AUCTION. 

8 With respect to the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund 

9 Phase I auction (in this section referred to as the ‘‘aucVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 Jul 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7022.IH H7022

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1 tion’’) provided for in the Report and Order in the matter 

2 of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and Connect America 

3 Fund adopted by the Federal Communications Commis4 sion (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’) on 

5 January 30, 2020 (FCC 20–5), the Commission shall 

6 modify the framework for the auction adopted in such Re7 port and Order as follows: 

8 (1) The Commission shall begin accepting long9 form applications before the auction, not later than 

10 the earlier of the date that is 30 days after the date 

11 on which the Commission begins accepting short12 form applications or July 31, 2020, from such appli13 cants as are willing to commit to the schedule de14 scribed in paragraph (3)(B) for deployment of net15 works capable of providing symmetrical Gigabit per16 formance service. 

17 (2) If the long-form applications accepted pur18 suant to paragraph (1) indicate that, for any census 

19 block or census block group identified in the Prelimi20 nary List of Eligible Areas released by the Commis21 sion on March 17, 2020, there is only 1 qualified ap22 plicant willing to commit to provide symmetrical 

23 Gigabit performance service pursuant to the sched24 ule described in paragraph (3)(B), the Commission 


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1 shall, not later than the earlier of September 30, 

2 2020, or 30 days before the start of the auction— 

3 (A) award to such applicant Rural Digital 

4 Opportunity Fund Phase I support for such 

5 census block or census block group, at 100 per6 cent of the reserve price (in this paragraph re7 ferred to as the ‘‘award’’); 

8 (B) remove such census block or census 

9 block group from the auction; and 

10 (C) reduce the budget for the auction by 

11 75 percent of the amount of the award and re12 duce the budget for the Rural Digital Oppor13 tunity Fund Phase II auction provided for in 

14 such Report and Order by 25 percent of the 

15 amount of the award. 

16 (3) The Commission shall require an applicant 

17 submitting a long-form application pursuant to para18 graph (1) to— 

19 (A) not later than 30 days after the date 

20 on which such applicant submits such long-form 

21 application, provide a letter of commitment 

22 from a bank meeting the Commission’s eligi23 bility requirements stating that the bank would 

24 provide a letter of credit to such applicant if 


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1 such applicant becomes a winning bidder and is 

2 awarded support; and 

3 (B) commit to— 

4 (i) begin construction not later than 6 

5 months following funding authorization; 

6 and 

7 (ii) begin to make service available not 

8 later than 1 year following funding author9 ization. 

10 (4) If an applicant to which an award of sup11 port has been made under paragraph (2)(A) for a 

12 census block or census block group fails to meet the 

13 requirements of paragraph (3) with respect to such 

14 award of support, the Commission shall revoke such 

15 award of support and include such census block or 

16 census block group for competitive bidding in the 

17 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase II auction 

18 provided for in such Report and Order. 

19 (5) The Commission shall require an applicant 

20 to which an award of support has been made under 

21 paragraph (2)(A) to meet the deployment schedule 

22 to which the applicant committed under paragraph 

23 (3)(B). 


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1 SEC. 3. ENSURING THE FCC CREATES ACCURATE SERVICE 

2 MAPS. 

3 (a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Title 

4 VIII of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 641 

5 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 807. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

7 ‘‘There is authorized to be appropriated to the Com8 mission to carry out this title— 

9 ‘‘(1) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2020; and 

10 ‘‘(2) $9,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 

11 2021 through 2027.’’. 

12 (b) DEADLINE FOR CREATION OF MAPS.—Section 

13 802(c)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

14 642(c)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘create’’ and inserting 

15 ‘‘create, not later than October 1, 2020’’. 

Æ 


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