Senate Panel Approves $9 Billion for NTIA Broadband Grants
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed 21-9 Tuesday an economic recovery bill that include $9 billion for broadband grants to be administered by NTIA. The Senate Finance Committee held a day-long markup on the bill. An amendment offered by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., for broadband tax credits was included in the Finance provisions considered at markup. At our deadline the committee was still debating the legislation.
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The Appropriations Committee set conditions for the NTIA grants, requiring that 50 percent of the proceeds be used for projects in rural areas. The bill also includes $200 million for rural distance learning and telemedicine. “A substantial investment in broadband is essential for sustained economic viability of rural America,” the committee said in a statement outlining the draft provisions. The bill includes $350 million for NTIA to carry out a broadband mapping project and $650 million in additional money for NTIA’s DTV converter box program.
The Appropriations Committee approved $250 million in budget authority to support $813 million in loans and $180 million in grants for distance learning and telemedicine programs in rural communities. The committee ordered government agencies receiving grant money to rate broadband needs by looking at capacity, the level of service available and an area’s needs for broadband development. Agencies must also consider the affordability of services and maintain a “technology neutral” approach to service provider offerings.
The bill would allow the NTIA to send money to the Department of Agriculture for its rural utilities program “if deemed necessary and appropriate.” The Rural Utilities Service has similar broadband programs, and under the House stimulus bill the agency would get more than $2 billion for new grants. But the Senate would put all new funding in the NTIA’s coffers.
The FCC would be allowed access to money from the NTIA’s new grant program to develop a national broadband strategy, according to the Senate Appropriations provision. The NTIA would get the power to impose on grants interconnection and nondiscrimination conditions applying “regardless of who operates the facilities,” under the Senate bill.
Finance Committee provisions on investment tax credits for broadband set forth distinctions between “current- generation” and “next generation” broadband, according to a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis. Current generation is defined as speeds of at least 5 Mbps million downstream and 1 Mbps upstream, or for wireless, 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream. Next generation has speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. The credit wouldn’t cover the costs of launching satellite equipment.
The provision defines a rural area as a census tract at least 10 miles from an incorporated area with more than 25,000 people, and outside a county or equivalent jurisdiction with more than 500 people a square mile. An underserved area is a low-income community with a poverty rate of at least 20 percent or where the median family income is less than 80 percent of the metropolitan area or statewide average. An unserved area is a place that has no providers of current generation broadband services. On the other end, the provision describes a saturated market as a place where 85 percent or more of residents have access to broadband that can be used “a majority of the time during periods of maximum demand, and usable in a manner substantially the same as services provided through equipment not eligible for the credit.”
The provision calls for a 10 percent credit for investment in current-generation broadband in rural and underserved areas, and a 20 percent credit for unserved areas. A 20 percent credit could be used for investment in next-generation broadband in rural, underserved and unserved areas. To qualify, equipment must be put in service before 2011.
The Justice Department would get $200 million for wireless law enforcement efforts to go toward an “Integrated Wireless Network” program in high priority metropolitan regions. Justice would be required to report to Congress within 60 days of the bill’s passage how it would use the money. The bill also calls for $5 billion to encourage computerized health records.
The House recovery bill (HR-1) includes $6 billion for broadband and wireless services, managed in equal amounts by the NTIA and the Agriculture Department’s rural development agency. The House bill also would include $20 billion for health information technology systems. It would give financial incentives to doctors and hospitals to use the technology in Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would result in nearly 90 percent of doctors and 70 percent of hospitals using electronic medical records within 10 years.