[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2163 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2163

    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

                             June 14, 2011

  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 
2011''.

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 one of the barriers to adoption 
                for low income households.
                    ``(B) Establishment.--
                            ``(i) In general.--Not later than 270 days 
                        after the date of enactment of the Broadband 
                        Affordability Act of 2011, 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.
                            ``(ii) Model.--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.
                            ``(iii) Nonduplication.--In establishing 
                        the program under clause (i), the Commission 
                        shall adopt regulations to prevent duplicative 
                        broadband lifeline subsidies being awarded for 
                        an individual eligible household.
                    ``(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.--
                            ``(i) In general.--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.
                            ``(ii) Information.--To fulfill the 
                        requirement under clause (i), the Commission 
                        shall rely on information that it routinely 
                        collects or that is publicly available.
                    ``(E) Technology neutral.--
                            ``(i) In general.--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.
                            ``(ii) Authorization.--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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