II

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2307

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to encourage broadband

deployment to rural America, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 28, 2000

Mr. DORGAN (for himself, Mr. DASCHLE, Mr. BAUCUS, Mr. JOHNSON, and

Mr. HARKIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to encourage

broadband deployment to rural America, 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 En5 hancement Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION TO PRO2 VIDE SUPPORT FROM UNIVERSAL SERVICE

3 FUND.

4 Section 254(e) of the Communications Act of 1934

5 (47 U.S.C. 254(e)) is amended—

6 (1) by redesignating so much of the text of such

7 subsection as follows ‘‘(e) UNIVERSAL SERVICE SUP8 PORT.—’’ as paragraph (1);

9 (2) by inserting before ‘‘After’’ the following

10 heading: ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—’’; and

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

12 ‘‘(2) RURAL AREA BROADBAND SUPPORT.—In

13 addition to any other support provided under para14 graph (1), the Commission shall, within 90 days

15 after the date of enactment of the Rural Broadband

16 Enhancement Act, initiate a proceeding to provide

17 Federal universal service support for the deployment

18 of broadband service (as defined in section 156(e)(1)

19 of the National Telecommunications and Informa20 tion Administration Organization Act) to eligible

21 rural communities (as defined in section 156(e)(2)

22 of that Act). The proceeding shall be completed

23 within 240 days. Federal universal service support

24 provided as a result of that proceeding shall be de25 termined without cost averaging of any above-aver26 age cost areas with any lower cost areas, such as
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1 would occur in statewide or study averaging, and

2 may be used for the deployment of—

3 ‘‘(A) loop treatments and digital subscriber

4 line access multiplexers;

5 ‘‘(B) cable modems;

6 ‘‘(C) wireless technology; and

7 ‘‘(D) satellite technology.’’.

8 SEC. 3. RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE LOAN PROGRAM.

9 Part C of title I of the National Telecommunications

10 and Information Administration Organization Act (47

11 U.S.C. 901 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end there12 of the following:

13 ‘‘SEC. 156. BROADBAND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.

14 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Rural Utilities Service of

15 the Department of Agriculture, after consultation with the

16 NTIA, shall make loans or other extensions of credit to

17 companies certified as eligible telecommunications carriers

18 providers, or that accept the obligations of an eligible tele19 communications carrier, in accordance with the provisions

20 of this section to finance the deployment of broadband

21 telecommunications services to eligible rural communities.

22 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.—To be eligible

23 for a loan or other extension of credit under this section,

24 a project shall—

25 ‘‘(1) be capable of delivering broadband service;
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1 ‘‘(2) be for the purpose of making access to

2 broadband service available to an eligible rural com3 munity where broadband service is not otherwise

4 generally available throughout that community; and

5 ‘‘(3) be subject to the standards for service and

6 area wide coverage applicable to other projects ad7 ministered by the Rural Utilities Service.

8 ‘‘(c) TERMS AND CONDITIONS.—Loans made under

9 this section—

10 ‘‘(1) shall be made available in accordance with

11 the requirements of the Federal Credit Reform Act

12 of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661);

13 ‘‘(2) shall bear interest at an annual rate of not

14 more than 2 percent per annum; and

15 ‘‘(3) shall be made for the longer of—

16 ‘‘(A) a term of 30 years; or

17 ‘‘(B) the useful life of the assets con18 structed, reconstructed, or acquired.

19 ‘‘(d) LIMITATIONS.—

20 ‘‘(1) TECHNOLOGY NEUTRALITY.—In making

21 loans under this section, the Rural Utilities Service

22 may not take into consideration the technology pro23 posed to be employed.

24 ‘‘(2) SECURITY INTEREST.—The Rural Utilities

25 Service may take a security interest in assets or rev-
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1 enue streams, in connection with a loan or other ex2 tension of credit made under this section, of not

3 more than the amount sufficient to cover the assets

4 financed by that loan or extension of credit.

5 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

6 ‘‘(1) BROADBAND SERVICE.—The term

7 ‘broadband service’ includes, without regard to any

8 particular transmission medium or technology, high9 speed, switched, broadband telecommunications ca10 pable of delivering not less than 1.0 megabits of

11 data per second to the user and 0.5 megabits of

12 data per second from the user that enables users to

13 originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graph14 ics, and video telecommunications. The Commission

15 shall, from time-to-time as circumstances warrant,

16 revise the rate-of-data-transmission criteria stated in

17 the preceding sentence upward to reflect techno18 logical advances, and the criteria, as so revised, shall

19 be applied under the preceding sentence in lieu of

20 the rate-of-data-transmission criteria stated or pre21 viously revised by the Commission under this sen22 tence.

23 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE RURAL COMMUNITY.—The term

24 ‘eligible rural community’ means any incorporated or

25 unincorporated place that—
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1 ‘‘(A) has not more than 20,000 inhab2 itants, based on the most recent available popu3 lation statistics of the Bureau of the Census;

4 and

5 ‘‘(B) is not located in an area designated

6 as a Metropolitan Area by the Office of Man7 agement and Budget.’’.

8 SEC. 4. FUNDING.

9 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Sec10 retary of Agriculture to carry out the provisions of section

11 156 of the National Telecommunications and Information

12 Administration Organization Act $3,000,000,000 for fis13 cal years 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, through 2005, such

14 amount to remain available until expended.

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