[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3094 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3094

    To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to authorize the 
Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service to make telecommunications 
  grants for the collection of broadband infrastructure data by local 
  governments, economic development or other community organizations, 
 electric or telephone cooperatives, and small internet providers, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 18, 2019

  Mr. Merkley introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to authorize the 
Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service to make telecommunications 
  grants for the collection of broadband infrastructure data by local 
  governments, economic development or other community organizations, 
 electric or telephone cooperatives, and small internet providers, 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 ``Community Broadband Mapping Act''.

SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR THE COLLECTION OF RURAL BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE 
              DATA.

    (a) In General.--Title VI of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 
(7 U.S.C. 950bb et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 607. GRANTS FOR THE COLLECTION OF RURAL BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE 
              DATA.

    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Covered authority.--The term `covered authority' 
        means--
                    ``(A) this section;
                    ``(B) section 602;
                    ``(C) section 603;
                    ``(D) section 604;
                    ``(E) section 2333 of the Food, Agriculture, 
                Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 950aaa-
                2); and
                    ``(F) section 779 of division A of the Consolidated 
                Appropriations Act, 2018 (Public Law 115-141; 132 Stat. 
                399).
            ``(2) Eligible entity.--The term `eligible entity' means--
                    ``(A) a unit of local government in a rural area;
                    ``(B) an economic development or other community 
                organization that serves a rural area;
                    ``(C) an electric cooperative (as defined in 
                section 3 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796)) 
                that sells electric energy to persons in a rural area;
                    ``(D) a telephone cooperative that serves a rural 
                area; and
                    ``(E) an internet service provider that--
                            ``(i) has not more than 100,000 
                        subscribers; and
                            ``(ii) serves a rural area.
            ``(3) Rural area.--The term `rural area' means an area that 
        is not in an urbanized area or urban cluster the population of 
        which is 25,000 or more, as determined by the Director of the 
        Bureau of the Census.
    ``(b) Authority To Make Grants to Certain Entities To Collect 
Broadband Infrastructure Data.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
a covered authority, the Secretary may make a grant under a covered 
authority to an eligible entity for the purpose of enabling the 
collection of data relating to where broadband infrastructure is 
located and which homes are provided with nonsatellite broadband 
service, without regard to any applicable household service percentage 
requirement.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act.
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