[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2035 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2035

 To tailor the rural broadband program to better serve those living in 
                              rural areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 25, 2007

Ms. Herseth Sandlin (for herself, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Moran of Kansas, Mr. 
  Smith of Nebraska, and Mr. Pomeroy) 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 Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To tailor the rural broadband program to better serve those living in 
                              rural areas.

    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 ``Rural Broadband Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. RURAL BROADBAND PROGRAM IMPROVEMENTS.

    Section 601 of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 
950bb) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b), by striking paragraph (2) and 
        inserting the following:
            ``(2) Eligible rural community.--The term `eligible rural 
        community' means any area of the United States that is not--
                    ``(A) included within the boundaries of any city, 
                town, borough, or village, whether incorporated or 
                unincorporated, with a population of more than 15,000 
                inhabitants;
                    ``(B) included within the boundaries of an 
                urbanized area or urban cluster; or
                    ``(C) located within 10 miles of the boundary of 
                any such city, village, borough, or town or any 
                urbanized area or urban cluster.
            ``(3) Urbanized area.--The term `urbanized area' has the 
        meaning given the term on page 11667 of the Federal Register 
        for March 15, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 51).
            ``(4) Urban cluster.--The term `urban cluster' has the 
        meaning given the term on page 11667 of the Federal Register 
        for March 15, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 51), except that `15,000' 
        shall be substituted for `2,500'.
            ``(5) Unserved.--The term `unserved' means, with respect to 
        a household, that broadband service is unavailable to the 
        household, and that broadband facilities that would serve the 
        household are not under construction.'';
            (2) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Amount of loan or loan guarantee.--The amount of the 
        loan or loan guarantee for which an entity is otherwise 
        eligible under this section for a project shall, subject to any 
        general limitation on funding a project imposed by the 
        Secretary, be an amount equal to--
                    ``(A) if at least 50 percent of the households in 
                the eligible rural community to be served by the 
                project are unserved at the time the entity applied for 
                the loan or loan guarantee, the total cost of the 
                project; or
                    ``(B) in any other case, the total costs of the 
                project multiplied by the percentage of households in 
                the eligible rural community to be served by the 
                project represented by those that are unserved.''; and
            (3) in subsection (g)--
                    (A) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph 
                (1)(B);
                    (B) by striking the period at the end of paragraph 
                (2) and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) be repayable to the Secretary in full (with interest 
        and reasonable administrative costs) if the project for which 
        the loan or loan guarantee is provided is not completed 
        throughout the entire area in which the project is proposed to 
        be carried out, within 3 years after the date the loan or loan 
        guarantee is approved.''.
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