I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2163 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish a Lifeline Assistance 

Program for universal broadband adoption, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 14, 2011 

Ms. MATSUI introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish 

a Lifeline Assistance Program for universal broadband 

adoption, 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 ‘‘Broadband Afford5 ability Act of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. BROADBAND LIFELINE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. 

7 Section 254(j) of the Communications Act of 1934 

8 (47 U.S.C. 254(j)) is amended— 

9 (1) by striking ‘‘(j) LIFELINE ASSISTANCE.— 

10 Nothing in this’’ and inserting the following: 


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1 ‘‘(j) LIFELINE ASSISTANCE.— 

2 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this’’; and 

3 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘(2) BROADBAND LIFELINE ASSISTANCE PRO5 GRAM.— 

6 ‘‘(A) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this para7 graph is to promote the adoption of broadband 

8 service by all people of the United States while 

9 recognizing that the price of broadband service 

10 is one of the barriers to adoption for low in11 come households. 

12 ‘‘(B) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

13 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 

14 270 days after the date of enactment of 

15 the Broadband Affordability Act of 2011, 

16 the Commission shall take all actions nec17 essary to establish a broadband lifeline 

18 program that enables qualifying low-in19 come customers residing in urban and 

20 rural areas to purchase broadband service 

21 at reduced charges by reimbursing pro22 viders for each such customer served. 

23 ‘‘(ii) MODEL.—Such broadband life24 line program shall be similar in structure 

25 to the Lifeline program for basic telephone 


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1 service under subpart E of part 54 of title 

2 47, Code of Federal Regulations. 

3 ‘‘(iii) NONDUPLICATION.—In estab4 lishing the program under clause (i), the 

5 Commission shall adopt regulations to pre6 vent duplicative broadband lifeline sub7 sidies being awarded for an individual eli8 gible household. 

9 ‘‘(C) STATE MATCHING FUNDS.—In rec10 ognition of the interstate nature of broadband 

11 service, the Commission may determine, in con12 sultation with the Federal-State Joint Board, 

13 whether State matching funds must be provided 

14 as a condition of eligibility for low-income 

15 households within such State. 

16 ‘‘(D) AMOUNT OF SUPPORT.— 

17 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Commission, 

18 in calculating the amount of support to be 

19 provided to each low-income household, 

20 shall routinely study the prevailing market 

21 price for broadband service and the pre22 vailing speed of broadband service adopted 

23 by households. 

24 ‘‘(ii) INFORMATION.—To fulfill the re25 quirement under clause (i), the CommisVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:39 Jun 15, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2163.IH H2163

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1 sion shall rely on information that it rou2 tinely collects or that is publicly available. 

3 ‘‘(E) TECHNOLOGY NEUTRAL.— 

4 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Commission 

5 shall ensure that the broadband lifeline 

6 program is neutral as to the types of tech7 nology used to provide broadband service 

8 to promote competition from broadband 

9 service providers to qualify under such pro10 gram. 

11 ‘‘(ii) AUTHORIZATION.—A broadband 

12 service provider need not be an eligible 

13 telecommunications carrier to receive sup14 port under the broadband lifeline program, 

15 but such provider shall obtain authoriza16 tion from the Commission in order to par17 ticipate in the program.’’. 

Æ 


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