2023 District of Columbia Code › Title 1 - Government Organization › Chapter 14 - Office of the Chief Technology Officer › Subchapter I - General › § 1–1403.01. Digital equity planning and reporting

§ 1–1403.01. Digital equity planning and reporting.
(a) The Office shall work to identify and remedy barriers to equitable access to internet service in the District, including racial, socioeconomic, geographic, and other inequities in connectivity infrastructure, in device ownership, in the compatibility between devices and critical services, in digital literacy, and in awareness and adoption of digital tools and benefits.
(b) Within 90 days after March 10, 2023, the Office shall deliver to the Council and post on its website an internet equity status report.
(1) The report shall include a description of the District's participation in federal programs pursuant to BIL, including:
(A) A list of federal programs established pursuant to BIL that the District government is participating in, including a description of:
(i) The District's current participation in each; and
(ii) Anticipated uses of funds to advance digital equity as described in subsection (a) of this section;
(B) A list of any federal programs established pursuant to BIL that the District government is potentially eligible to participate in but has decided not to, with an explanation; and
(C) A list of any federal programs established pursuant to BIL that the District government is still evaluating as of the date of the initial report, with the Office's best estimate of a timeline for deciding whether to participate in each.
(2) The initial report shall describe how the Office plans to conduct community outreach and engagement regarding the District's applications for federal internet infrastructure funding.
(c) Within 1 year after March 10, 2023, the Office shall develop or obtain and shall deliver to the Council and post on its website a study of the feasibility and anticipated consequences of one or more projects using local or federal grant funds to increase District-owned fiber and conduit broadband infrastructure in areas identified by the Office as least likely to receive affordable, reliable high-speed internet service absent such investments, including:
(1) Overall recommendations as to the scale of such projects that may reasonably be completed within the implementation periods of any major BIL programs in which the Office intends to participate;
(2) Estimated costs and buildout timelines;
(3) Barriers that may increase implementation costs;
(4) Estimated District revenues that might reasonably result during the useful life of the resulting infrastructure;
(5) Estimated economic benefits to District residents and businesses that might reasonably result during the useful life of the resulting infrastructure; and
(6) Estimates of the scale of any other significant benefits likely to accrue to District residents and businesses as a result of the projects.
(d)(1) Within 1 year after March 10, 2023, the Office shall deliver to the Council, and post on its website, an internet equity gap assessment report ("GA report").
(2) The GA report shall address the digital equity goals of:
(A) Ensuring that all District households earning 50% of the area median family income or less are able to obtain home internet access, with adequate speed and reliability to support ordinary digital participation in important activities such as employment, education, and health care, and at a cost of no more than 0.5% of household income; and
(B) Ensuring that all applications for important services or benefits that District agencies offer in online formats may be accessed reliably and in a consistent manner via:
(i) Desktop computers;
(ii) Laptop computers;
(iii) Tablet devices;
(iv) Smartphones; and
(v) Widely used internet browsers.
(3) For each digital equity goal enumerated in paragraph (2) of this subsection, the GA report shall:
(A) Estimate the extent to which existing District government programs, including programs that the Office anticipates pursuing using BIL funding, are unlikely to achieve the goal within 3 years after the date of the GA report;
(B) Note any significant barriers to achieving the goal;
(C) Estimate the level of additional local funding that might be needed to fully achieve the goal; and
(D) Provide any policy recommendations that the Office believes would help further the goal.
(e) For the purpose of this section, the term:
(1) "BIL" means the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, approved November 15, 2021 (Pub. L. No. 117-58; 135 Stat. 429).
(2) "Broadband" means the transmission of wide bandwidth data over a high-speed internet connection, including via fiber optic, wireless, cable, digital subscriber line, and satellite technology.
(Mar. 26, 1999, D.C. Law 12-175, § 1814a; as added Mar. 10, 2023, D.C. Law 24-291, § 2(d), 70 DCR 825.)