Senators Release Details on Streamlining and Investing in Broadband Infrastructure Act
Three senators on the Commerce Committee unveiled more details Thursday of the Streamlining and Investing in Broadband Infrastructure Act (S-2163), which they introduced Wednesday during a hearing on broadband deployment issues (see 1510070068). “This critical bipartisan legislation would help improve…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
the deployment of broadband infrastructure so that more Americans have access to high-speed internet no matter where they live,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who introduced the bill with Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., as co-sponsors. The bill was referred to the Environment and Public Works Committee, where none of the backers is a member. “This bill would make federal construction projects more efficient by encouraging simultaneous construction of transportation and broadband infrastructure,” Gardner said in a statement. “In addition, the bill would build on my efforts to encourage faster deployment of broadband infrastructure on federal lands.” The Senate bill text is 21 pages and would “direct the Secretary of Transportation to require that broadband conduits be installed as a part of certain highway construction projects,” it said. The Department of Transportation would have to report on the “implementation and installation of broadband conduit projects” to Congress within two years of the bill’s enactment and would need to every two years for the next decade. The bill has similar “Dig Once” provisions as the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act, which House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., introduced in past sessions of Congress, a Senate staffer told us. Eshoo didn't introduce the bill this Congress, but the Senate staffer said this legislation isn't intended to be a companion given its broader scope. “Somewhat fortuitously, one type of infrastructure commonly owned by governments that require such conduits to be dug are highways,” wrote American Enterprise Institute scholar Bronwyn Howell, a board member of the International Telecommunications Society, in a blog post Thursday, referring to rumors that Eshoo may revive her bill this Congress. “As the marginal costs of adding ducts in a new highway are typically smaller than the costs of digging even one new parallel duct, then Representative Eshoo’s bill appears to both reduce costs and promote the competitive supply of all cable-based infrastructures.” An Eshoo spokesman didn’t comment.