110 HR 3893 IH: Connect America Now
U.S. House of Representatives
2007-10-18
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EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as the
Connect America Now
Act
.
2.Congress finds the following:
(1)The deployment and
adoption of broadband services and information technology has resulted in
enhanced economic development and public safety for communities across the
Nation, improved health care and educational opportunities, and a better
quality of life for all Americans.
(2)Continued progress
in the deployment and adoption of broadband services is vital to ensuring that
our Nation remains competitive and continues to create business and job
growth.
(3)The Federal
Government should also recognize and encourage complementary State efforts to
improve the quality and usefulness of data about broadband service and its
deployment and should encourage and support the partnership of the public and
private sectors in the continued growth of broadband services and information
technology for the residents and businesses of the Nation.
3.Encouraging State
initiatives to improve broadband
(a)The
purposes of any grant under
subsection (b) are—
(1)to ensure that all
citizens and businesses in a State have access to affordable, reliable
broadband service;
(2)to achieve
improved technology literacy, increased computer ownership, and home broadband
use among such citizens and businesses;
(3)to establish and
empower local grassroots technology teams in each State to plan for improved
technology use across multiple community sectors; and
(4)to
establish and sustain an environment ripe for broadband services and
information technology investment.
(b)Establishment of
State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program
(1)The Secretary of Commerce shall award grants, taking into
account the results of the peer review process under
subsection (d), to entities for the
development, implementation and support of statewide initiatives to identify
and track the availability and adoption of broadband services within each
State.
(2)Any grant under this subsection shall be awarded on a
competitive basis.
(c)To
be eligible to receive a grant under
subsection (b), an eligible entity
shall—
(1)submit an
application to the Secretary of Commerce, at such time, in such manner, and
containing such information as the Secretary may require; and
(2)contribute
matching non-Federal funds in an amount equal to not less than 20 percent of
the total amount of the grant.
(d)
(1)The Secretary shall by regulation require appropriate
technical and scientific peer review of applications made for grants under this
section.
(2)The regulations required under
paragraph (1) shall require that any
technical and scientific peer review group—
(A)be provided a
written description of the grant to be reviewed;
(B)provide the results
of any review by such group to the Secretary of Commerce; and
(C)certify that such
group will enter into voluntary nondisclosure agreements as necessary to
prevent the unauthorized disclosure of confidential and propriety information
provided by broadband service providers in connection with projects funded by
any such grant.
(e)A grant awarded to an eligible entity under
subsection (b) shall be used to the maximum
extent possible—
(1)to
provide a baseline assessment of broadband service deployment in each
State;
(2)to identify and
track—
(A)areas in each
State that have low levels of broadband service deployment;
(B)the rate at which
residential and business adopt broadband service and other related information
technology services; and
(C)possible suppliers
of such services;
(3)to identify
barriers to the adoption by individuals and businesses of broadband service and
related information technology services, including whether or not—
(A)the demand for
such services is absent; and
(B)the supply for
such services is capable of meeting the demand for such services;
(4)to create and
facilitate, in each county or designated region in a State, a local technology
planning team—
(A)with members
representing a cross section of the community, including representatives of
business, telecommunications labor organizations, elementary and secondary
education, health care, libraries, higher education, community-based
organizations, local government, tourism, parks and recreation, and
agriculture; and
(B)which
shall—
(i)measure, against
relevant benchmarks, technology use across relevant community sectors;
(ii)set
goals for improved technology use within each sector; and
(iii)develop a
tactical business plan for achieving its goals, with specific recommendations
for online application development and demand creation;
(5)to work
collaboratively with broadband service providers and information technology
companies to encourage deployment and use, especially in unserved and
underserved areas, through the use of local demand aggregation, mapping
analysis, and the creation of market intelligence to improve the business case
for providers to deploy;
(6)to establish
programs to improve computer ownership and Internet access for unserved and
underserved populations;
(7)to collect and
analyze detailed market data concerning the use and demand for broadband
service and related information technology services;
(8)to facilitate
information exchange regarding the use and demand for broadband services
between public and private sectors; and
(9)to
create within each State a geographic inventory map of broadband service, which
shall—
(A)identify gaps in
such service through a method of geographic information system mapping of
service availability at the census block level; and
(B)provide a baseline
assessment of statewide broadband deployment in terms of households with
high-speed availability.
(f)For each State, an eligible entity may not receive a new
grant under this section to fund the activities described in
subsection (d) within such State if such
organization obtained prior grant awards under this section to fund the same
activities in that State in each of the previous 4 consecutive years.
(g)Each
recipient of a grant under
subsection (b) shall submit a report on the
use of the funds provided by the grant to the Secretary of Commerce.
(h)In
this section:
(1)The term eligible entity means a nonprofit
organization or public sector entity that is selected by a State to work in
partnership with State agencies and private sector partners in identifying and
tracking the availability and adoption of broadband services within each
State.
(2)The term nonprofit organization means
an organization—
(A)described in
section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax
under section 501(a) of such Code;
(B)no part of the net
earnings of which inures to the benefit of any member, founder, contributor, or
individual;
(C)that has an
established competency and proven record of working with public and private
sectors to accomplish widescale deployment and adoption of broadband services
and information technology; and
(D)the board of
directors of which is not composed of a majority of individuals who are also
employed by, or otherwise associated with, any Federal, State, or local
government or any Federal, State, or local agency.
(3)The term broadband service means any service
that connects to the public Internet and that provides a data transmission-rate
equivalent to at least 200 kilobits per second, or any successor
transmission-rate established by the Federal Communications Commission, in at
least 1 direction.
(i)Authorization of
AppropriationsThere are authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this section $40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012.
(j)Nothing in this Act shall be construed as giving any
public or private entity established or affected by this Act any additional
regulatory jurisdiction or oversight authority over providers of broadband
services or information technology.