McEachin, Spanberger Eye Additional Rural Broadband Legislation

Reps. Donald McEachin and Abigail Spanberger, both D-Va., touted existing broadband legislation and sought input on additional measures during a Thursday event in Disputanta, Virginia. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks noted his ongoing concerns about updated language in the commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund that won’t prevent ISPs that win bids for program funding from seeking additional support from state broadband programs but bars census block groups that received state subsidies for 25/3 Mbps from participation (see 2002070031). Industry and local representatives highlighted other barriers to rural broadband deployments.

McEachin noted House passage of his Mapping Accuracy Promotes Services Act (HR-4227), which would bar companies from knowingly giving the FCC inaccurate broadband coverage data (see 1912160052). The chamber at the same time passed the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Broadband Data) Act broadband mapping legislative package (HR-4229). HR-4227 is “pending before the Senate,” but McEachin said he’s hopeful it will clear that chamber and reach President Donald Trump’s desk. That bill is “a vital first step” in fixing widespread inaccuracies in broadband coverage data collection, he said. He’s considering seeking additional measures, including requiring the FCC to collect broadband prices and speed data as part of its mapping mandate.

Spanberger said she intends to continue pushing for an increase in FY 2021 federal funding for the Rural Utilities Service's ReConnect rural broadband funding program. Spanberger got the House to agree to raise ReConnect’s funding by $55 million for FY 2020 (see 1906210001), but a Senate-side equivalent measure didn’t address the program. Congress ultimately chose to maintain ReConnect’s funding at $555 million for the fiscal year (see 2001020045). ReConnect’s funds are an “additive” that supplements other federal programs, but it's “certainly vital” for increasing rural connectivity, she said: Access “is an issue of economic opportunity, of upward mobility, and, frankly, equity.”

Starks said he voted against the RDOF order partly because of the “confusing language” that “penalizes states that have made their own investments” in rural broadband connectivity. The order “doesn’t provide clear and accurate language on how that’s going to work,” he said. McEachin and other House Communications Subcommittee members wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week urging the commission to reconsider the order’s language blocking 25/3 Mbps recipient census blocks from the Phase I auction (see 2002140054). Starks also noted longstanding concerns about the FCC’s broadband coverage data mapping practices and said the commission hasn’t done enough to fix the issues.

Evan Feinman, chief broadband adviser to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), said the state government also has concerns about the RDOF rules and is considering filing comments with the FCC. “Anything that penalizes states for making” their own investments into rural broadband “ought not to be the approach” the FCC takes, Feinman said: “State programs are probably the best positioned to help” improve rural broadband connectivity. He touted Virginia’s own recent broadband funding efforts under Northam.