[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3646 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3646

    To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish a Lifeline 
  Assistance Program for universal broadband adoption, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 24, 2009

  Ms. Matsui introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish a Lifeline 
  Assistance Program for universal broadband adoption, 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 ``Broadband Affordability Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. BROADBAND LIFELINE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.

    Section 254(j) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254(j)) 
is amended--
            (1) by striking ``(j) Lifeline Assistance.--Nothing in 
        this'' and inserting the following:
    ``(j) Lifeline Assistance.--
            ``(1) In general.--Nothing in this''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) Broadband lifeline assistance program.--
                    ``(A) Purpose.--The purpose of this paragraph is to 
                promote the adoption of broadband service by all people 
                of the United States while recognizing that the price 
                of broadband service is a barrier to adoption for low 
                income households.
                    ``(B) In general.--Not later than 270 days after 
                the date of enactment of the Broadband Affordability 
                Act of 2009, the Commission shall take all actions 
                necessary to establish a broadband lifeline program 
                that enables qualifying low-income customers residing 
                in urban and rural areas to purchase broadband service 
                at reduced charges by reimbursing providers for each 
                such customer served. Such broadband lifeline program 
                shall be similar in structure to the Lifeline program 
                for basic telephone service under subpart E of part 54 
                of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations.
                    ``(C) State matching funds.--In recognition of the 
                interstate nature of broadband service, the Commission 
                may determine, in consultation with the Federal-State 
                Joint Board, whether State matching funds must be 
                provided as a condition of eligibility for low-income 
                households within such State.
                    ``(D) Amount of support.--The Commission, in 
                calculating the amount of support to be provided to 
                each low-income household, shall routinely study the 
                prevailing market price for broadband service and the 
                prevailing speed of broadband service adopted by 
                households. To fulfill this requirement, the Commission 
                shall rely on information that it routinely collects or 
                that is publicly available.
                    ``(E) Technology neutral.--The Commission shall 
                ensure that the broadband lifeline program is neutral 
                as to the types of technology used to provide broadband 
                service to promote competition from broadband service 
                providers to qualify under such program. A broadband 
                service provider need not be an eligible 
                telecommunications carrier to receive support under the 
                broadband lifeline program, but such provider shall 
                obtain authorization from the Commission in order to 
                participate in the program.''.
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