IIB 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1343 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 6, 2011 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To return unused or reclaimed funds made available for 

broadband awards in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to the Treasury of the United 

States. 

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


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1 SECTION 1. ACCOUNTABILITY FOR BROADBAND STIMULUS 

2 FUNDS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi4 sion of law, the Administrator of the Rural Utilities Serv5 ice or the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Commu6 nications and Information shall take prompt and appro7 priate action to terminate for cause any award made 

8 under the Broadband Initiatives Program or the 

9 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, respec10 tively, established pursuant to the American Recovery and 

11 Reinvestment Act of 2009, if the Administrator or Assist12 ant Secretary determines that cause exists to terminate 

13 the award. Such cause may include an insufficient level 

14 of performance, wasteful spending, or fraudulent spend15 ing. 

16 (b) DEOBLIGATION AND RETURN OF FUNDS TO

17 TREASURY.— 

18 (1) DEOBLIGATION.—Upon terminating an 

19 award under subsection (a), the Administrator or 

20 the Assistant Secretary shall immediately deobligate 

21 an amount equivalent to such award, less allowable 

22 costs, to the extent funds with respect to such award 

23 are available in the account relating to the 

24 Broadband Initiatives Program or the Broadband 

25 Technology Opportunities Program, respectively. If 

26 the Administrator or the Assistant Secretary subseVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:44 Oct 07, 2011 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1343.RFS H1343

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1 quently recovers any additional amounts from such 

2 award, the Administrator or the Assistant Secretary 

3 shall deobligate such additional amounts imme4 diately upon receipt. 

5 (2) RETURN TO TREASURY.—Not later than 30 

6 days after deobligating an amount under paragraph 

7 (1), the Administrator or the Assistant Secretary 

8 shall, without exception, return such amount to the 

9 general fund of the Treasury of the United States. 

10 (3) NO EXPENDITURES DURING TERMINATION

11 PROCESS.—The Administrator or the Assistant Sec12 retary shall promptly pursue available corrective 

13 measures to ensure that funds received through an 

14 award terminated under subsection (a) are not ex15 pended during the termination process. 

16 (4) ACCOUNTING BY AWARD RECIPIENT.—The 

17 Administrator or the Assistant Secretary shall direct 

18 the recipient of an award terminated under sub19 section (a) to provide to the Administrator or the 

20 Assistant Secretary a complete and accurate ac21 counting, which may include an independent ac22 counting, for any award funds that, as of the date 

23 of termination, the recipient has received but has 

24 not expended on allowable costs. 


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1 SEC. 2. DISPOSITION OF UNUSED FUNDS. 

2 The Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service or 

3 the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications 

4 and Information shall return to the general fund of the 

5 Treasury of the United States an amount equivalent to 

6 any award, less allowable costs, made under the 

7 Broadband Initiatives Program or the Broadband Tech8 nology Opportunities Program, respectively, established 

9 pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 

10 of 2009, if such award has been returned to the Adminis11 trator or Assistant Secretary or disclaimed by the award 

12 recipient at any time after the date of enactment of such 

13 Act. 

14 SEC. 3. OVERSIGHT AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 

15 (a) ACTION ON INFORMATION FROM OIG OR GAO.— 

16 If the Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service or the 

17 Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and 

18 Information receives information from an official de19 scribed in subsection (b) with respect to an award made 

20 under the Broadband Initiatives Program or the 

21 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, respec22 tively, established pursuant to the American Recovery and 

23 Reinvestment Act of 2009, and such information pertains 

24 to material noncompliance with the award terms or provi25 sions or improper usage of award funds, the Administrator 

26 or the Assistant Secretary shall— 


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1 (1) immediately review such information; and 

2 (2) not later than 30 days after receiving such 

3 information, determine whether cause exists to ter4 minate such award under section 1(a), unless the of5 ficial who provided such information recommends 

6 that the Administrator or the Assistant Secretary 

7 limit or not make such a determination. 

8 (b) OFFICIALS DESCRIBED.—The officials described 

9 in this subsection are the following: 

10 (1) With respect to the Broadband Initiatives 

11 Program, the Inspector General of the Department 

12 of Agriculture. 

13 (2) With respect to the Broadband Technology 

14 Opportunities Program, the Inspector General of the 

15 Department of Commerce. 

16 (3) The Comptroller General of the United 

17 States. 

18 (c) CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 days after 

20 making a determination described in subsection 

21 (a)(2), the Administrator or the Assistant Secretary 

22 shall provide a notification of such determination 

23 to— 

24 (A) the Committee on Agriculture of the 

25 House of Representatives and the Committee 


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1 on Agriculture of the Senate or the Committee 

2 on Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep3 resentatives and the Committee on Commerce, 

4 Science, and Transportation of the Senate, re5 spectively; and 

6 (B) the official who provided the informa7 tion described in subsection (a). 

8 (2) CONTENTS OF NOTIFICATION.—The notifi9 cation required by paragraph (1) shall include an ex10 planation of— 

11 (A) the determination described in sub12 section (a)(2); and 

13 (B) any action taken as a result of the de14 termination or why no action was necessary. 

15 (3) CONFIDENTIAL NOTIFICATION UNDER CER16 TAIN CIRCUMSTANCES.—In the case of a determina17 tion by the Administrator or the Assistant Secretary 

18 under subsection (a)(2) that cause does not exist to 

19 terminate the award, the Administrator or the As20 sistant Secretary may make the congressional notifi21 cation required by paragraph (1)(A) on a confiden22 tial basis, if the Administrator or the Assistant Sec23 retary determines, after consultation with the official 

24 who provided the information described in subsection 

25 (a), that— 


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1 (A) there is no merit to such information; 

2 and 

3 (B) notification on a public basis would 

4 cause irreparable harm to any person the infor5 mation is regarding. 

6 SEC. 4. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 

7 Section 6001(i)(4) of the American Recovery and Re8 investment Act of 2009 (47 U.S.C. 1305(i)(4)) is amend9 ed— 

10 (1) by striking ‘‘may’’ and inserting ‘‘shall’’; 

11 and 

12 (2) by striking ‘‘, and award these funds com13 petitively to new or existing applicants consistent 

14 with this section’’. 

15 SEC. 5. AWARD DEFINED. 

16 In this Act, the term ‘‘award’’ includes grants and 

17 loans. 

Passed the House of Representatives October 5, 

2011. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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