I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4122
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to encourage broadband
deployment to rural America, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 29, 2000
Mr. STUPAK (for himself and Mr. POMEROY) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, and in addition to
the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to encourage
broadband deployment to rural America, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Broadband En-
hancement Act’’.
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SEC. 2. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION TO PRO-
VIDE SUPPORT FROM UNIVERSAL SERVICE
FUND.
Section 254(c) of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 254(e)) is amended—
(1) by redesignating so much of the text of such
subsection as follows ‘‘(e) UNIVERSAL SERVICE SUP-
PORT.—’’ as paragraph (1);
(2) by inserting before ‘‘After’’ the following
heading: ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(2) RURAL AREA BROADBAND SUPPORT.—In
addition to any other support provided under para-
graph (1), the Commission shall, within 90 days
after the date of enactment of the Rural Broadband
Enhancement Act, initiate a proceeding to provide
Federal universal service support for the deployment
of broadband service (as defined in section 156(e)(1)
of the National Telecommunications and Informa-
tion Administration Organization Act) to eligible
rural communities (as defined in section 156(e)(2)
of that Act). The proceeding shall be completed
within 240 days. Federal universal service support
provided as a result of that proceeding shall be de-
termined without cost averaging of any above-aver-
age cost areas with any lower cost areas, such as
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would occur in statewide or study averaging, and
may be used for the deployment of—
‘‘(A) loop treatment and digital subscriber
line access multiplexers;
‘‘(B) cable modems;
‘‘(C) wireless technology; and
‘‘(D) satellite technology.’’.
SEC. 3. RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE LOAN PROGRAM.
Part C of title I of the National Telecommunications
and Information Administration Organization Act (47
U.S.C. 901 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end there-
of the following:
‘‘SEC. 156. BROADBAND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Rural Utilities Service of
the Department of Agriculture, after consultation with the
NTIA, shall make loans or other extensions of credit to
companies certified as eligible telecommunications carriers
providers, or that accept the obligations of an eligible tele-
communications carrier, in accordance with the provisions
of this section to finance the deployment of broadband
telecommunications services to eligible rural communities.
‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.—To be eligible
for a loan or other extension of credit under this section,
a project shall—
‘‘(1) be capable of delivering broadband service;
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‘‘(2) be for the purpose of making access to
broadband service available to an eligible rural com-
munity where broadband service is not otherwise
generally available throughout that community; and
‘‘(3) be subject to the standards for service and
area wide coverage applicable to other projects ad-
ministered by the Rural Utilities Service.
‘‘(c) TERMS AND CONDITIONS.—Loans made under
this section—
‘‘(1) shall be made available in accordance with
the requirements of the Federal Credit Reform Act
of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661);
‘‘(2) shall bear interest at an annual rate of not
more than 2 percent per annum; and
‘‘(3) shall be made for the longer of—
‘‘(A) a term of 30 years; or
‘‘(B) the useful life of the assets con-
structed, reconstructed, or acquired.
‘‘(d) LIMITATIONS.—
‘‘(1) TECHNOLOGY
NEUTRALITY.—In making
loans under this section, the Rural Utilities Service
may not take into consideration the technology pro-
posed to be employed.
‘‘(2) SECURITY INTEREST.—The Rural Utilities
Service may take a security interest in assets or rev-
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enue streams, in connection with a loan or other ex-
tension of credit made under this section, of not
more than the amount sufficient to cover the assets
financed by that loan or extension of credit.
‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
‘‘(1) 
BROADBAND
SERVICE.—The 
term
‘broadband service’ includes, without regard to any
particular transmission medium or technology, high-
speed, switched, broadband telecommunications ca-
pable of delivering not less than 1.0 megabits of
data per second to the user and 0.5 megabits of
data per second from the user that enables users to
originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graph-
ics, and video telecommunications. The Commission
shall, from time-to-time as circumstances warrant,
revise the rate-of-data-transmission criteria stated in
the preceding sentence upward to reflect techno-
logical advances, and the criteria, as so revised, shall
be applied under the preceding sentence in lieu of
the rate-of-data-transmission criteria stated or pre-
viously revised by the Commission under this sen-
tence.
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE RURAL COMMUNITY.—The term
‘eligible rural community’ means any incorporated or
unincorporated place that—