[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2569 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2569

To codify certain changes proposed by the Department of Agriculture to 
the rules governing eligibility for the rural broadband access program, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 5, 2007

  Mr. Graves 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 codify certain changes proposed by the Department of Agriculture to 
the rules governing eligibility for the rural broadband access program, 
                        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 ``Rural Broadband Deployment Act''.

SEC. 2. CODIFICATION OF CERTAIN CHANGES PROPOSED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF 
              AGRICULTURE TO RULES GOVERNING ELIGIBILITY FOR THE RURAL 
              BROADBAND ACCESS PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 601(d) of the Rural Electrification Act of 
1936 (7 U.S.C. 950bb(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) Eligibility determinations.--In determining the 
        eligibility of an applicant for a loan or loan guarantee under 
        this section:
                    ``(A) Relaxation of market survey requirement.--The 
                Secretary shall not require the applicant to submit a 
                market survey for a service area proposed in the 
                application if the applicant is projecting less than a 
                15 percent penetration of households passed in the 
                service area, by the end of the time period used in the 
                study conducted by the Secretary to determine whether 
                the project proposed in the application is financially 
                feasible; and
                    ``(B) Elimination of credit support requirement, 
                including the cash on hand requirement.--In lieu of 
                imposing the credit support requirements set forth in 
                section 1738.20 of title 7, Code of Federal 
                Regulations, the Secretary--
                            ``(i) except as provided in clause (ii), 
                        shall require the applicant to demonstrate a 
                        minimum equity position equal to 20 percent of 
                        the requested loan amount at the time the 
                        application is submitted (or 10 percent of the 
                        amount, if the application proposes to serve an 
                        area in which at least 40 percent of the 
                        households do not have access to broadband 
                        service or are in an area in which broadband 
                        service is provided by only 1 provider);
                            ``(ii) may waive or modify the requirement 
                        of clause (i) to the extent that the waiver or 
                        modification--
                                    ``(I) does not result in the 
                                applicant having a projected negative 
                                cash position in any quarter in the 
                                time period referred to in subparagraph 
                                (A); and
                                    ``(II) is required to enable the 
                                provision of broadband service in an 
                                area that does not have access to 
                                broadband service or in which broadband 
                                service is provided by only 1 provider; 
                                and
                            ``(iii) shall notify the applicant if 
                        financial analysis indicates that cash from 
                        operations and previous cash infusions would 
                        not be sufficient to enable to applicant to 
                        sustain a positive cash position throughout the 
                        time period referred to in subparagraph (A), 
                        and that additional cash requirements are 
                        needed to support the feasibility of the loan.
                    ``(C) Notice and comment on applications.--As soon 
                as is practicable after receipt of an application 
                submitted pursuant to this section, the Secretary shall 
                cause to be published in the Federal Register a notice 
                that the application has been submitted (which shall 
                include a copy of the application), and that the 
                Secretary will accept comments from the public on the 
                application during the 30-day period after the date the 
                notice is so published.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect on December 1, 2007.
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