Senate Commerce Eyes COVID-19 Broadband Fixes

Senate Commerce Committee members signaled interest in including further emergency broadband funding in the next COVID-19 package. Some senators urged their colleagues to think beyond the crisis. The Wednesday hearing featured few references to House Democrats' Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act (HR-6800), which contains substantial broadband funding. The bill also includes language to make broadcasters and other local outlets eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program. Both issues drew increasing support since the March enactment of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2004300058). The House is expected to vote on HR-6800 as soon as Friday.

HR-6800’s broadband language expands on what Democrats proposed in March via their Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act counterproposal (HR-6379) to the Cares Act (see 2003230066), including a $8.8 billion Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund. The measure proposes making $4 billion from the fund available through the end of FY 2021. The proposal would fund up to $50 a month in “emergency broadband benefit” to be reimbursed to ISPs for serving qualifying households, reflecting a proposal floated last month by House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. (see 2004140062). The monthly benefit would be $75 per month for households on tribal lands. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, plans to file a bill mirroring HR-6800's broadband language.

A $5 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund would target E-rate, including for Wi-Fi hotspots and other equipment for students and library patrons. HR-6800 sets aside $1.5 billion from the fund through the end of FY 2021. The measure also would appropriate $24 million to the FCC for implementing the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act broadband mapping law (S-1822).

HR-6800 would raise minimum service standards for Lifeline mobile service during the pandemic. It would provide $200 million to states to strengthen Lifeline eligibility verification. It includes language from HR-6379 to bar ISPs and voice providers from terminating or otherwise altering service to individual customers and small businesses because of inability “to pay as a result of disruptions caused by the public health emergency.”

Other Provisions

The legislation includes language from Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act (HR-451), which would repeal the 2012 spectrum law's mandate for public safety to move off the 470-512 MHz T band by 2021. It includes the text of the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, as expected (see 2005050010). HR-4194/S-2661 would give the FCC a one-year deadline to finish the nationwide upgrade of the legacy switches to support the new 988 code.

HR-6800 contains the text of the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act. HR-6389 would bar communications providers from receiving site commissions earned by prisons and other confinement facilities. It would cap inmate calling service rates at 4 cents per minute for prepaid calls and 5 cents per minute for collect calls. HR-6800 also includes the text of the Healthcare Broadband Expansion During COVID-19 Act (HR-6474), which would allocate $2 billion in additional funding to the FCC’s existing $605 million Healthcare Connect Fund program.

The bill makes local media eligible for PPP "to support the continued provision of local news, information, content, or emergency information.” Outlets “shall be treated as an independent, non-affiliated entity,” the measure said. Any outlet “that is a franchise or affiliate of, or owned or controlled by a parent company, investment company, or the management thereof, shall demonstrate … the need for a covered loan.” It would direct the Treasury and Small Business Administration, which administers PPP, to report to lawmakers on loans to media outlets. Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., led filing Wednesday of the Local News and Emergency Information Act, which mirrors HR-6800’s media PPP eligibility language.

HR-6800 has several other telecom and consumer protection proposals, including language House Democrats proposed in HR-6379 to address price gouging during COVID-19. The measure would require all federal employees who have been teleworking during the pandemic to continue through Dec. 31.

Testimony

Wicker noted interest in exploring legislation “to prioritize the delivery of broadband services during this outbreak,” including funding to implement S-1822 and the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. HR-4998 provides funding to help U.S. communications providers remove Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security (see 2003040056). There should be “a regulatory framework that fosters investment and promotes broadband deployment,” he said. All levels of government need to “have the appropriate regulatory processes in place to promote rather than create barriers.”

Wicker praised the FCC’s 2020 broadband deployment report as showing “the number of households without access to broadband service continues to decline,” though “significant work” remains “to get every American connected.” Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented from the report, which said more than 85% of Americans have access to fixed terrestrial broadband at 250/25 Mbps (see 2004240042). “Unlike in other countries, the surge in online traffic and bandwidth consumption” in the U.S. “has not diminished network performance,” nor “required the slowing of online services and applications,” Wicker said.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., emphasized the need for a continued “light-touch approach to broadband regulation by the federal government.” He said he's “encouraged by the performance of both mobile and fixed broadband networks” as carriers “by and large are meeting consumers’ demands” and have “stepped up to keep our country connected.”

Cantwell urged lawmakers to “address our short-term emergency needs and also invest in closing the digital divide.” Access issues are more glaring than ever, she said. “We are in the middle of a crisis where people who are disconnected from school, work, healthcare, friends and family need access urgently.” Cantwell noted her co-sponsorship of a modified Senate companion to the Emergency Educational Connections Act (HR-6563), which proposes $4 billion in emergency E-rate funding.

Senate Communications ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, was the only lawmaker who directly invoked HR-6800 during the hearing, saying “we are going to be contemplating” the measure if it passes the House as expected. “A lot of” what other members and witnesses discussed during the hearing “is at least medium term and a lot of it long term” in scope, he said. “We need to think in terms of phasing this out.” Many are “missing the fact that right now, kids can’t learn" and "teachers can’t even teach because they lack connectivity in their homes," Schatz said.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., was one of several Commerce members who cited the need to increase the USF contribution base. Competitive Carriers Association CEO Steven Berry, NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield and Free Press Action Senior Adviser Gene Kimmelman also cited it. “It is time for us to review” USF “and either reform it or eliminate it,” Blackburn said. The recently filed Universal Broadband Act (HR-6723) would broaden the base to include all broadband services rather than the existing model that draws support from phone services (see 2005050064). Blackburn noted she’s among the more than 20% of Tennessee residents lacking broadband access, and she needed to deploy a Wi-Fi hotspot at her home to telework during the virus outbreak.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., cited the “urgent and pressing” need to provide emergency funding for Lifeline and E-rate. It “ought to be at the core of a comprehensive plan,” he said. “In normal times, Lifeline is underfunded” and “during a pandemic and when schools are shut down and businesses are shuttered, it is more essential.”

Kimmelman and other witnesses urged Senate Commerce to back emergency broadband funding. “Congress must provide sufficient funding for flexible and efficient deployment strategies that help connect unserved and underserved individuals across” the U.S., Kimmelman said. He cited FCC estimates “it will cost $80 billion to deploy broadband nationwide” to those lacking access. Kimmelman urged lawmakers to ensure funding doesn’t go exclusively to rural areas, noting that “no subsidies exist to encourage providers to serve or upgrade urban neighborhoods despite the perceived lack of profit.”

Berry urged Congress to support the Stay Connected voucher proposal, which would provide monthly vouchers to qualifying households to pay for broadband and other communications bills. He noted struggles of small carriers “that serve rural areas” and “are experiencing many of the same economic challenges as every small business.” Those carriers “want to help keep staff on payroll, keep networks up and running, and help keep their customers connected,” he said. “Reduced revenues are starting to have a real impact and add strain.”

Bloomfield urged passage of the Keeping Critical Connections Act. S-3569 would set up a $2 billion fund at the FCC to compensate ISPs with fewer than 250,000 customers for free or discounted broadband services during the emergency to low-income households that can't pay (see 2003240064).

Congress “should adopt a legislative framework that capitalizes on the work, preparation, and foresight of the government agencies it has already charged with meeting our nation’s broadband needs,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. Lawmakers should focus on programs that are “implemented deliberately” and are “well thought out with both government and industry input, and that can provide nearly immediate results.” He warned against "hastily" pursuing “unproven new programs in the face of an emergency, which in the recent past has shown to produce mixed results, duplication and financial inefficiencies at best.”