[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2582 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2582

    To require a report to Congress on a national strategy for the 
    deployment of high speed broadband Internet telecommunications 
                   services, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 5, 2002

 Mr. Lieberman introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require a report to Congress on a national strategy for the 
    deployment of high speed broadband Internet telecommunications 
                   services, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Broadband Strategy Act of 
2002''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The United States needs to develop a long-term 
        investment and growth strategy that will restore the 
        unprecedented gains in structural economic productivity with 
        high employment growth experienced by the United States in the 
        late 1990s.
            (2) The gains in structural productivity with high 
        employment growth in the late 1990s resulted from unprecedented 
        investments in information and communication technology.
            (3) It was the precipitous decline in these investments 
        that took the United States economy into recession before 
        September 11, 2001.
            (4) The United States needs to focus on stimulating 
        resurgence in these investments to regain vibrant growth in 
        structural productivity and high employment growth.
            (5) If productivity increases at the rate of 1.5 percent 
        per year, the standard of living will double about every 46 
        years, or about every two generations. On the other hand, if 
        productivity increases at the rate of 3 percent per year, the 
        standard of living will double about every 23 years, or about 
        every generation. This difference results from the so-called 
        miracle of compounding. To take advantage of compounding, a 
        long-term economic strategy for the United States must focus on 
        structural productivity growth.
            (6) Productivity growth has enabled American workers to 
        produce 30 times as much in goods and services in 1999 as they 
        produced in 1899, with only 5 times as many workers. This 
        growth in productivity has increased the standard of living in 
        the United States from $4,200 in 1899 to $33,740 in 1999 
        (expressed in 1999 dollars). Growth in structural productivity 
        will bring about growth in wages and salaries, profits, and 
        government tax receipts.
            (7) The productivity gains of the United States in the late 
        1990s broke a 25-year trend. From the early 1970s to the mid-
        1990s, United States productivity grew sluggishly, at an annual 
        rate of about 1.5 percent. During the final 5 years of the 20th 
        Century, it grew at nearly double that rate.
            (8) The high cyclical productivity growth the United States 
        has experienced in 2001 and 2002 results for the most part from 
        a reduction in employment and increased utilization of existing 
        capacity.
            (9) The United States needs a strategy to generate 
        structural productivity growth arising from the development and 
        deployment of new technology that enhances both efficiency and 
        employment.
            (10) The United States needs to prepare now for the 
        retirement of the Baby Boom generation. If the United States 
        does nothing regarding Social Security, it is estimated that by 
        2030 the annual shortfall between amounts in the Social 
        Security Trust Fund and the amount required to meet obligations 
        of the Fund will reach $814,000,000,000 (in 1999 dollars). The 
        United States has approximately $7,4000,000,000,000 in 
        obligations coming due, and it is advisable to have our fiscal 
        house in order, hopefully with no national debt, when these 
        obligations must be paid. Restoring structural productivity and 
        high employment growth is essential to ensure that the United 
        States can honor these obligations.
            (11) Making affordable, high speed broadband Internet 
        connections of 10 Mbps-100 Mbps available to all American homes 
        and small businesses has the potential to restore structural 
        productivity and employment growth.
            (12) High speed broadband Internet applications for voice, 
        data, graphics, and video will revolutionize many aspects of 
        life at home, school, and work. High speed broadband Internet 
        will transform health care, commerce, government, and 
        education. The benefits of a successful high speed broadband 
        Internet deployment strategy to the quality of life and economy 
        of the United States will be immeasurable.
            (13) Traditionally, the United States is considered the 
        world leader in the development and commercialization of new 
        innovations and technologies. However, the United States lags 
        far behind other countries in broadband deployment, including 
        South Korea, Canada, and Sweden. By 2005, the United States is 
        projected to fall to ninth place in broadband deployment, 
        surpassed by Asian markets in Hong Kong and Singapore, the 
        Scandinavian countries Denmark and Norway, and the Netherlands.
            (14) The United States will need high speed broadband 
        Internet for public health, education, and economic welfare, 
        just as the United States now needs universal telephone 
        service. High speed broadband Internet applications are capable 
        of revitalizing the economy and solving countless problems for 
        average Americans. The applications fall into the areas of e-
        education, e-health, e-commerce, e-government, and e-
        entertainment.
            (15) The benefits that will arise from development and 
        implementation of a national high speed broadband Internet 
        strategy amply justify a priority for such a strategy. The 
        Federal Government will act one way or another on many of the 
        key policy issues affecting broadband deployment. The 
only question is whether it acts in accordance with a strategy, or 
piecemeal.
            (16) Adopting a national strategy for broadband deployment 
        is consistent with the strategies the United States has adopted 
        to speed deployment of other essential infrastructure, 
        including railroads, electric power, telephone service, and 
        radio and television. Each of those technologies has been the 
        focus of a national economic strategy. There is a consensus 
        that the Northwest Ordinance, Morrill Land-Grant Act, and GI 
        bill, and laws for transcontinental railroads, rural 
        electrification, and the interstate highway system, embodied 
        useful and successful strategies for the future of the United 
        States.
            (17) In facilitating high speed broadband Internet 
        deployment, the United States should rely on markets and 
        entrepreneurs and minimize the intrusion of government. 
        Americans need to be creative and innovative when government 
        acts to make sure that it provides value added.
            (18) In crafting a comprehensive strategy to advance 
        deployment of high speed broadband Internet, a broad range of 
        policy options should be addressed, and the Administration 
        needs to provide leadership in developing these options and 
        establishing a priority among them.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR HIGH SPEED BROADBAND INTERNET DEPLOYMENT.

