IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1144 
Recognizing broadband as a human and civil right for all Americans. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 
Ms. HAALAND (for herself and Mr. KHANNA) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing broadband as a human and civil right for all 
Americans. 
Whereas, in 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council 
passed a resolution affirming that the same rights people 
have offline must be protected online and called for coun-
tries to promote and facilitate access to the internet to 
develop knowledgeable societies with the realization of the 
right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of 
peaceful assembly and association, and the right to edu-
cation; 
Whereas the First Amendment to the Constitution protects 
the freedom of speech and expression for all persons, and 
the Supreme Court has ruled that speech and expression 
on the internet is included in such protections; 
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•HRES 1144 IH 
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 
published the National Broadband Plan in 2010 to bring 
broadband to all Americans but, as of 2020, 22.3 percent 
of Americans living in rural areas lacked access to fixed 
broadband services, compared to only 1.5 percent of 
Americans living in urban areas; 
Whereas digital divides contribute to and exacerbate poverty 
and inequality in modern society by prohibiting equal ac-
cess to public services, employment opportunities, edu-
cational resources, basic liberties, and fundamental rights 
guaranteed to all Americans; 
Whereas, in April 2020, the Department of Health and 
Human Services found that more than 1 in 6 people with 
incomes below the Federal poverty level had no access to 
the internet, and 18 percent of people with incomes below 
100 percent of the Federal poverty level lacked internet 
access, compared to only 3 percent of people with in-
comes at or above 400 percent of the Federal poverty 
level; 
Whereas, in 2018, the Government Accountability Office 
(GAO) found that only 65 percent of American Indians, 
Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians living on Tribal 
lands had access to fixed broadband services, and only 69 
percent of households on Tribal lands have telephone 
services; 
Whereas the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) estimates 
that up to 95 percent of students attending BIE facilities 
lack residential internet services during the COVID–19 
pandemic; 
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•HRES 1144 IH 
Whereas the GAO has further found that FCC data has over-
stated statistics relating to broadband availability and 
digital access on Tribal lands in the United States; 
Whereas the 2017 statistics of the National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics in the Department of Education showed 
that 34.1 percent of all higher education students engage 
in some form of online education courses, a 5.7-percent 
increase in enrollment in online higher education from 
the previous year; 
Whereas the percentage of students enrolled in online edu-
cation courses significantly increased during the pan-
demic and educational administrators have made remote 
and online learning for the 2020–2021 academic year 
available to avoid public health risks; 
Whereas increased access to broadband promotes economic 
competition, entrepreneurship, and efficiency; 
Whereas the World Bank found that every 10 percent in-
crease in fixed broadband penetration accelerates eco-
nomic growth by 1.21 percent in developed economies 
and 1.38 percent in developing economies; 
Whereas counties with higher rates of broadband availability 
have lower unemployment rates, and broadband helps 
service industry businesses overcome geographic barriers 
that have traditionally hampered rural growth; 
Whereas the American Medical Informatics Association and 
other public health experts have called access to wireless 
broadband services a social determinant of health; 
Whereas data from the American Community Survey of the 
Bureau of the Census shows that approximately 
5,000,000 households with school-age children do not 
have high-speed internet access at home, with a dis-
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•HRES 1144 IH 
proportionate share being low-income African-American 
or Hispanic/Latino households, and low-income house-
holds are 4 times more likely than middle- or high-income 
households to lack broadband access; 
Whereas the United States is a signatory of the Convention 
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which calls on 
countries to take appropriate measures to promote access 
for persons with disabilities to new information and com-
munication technology and systems, which can only be 
achieved through continued access to communication 
technologies; and 
Whereas intentional disruptions of internet access have been 
used in countries across the globe to crack down on 
human rights, limit communication, and harm freedom of 
association: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Broadband for 
All Resolution of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. RECOGNIZING BROADBAND AS A HUMAN AND CIVIL 
RIGHT FOR ALL AMERICANS. 
The House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes that equal access to affordable 
and reliable fixed broadband services for all Ameri-
cans is a civil and human right that protects and 
promotes the fair, equal, and impartial treatment of 
all people regardless of race, sex, nationality, eth-
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