I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2139
To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make loans for the development
of broadband services in rural areas.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 12, 2001
Mr. SMITH of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Energy
and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speak-
er, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the ju-
risdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make loans
for the development of broadband services in rural areas.
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 America
Broadband Deployment Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
(1) high-speed Internet access (broadband) will
benefit rural communities, agricultural producers,
and the American public by enabling—
(A) the improvement of productivity;
(B) the creation of new market outlets;
(C) the simplification of price discovery;
(D) the creation of risk management;
(E) forward pricing opportunities;
(2) according to a national survey, if United
States farmers had broadband access last year, their
savings in input costs and gains from greater mar-
keting efficiencies would have netted them at least
$5,800,000,000;
(3) as e-commerce becomes as revolutionary to
the United States economy as the telegraph, tele-
phone, and telefax has been, it is in the Nation’s
best overall interests not to leave rural communities
and agriculture behind the technological curve.
SEC. 3. BROADBAND LOAN PROGRAM.
(a) IN GENERAL.—
(1) LOAN AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of Agri-
culture (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Sec-
retary’’) shall make loans, to the extent of qualifying
applications for such loans, to eligible persons and
entities (including public entities) to provide or im-
prove broadband service in rural areas where the
Secretary determines services are not adequate.
(2) REFINANCING OF EXISTING LOANS.—The
Secretary may make a loan under this section to re-
finance an outstanding loan if the Secretary deter-
mines the refinancing is necessary to provide or im-
prove broadband service in a rural area.
(b) LOAN TERMS AND CONDITIONS.—
(1) 
INTEREST
RATE.—The 
interest 
rate
charged for a loan under this section shall be deter-
mined by the Secretary and shall approximate the
interest rate borne by securities issued by the Treas-
ury of the United States with comparable maturities.
(2) TERM OF LOAN.—The term of a loan under
this section shall not exceed the composite useful life
of the assets financed by the loan.
(3) FEASIBILITY
AND
SECURITY.—The Sec-
retary may not make a loan to a borrower under this
section unless the Secretary determines that the
borrower—
(A) can repay the loan in accordance with
the loan terms; and
(B) has provided sufficient collateral to se-
cure the loan.
(4) OTHER LOAN TERMS.—The Secretary shall
prescribe such other terms and conditions for loans
made under this section as the Secretary deems ap-
propriate.
(c) LIMITATIONS
ON AUTHORIZATION
OF APPRO-
PRIATIONS.—To carry out this section, there are author-
ized to be appropriated to the Secretary $100,000,000 for
each of fiscal years 2002 through 2004.
(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
(1) 
BROADBAND
SERVICE.—The 
term
‘‘broadband service’’ means providing an information
rate equivalent to at least 200 kilobits per second in
the connection from the provider to the consumer
and from the consumer to the provider.
(2) RURAL
AREA.—The term ‘‘rural area’’
means any area of the United States not included
within the boundaries of any incorporated or unin-
corporated city, village, or borough having a popu-
lation in excess of 50,000 inhabitants.
Æ