I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7363 
To prohibit a State or political subdivision thereof from providing or offering 
for sale to the public retail or wholesale broadband internet access 
service, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 25, 2020 
Mr. LONG introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To prohibit a State or political subdivision thereof from 
providing or offering for sale to the public retail or 
wholesale broadband internet access service, 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 ‘‘Communities Over-
regulating Networks Need Economic Competition Today 
Act’’ or the ‘‘CONNECT Act’’. 
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SEC. 
2. 
PROHIBITION 
ON 
GOVERNMENT 
OWNED 
BROADBAND NETWORKS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsections 
(b)(1) and (c), a State or political subdivision thereof may 
not provide or offer for sale to the public, a telecommuni-
cations provider, or to a commercial provider of broadband 
internet access service, retail or wholesale broadband 
internet access service. 
(b) TRANSITIONAL RULE.—Any State or political 
subdivision thereof providing or offering for sale, either 
to the public, a telecommunications provider, or to a pro-
vider of broadband internet access service, retail or whole-
sale broadband internet access service, before the date of 
the enactment of this section— 
(1) notwithstanding subsection (a), may con-
tinue to provide or offer for sale such service if the 
Commission finds there is no more than one other 
commercial provider of broadband internet access 
that provides competition for that service in a par-
ticular area; 
(2) shall notify each subscriber of the State or 
political subdivision if a commercial provider of re-
tail broadband internet access enters the market; 
and 
(3) may not construct or extend facilities used 
to deliver broadband internet access service beyond 
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the geographic area in which the State or political 
subdivision thereof lawfully operates. 
(c) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding subsection (a), 
this section does not apply to the Tennessee Valley Au-
thority. 
(d) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—This section may not be con-
strued to restrict a State or political subdivision 
thereof, from allowing the nondiscriminatory use of 
its rights-of-way, including access to utility poles, 
conduits, ducts, or similar support structures used 
for the deployment of facilities necessary to deliver 
broadband internet access service. 
(2) PUBLIC SAFETY.—This section may not be 
construed to restrict a State or political subdivision 
thereof, from providing broadband facilities or serv-
ices for 9–1–1, enhanced 9–1–1 service, or Next 
Generation 9–1–1. 
(e) LIMITATION OF COMMISSION AUTHORITY.—Not-
withstanding any provision of law, including section 706 
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 706), the 
Commission may not pre-empt State laws to permit a 
State or political subdivision thereof to provide or offer 
for sale to the public retail or wholesale broadband inter-
net access service. 
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(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) 9–1–1 REQUEST FOR EMERGENCY ASSIST-
ANCE.—The term ‘‘9–1–1 request for emergency as-
sistance’’ means a communication, such as voice, 
text, picture, multimedia, or any other type of data 
that is sent to an emergency communications center 
for the purpose of requesting emergency assistance. 
(2) BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.— 
The term ‘‘broadband internet access service’’ has 
the meaning given that term in section 8.1(b) of title 
47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor 
regulation. 
(3) COMMONLY
ACCEPTED
STANDARDS.—The 
term ‘‘commonly accepted standards’’ means— 
(A) the technical standards followed by the 
communications industry for network, device, 
and Internet Protocol connectivity, including 
standards developed by the Third Generation 
Partnership Project, the Institute of Electrical 
and Electronics Engineers, the Alliance for 
Telecommunications Industry Solutions, the 
Internet Engineering Taskforce, and the Inter-
national Telecommunications Union; and 
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(B) standards that are accredited by a rec-
ognized authority such as the American Na-
tional Standards Institute. 
(4) EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS CENTER.— 
The term ‘‘emergency communications center’’ 
means a facility that is designated to receive a 9– 
1–1 request for emergency assistance and perform 
one or more of the following functions: 
(A) Process and analyze 9–1–1 requests 
for emergency assistance and other gathered in-
formation. 
(B) Dispatch appropriate emergency re-
sponse providers. 
(C) Transfer or exchange 9–1–1 requests 
for emergency assistance and other gathered in-
formation with other emergency communica-
tions centers and emergency response providers. 
(D) Analyze any communications received 
from emergency response providers. 
(E) Support incident command functions. 
(5) EMERGENCY
RESPONSE
PROVIDER.—The 
term ‘‘emergency response provider’’— 
(A) has the meaning given that term under 
section 2 of the Homeland Security Act (47 
U.S.C. 101); and 
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(B) includes Federal, State, and local gov-
ernmental and nongovernmental emergency 
public safety, fire, law enforcement, emergency 
response, emergency medical (including hospital 
emergency facilities), and related personnel, 
agencies, and authorities. 
(6) ENHANCED 9–1–1 SERVICE.—The term ‘‘en-
hanced 9–1–1 service’’ has the meaning given that 
term in section 7(10) of the Wireless Communica-
tions and Public Safety Act of 1999 (47 U.S.C. 
615b(10)). 
(7) INTEROPERABLE.—The term ‘‘interoper-
able’’ means the capability of emergency communica-
tions centers to receive 9–1–1 requests for emer-
gency assistance and related data such as location 
information and callback numbers from the public, 
then process and share the 9–1–1 requests for emer-
gency assistance and related data with other emer-
gency communications centers and emergency re-
sponse providers, regardless of jurisdiction, equip-
ment, device, software, service provider, or other rel-
evant factors, and without the need for proprietary 
interfaces. 
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(8) NEXT
GENERATION
9–1–1.—The term 
‘‘Next Generation 9–1–1’’ means an interoperable, 
secure, Internet Protocol-based system that— 
(A) employs commonly accepted standards; 
(B) enables the appropriate emergency 
communications centers to receive, process, and 
analyze all types of 9–1–1 requests for emer-
gency assistance; 
(C) acquires and integrates additional in-
formation useful to handling 9–1–1 requests for 
emergency assistance; and 
(D) supports sharing information related 
to 9–1–1 requests for emergency assistance 
among emergency communications centers and 
emergency response providers. 
(9) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any 
State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 
Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the United 
States Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Is-
lands, and any other territory or possession of the 
United States. 
(10) TELECOMMUNICATIONS
PROVIDER.—The 
term ‘‘telecommunications provider’’ means an eligi-
ble telecommunications carrier as designated under 
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section 214(e)(2) of the Communications Act of 
1934 (47 U.S.C. 214(e)(2)). 
Æ 
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