for communities across the Nation, improved health 
care and educational opportunities, and a better 
quality of life for all Americans. 
(2) Continued progress in the deployment and 
adoption of broadband services is vital to ensuring 
that our Nation remains competitive and continues 
to create business and job growth. 
(3) The Federal Government should also recog-
nize and encourage complementary State efforts to 
improve the quality and usefulness of data about 
broadband service and its deployment and should en-
courage and support the partnership of the public 
and private sectors in the continued growth of 
broadband services and information technology for 
the residents and businesses of the Nation. 
SEC. 3. ENCOURAGING STATE INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE 
BROADBAND. 
(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of any grant under 
subsection (b) are— 
(1) to ensure that all citizens and businesses in 
a State have access to affordable, reliable broadband 
service; 
(2) to achieve improved technology literacy, in-
creased computer ownership, and home broadband 
use among such citizens and businesses; 
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(3) to establish and empower local grassroots 
technology teams in each State to plan for improved 
technology use across multiple community sectors; 
and 
(4) to establish and sustain an environment 
ripe for broadband services and information tech-
nology investment. 
(b) ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE BROADBAND DATA 
AND DEVELOPMENT GRANT PROGRAM.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce 
shall award grants, taking into account the results 
of the peer review process under subsection (d), to 
entities for the development, implementation and 
support of statewide initiatives to identify and track 
the availability and adoption of broadband services 
within each State. 
(2) COMPETITIVE BASIS.—Any grant under this 
subsection shall be awarded on a competitive basis. 
(c) ELIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to receive a grant 
under subsection (b), an eligible entity shall— 
(1) submit an application to the Secretary of 
Commerce, at such time, in such manner, and con-
taining such information as the Secretary may re-
quire; and 
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(2) contribute matching non-Federal funds in 
an amount equal to not less than 20 percent of the 
total amount of the grant. 
(d) PEER REVIEW.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall by regu-
lation require appropriate technical and scientific 
peer review of applications made for grants under 
this section. 
(2) REVIEW PROCEDURES.—The regulations re-
quired under paragraph (1) shall require that any 
technical and scientific peer review group— 
(A) be provided a written description of 
the grant to be reviewed; 
(B) provide the results of any review by 
such group to the Secretary of Commerce; and 
(C) certify that such group will enter into 
voluntary nondisclosure agreements as nec-
essary to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of 
confidential and propriety information provided 
by broadband service providers in connection 
with projects funded by any such grant. 
(e) USE OF FUNDS.—A grant awarded to an eligible 
entity under subsection (b) shall be used to the maximum 
extent possible— 
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(1) to provide a baseline assessment of 
broadband service deployment in each State; 
(2) to identify and track— 
(A) areas in each State that have low lev-
els of broadband service deployment; 
(B) the rate at which residential and busi-
ness adopt broadband service and other related 
information technology services; and 
(C) possible suppliers of such services; 
(3) to identify barriers to the adoption by indi-
viduals and businesses of broadband service and re-
lated information technology services, including 
whether or not— 
(A) the demand for such services is absent; 
and 
(B) the supply for such services is capable 
of meeting the demand for such services; 
(4) to create and facilitate, in each county or 
designated region in a State, a local technology plan-
ning team— 
(A) with members representing a cross sec-
tion of the community, including representatives 
of business, telecommunications labor organiza-
tions, elementary and secondary education, 
health care, libraries, higher education, commu-
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nity-based 
organizations, 
local 
government, 
tourism, parks and recreation, and agriculture; 
and 
(B) which shall— 
(i) measure, against relevant bench-
marks, technology use across relevant com-
munity sectors; 
(ii) set goals for improved technology 
use within each sector; and 
(iii) develop a tactical business plan 
for achieving its goals, with specific rec-
ommendations for online application devel-
opment and demand creation; 
(5) to work collaboratively with broadband serv-
ice providers and information technology companies 
to encourage deployment and use, especially in 
unserved and underserved areas, through the use of 
local demand aggregation, mapping analysis, and the 
creation of market intelligence to improve the busi-
ness case for providers to deploy; 
(6) to establish programs to improve computer 
ownership and Internet access for unserved and un-
derserved populations; 
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(7) to collect and analyze detailed market data 
concerning the use and demand for broadband serv-
ice and related information technology services; 
(8) to facilitate information exchange regarding 
the use and demand for broadband services between 
public and private sectors; and 
(9) to create within each State a geographic in-
ventory map of broadband service, which shall— 
(A) identify gaps in such service through a 
method of geographic information system map-
ping of service availability at the census block 
level; and 
(B) provide a baseline assessment of state-
wide broadband deployment in terms of house-
holds with high-speed availability. 
(f) PARTICIPATION LIMIT.—For each State, an eligi-
ble entity may not receive a new grant under this section 
to fund the activities described in subsection (d) within 
such State if such organization obtained prior grant 
awards under this section to fund the same activities in 
that State in each of the previous 4 consecutive years. 
(g) REPORT.—Each recipient of a grant under sub-
section (b) shall submit a report on the use of the funds 
provided by the grant to the Secretary of Commerce. 
(h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
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(1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-
ty’’ means a nonprofit organization or public sector 
entity that is selected by a State to work in partner-
ship with State agencies and private sector partners 
in identifying and tracking the availability and adop-
tion of broadband services within each State. 
(2) NONPROFIT
ORGANIZATION.—The term 
‘‘nonprofit organization’’ means an organization— 
(A) described in section 501(c)(3) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt 
from tax under section 501(a) of such Code; 
(B) no part of the net earnings of which 
inures to the benefit of any member, founder, 
contributor, or individual; 
(C) that has an established competency 
and proven record of working with public and 
private sectors to accomplish widescale deploy-
ment and adoption of broadband services and 
information technology; and 
(D) the board of directors of which is not 
composed of a majority of individuals who are 
also employed by, or otherwise associated with, 
any Federal, State, or local government or any 
Federal, State, or local agency. 
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(3) 
BROADBAND
SERVICE.—The 
term 
‘‘broadband service’’ means any service that con-
nects to the public Internet and that provides a data 
transmission-rate equivalent to at least 200 kilobits 
per second, or any successor transmission-rate estab-
lished by the Federal Communications Commission, 
in at least 1 direction. 
(i) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012. 
(j) NO REGULATORY AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this 
Act shall be construed as giving any public or private enti-
ty established or affected by this Act any additional regu-
latory jurisdiction or oversight authority over providers of 
broadband services or information technology. 
Æ 
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