EBB Extension, Connectivity Grants Feature in Infrastructure Deal

Bipartisan Senate negotiators were finalizing language Wednesday for their long-sought infrastructure spending package, after reaching a deal earlier in the day to resolve outstanding broadband and other items that had divided the group in recent days (see 2107220040). The measure is expected to keep broadband funding in the package at the agreed-upon $65 billion (see 2106240070), Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters. It’s also expected to include an extension of the FCC-led emergency broadband benefit, part of what’s expected to be a split decision between Democratic and Republican positions on connectivity affordability, lobbyists told us.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he intended to “call a vote to move to proceed to the bipartisan infrastructure bill” Wednesday night. “I believe we have the votes for that and we will then proceed to amendments and go forward on that bill,” he said. President Joe Biden said he’s encouraged by the deal. “I’m working with Democrats and Republicans to get this done because while there is a lot we don’t agree on, I believe we should be able to work together on the few things we do agree on,” Biden said during a speech in Lower Macungie, Pennsylvania

Collins emphasized the $65 billion will go to “broadband deployment and affordability programs.” She later told reporters the package will include “about $14 billion for affordability and $42.5 billion” for deployments. Collins is working with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to finalize the measure’s broadband language. “Our goal is to ensure that there is far greater access to high-speed internet services,” Collins said. The final package keeps intact language from previous drafts that would set aside $40 billion for NTIA-administered state-level deployment grants and require grant recipients to be able to provide 100/20 Mbps service (see 2107210063), said an overview of the deal distributed to senators.

The senators are proposing to pay for the package in part using FCC spectrum auction proceeds, something Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., suggested in April (see 2104010062). The group envisions drawing $67 billion in proceeds from the February C-band auction and $20 billion “from sales of future spectrum auctions.”

Spending Details

The agreement includes $2 billion for Agriculture Department rural broadband programs, including ReConnect, the senators' overview said. It allocates $600 million for states to issue private activity bonds "to finance broadband deployment, specifically for projects in rural areas where a majority of households do not have access." There's $2.75 billion to fund NTIA-administered digital equity and inclusion programs and $2 billion for the agency to use for tribal grants. The senators' overview mentions a provision to fund NTIA middle-mile grants. Previous drafts set middle-mile funding at $500 million. Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, is pushing for a substantial increase, lobbyists said.

Members of both parties in the group are believed to be achieving wins in the broadband title’s affordability component. Democrats were successful in attaching an extension of EBB, which would be renamed as the "Low-Income Broadband Benefit," past the end of the pandemic. The proposal would reduce the program's monthly subsidy for each qualifying household to $30, lobbyists said. EBB as originally enacted set the benefit at $50 per month for qualifying households, $75 per month on tribal lands (see 2012210055).

Shaheen told us she supports the reduced EBB subsidy, which would take effect when the program’s existing $3.2 billion allocation runs out. The deal includes some guardrails for ISPs’ use of the extended EBB grants, but Republicans were successful in quashing the broader restrictions Collins and Shaheen originally envisioned amid pressure from ISPs, Democratic aides said. The senators' overview doesn't describe any of those rules. NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield told us Tuesday she was concerned the fight over affordability and pricing transparency language had the potential to upend negotiations altogether.

The measure will “help lower prices for internet service by requiring funding recipients to offer a low-cost affordable plan, by creating price transparency and helping families comparison shop, and by boosting competition in areas where existing providers aren’t providing adequate service,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “It will also help close the digital divide by passing the Digital Equity Act, ending digital redlining, creating a permanent program to help more low-income households access the internet, and establishing a new program to help low-income households obtain the devices required to access the internet.”

Reactions

Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota was among the Republicans who referred to the rules as rate regulation before the bipartisan senators reached a deal. “There's still a lot of concerns about backdoor rate regulation through” the extended EBB that could be interpreted to allow the commission to “impose rate regulation prices on providers,” he told reporters. Thune, who's also Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member, said the issue has “been addressed” for the NTIA grants. He also sought changes to digital redlining language in the measure.

Cantwell was mum on her feelings about the broadband title after leaving a Wednesday Democratic caucus presentation on the infrastructure agreement. She told us Tuesday she was concerned about the direction the bipartisan group was taking on affordability. “We’ve got to have better ideas on how they’re going to address affordability” because millions of U.S. consumers “can’t afford” services as-is, Cantwell said. She suggested there could be other avenues for addressing affordability this year.

Bipartisan group member Jon Tester, D-Mont., and other telecom-focused senators indicated they were encouraged by the broadband provisions presented Wednesday. “So far, so good,” Tester said, with the caveat that he hadn’t seen finalized language. “I think we’re still going to face multiple near-death experiences, as is the case with any major legislation, but we’re going to do this,” said Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. Nine GOP senators told reporters they intended to vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to a shell bill (HR-3684) for the infrastructure package, and two others -- Jerry Moran of Kansas and Todd Young of Indiana -- were undecided. At least 60 senators would need to vote in favor of cloture to move the process forward.

The House Infrastructure Committee, meanwhile, advanced the Eliminating Barriers to Rural Internet Development Grant Eligibility (E-Bridge) Act. HR-3193, first filed last year (see 2004150052), would ease access to Economic Development Administration grants for broadband projects, allowing the agency to award the money to public-private partnerships and consortiums.