    (a) Strategy for Increasing Structural Productivity and Employment 
Growth.--Not later than six months after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the President shall submit to Congress a report setting forth 
a strategy for the nation-wide deployment of high speed broadband 
Internet telecommunications services.
    (b) Elements.--The report under subsection (a) shall include the 
following:
            (1) A goal for the deployment of broadband 
        telecommunications services nationwide, including a goal 
        regarding the speeds necessary to facilitate applications 
        needed to stimulate structural productivity and employment 
        growth.
            (2) A proposal for policies to foster and maintain 
        competition among firms offering broadband telecommunications 
        service, including competition to deploy high speed broadband 
        Internet of 10 Mbps-100 Mbps.
            (3) A proposal for incentives to enhance demand for high 
        speed broadband Internet telecommunications service, including 
        demand for purposes of serving Federal mission areas such as 
        homeland security, distance learning, health, scientific 
        collaboration, and electronic commerce.
            (4) A proposal for incentives to facilitate and enhance the 
        supply of high speed broadband Internet telecommunications 
        service.
            (5) A proposal to enhance global electronic commerce.
            (6) A proposal for the optimal allocation of Federal 
        Government resources on research and development regarding high 
        speed broadband Internet telecommunications service, including 
        recommendations for the allocation and prioritization of 
        Federal funds.
            (7) A proposal for the optimal allocation of spectrum in 
        furtherance of the deployment of high speed broadband Internet 
        telecommunications service.
            (8) An assessment of various limitations to the deployment 
        of high speed broadband Internet telecommunications service, 
        including matters relating to taxation, privacy, security, 
        spamming, content, intellectual property, and rights-of-way, 
        and proposals for eliminating or alleviating such limitations.
            (9) An assessment of the impact of the proposals under this 
        subsection on structural productivity and employment growth in 
        the United States and on the international economic 
        competitiveness of the United States.
            (10) Any other proposals or matters on the deployment of 
        high speed broadband Internet telecommunications services that 
        the President considers appropriate.
    (c) Form.--The report under subsection (a) shall include a draft 
proposal of any legislation required to implement the goal described in 
paragraph (1) of subsection (b), and of any of the proposals set forth 
under paragraphs (2) through (8) and (10) of that subsection (b).
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