[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1685 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1685

  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to reform and modernize the 
          Universal Service Fund Lifeline Assistance Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 23, 2013

   Ms. Matsui (for herself, Mr. Waxman, Ms. Eshoo, Ms. DeGette, Ms. 
 Lofgren, Mr. Doyle, Mr. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Ms. Schakowsky, 
and Mr. Butterfield) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to reform and modernize the 
          Universal Service Fund Lifeline Assistance Program.

    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 Adoption Act of 2013''.

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 
                        Adoption Act of 2013, the Commission shall 
                        adopt a final rule establishing Lifeline 
                        program support for broadband that enables 
                        qualifying low-income customers residing in 
                        urban and rural areas to purchase broadband 
                        service at reduced charges by reimbursing 
                        providers who elect to participate in the 
                        program for each such customer served. The 
                        Commission shall consider the results of the 
                        Low-Income Broadband Pilot Program when 
                        establishing such final rule.
                            ``(ii) Model.--Such 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. Qualifying individuals may elect 
                        to apply support from the Lifeline program to 
                        basic telephone service, voice telephony 
                        service, or broadband service, whether each 
                        service is purchased stand-alone or in a 
                        bundle.
                            ``(iii) Digital literacy program.--The 
                        Commission shall consider providing a 
                        preference to participating broadband service 
                        providers that include components involving 
                        digital literacy programs as part of their 
                        offerings.
                    ``(C) State matching funds.--The Commission may 
                determine, in consultation with the Federal-State Joint 
                Board instituted under subsection (a)(1), whether State 
                matching funds may 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 Lifeline 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 program established under 
                        subparagraph (B)(i) is neutral as to the types 
                        of technology used to provide voice telephony 
                        or broadband service under the Lifeline program 
                        to promote competition from service providers 
                        to qualify under such program.
                            ``(ii) Authorization.--A participating 
                        broadband service provider need not be an 
                        eligible telecommunications carrier to receive 
                        support under such program, but such provider 
                        shall obtain authorization from the Commission 
                        in order to participate in the program.
                    ``(F) Accountability.--
                            ``(i) Nonduplication.--In establishing the 
                        program under subparagraph (B)(i), the 
                        Commission shall adopt regulations to prevent 
                        duplicative Lifeline subsidies from being 
                        awarded to an individual eligible household. 
                        Only one Lifeline program support amount per 
                        eligible household shall be available to 
                        qualifying individuals.
                            ``(ii) Preventing waste, fraud, or abuse.--
                        In adopting rules to implement this paragraph, 
                        the Commission shall consider any appropriate 
                        measures to prevent any waste, fraud, or abuse 
                        of this program.
                            ``(iii) Eligibility.--The Commission, in 
                        consultation with other relevant Federal 
                        agencies, shall establish a national database 
                        which can be used to determine consumer 
                        eligibility for Lifeline program subsidies.''.
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