Congress provided $3.2 billion for the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which will provide discounts of up to $50 a month for internet service, and up to $75 on Tribal Lands. It will also provide eligible consumers an opportunity to receive a discount on a computer or tablet. I believe in the urgency of now. We are stronger when we are all connected and this program is a powerful way to help make it happen. So we need to make the hard choices that are required and get it up and running. This means outreach efforts not only by this agency but also by all of our partners in this program and everyone represented here today. It means policies that encourage robust participation by providers. It means wrestling with the privacy challenges under the law. And it means making sure that participants have clear and easy-to-follow rules of the road.

The NARUC board of directors unanimously approved: Resolution on the Federal Communications Commission’s Review of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Auction Bidders Long Forms

Resolution urges the Federal Communications Commission to closely scrutinize the long-form applications and subsequently filed technical, financial, and managerial information of provisional RDOF support winners to ensure that each provider does, in fact, have the technical, financial, managerial, operational skills, capabilities, and resources to deliver the services at the speeds and latency tiers they have pledged for every American they plan to serve, regardless of the technology they usee; and be it be further; Resolved that NARUC encourages the FCC to seek and incorporate opportunities for input into its RDOF long-form review so as to ensure the success of the program and to minimize the possibility of waste, fraud, or abuse of USF funds.

Sufficient access to and utilization of broadband is an ongoing concern for rural economic development. Using a rural region in Northern New York, we consider the investment and operational costs of a broadband cooperative and determine service prices for which it is financially viable. Service prices need to increase 75%–131%, depending on grant restrictions, relative to existing market prices for a new broadband cooperative to become financially feasible. Put differently, the cooperative would not cash flow at market prices unless there was at least 14 potential subscribers per mile at a 62% take rate. For a cooperative, the grant restriction that providers offer a minimum level of speed at a maximum price results in a high level of subsidization by high-speed to low-speed members to support the business. Given grant funding and member equity investments, financial infeasibility has little to do with construction costs, than with annual operational and maintenance costs required to sustain the system long term. More reasonable feasibility scenarios occur for existing utility cooperatives expanding services into broadband, particularly areas with a high proportion of high-speed, year-round users and strong take rates. Consideration of public benefits of broadband arguably needs to be added to the equation, particularly surrounding access to healthcare and educational purposes, and as a prerequisite to supporting taxpayer-funded public-private partnerships to expand broadband services. Policy levers to eliminate or subsidize property taxes and pole rental costs reduce cash flow prices considerably; however, feasibility is highly sensitive to assumed take rates.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and John Thune (R-SD) sent a letter to to Acting Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission Jessica Rosenworcel raising concerns about the Universal Service Fund’s (USF) long-term sustainability as a mechanism to close the nation’s digital divide. With the USF contribution factor now at 31.8 percent and since the FCC recently issued a Public Notice seeking comment on potentially reinterpreting Section 254 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to allow a potentially drastic expansion of the E-Rate, the senators asked for answers to the following questions by February 26:

1. Has the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) calculated the amount of additional funding that would be required to support distance learning? Although the Public Notice anticipated that more funding would be required, it failed to estimate a specific figure. Has the Commission calculated the impact on the contribution factor if these petitions are granted? If OEA has not made this calculation, we ask that it be done and an answer provided to the Committee. 
2. Over the course of the pandemic, Congress has provided tens of billions of dollars in aid for K-12 education, often expressly allowing the funds to be used to support distance learning. Given that the Commission has worked with the Department of Education to allocate those funds, please provide an update on the implementation of those initiatives. Have you determined that these funds will be insufficient? With the bulk of COVID-related education funding recently provided in the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021, are you coordinating with the Department of Education to ensure available funding is used before increasing the burdens on the USF?
3. In addition to funding expressly for schools, the billions of dollars made available through the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program are intended to help connect families that could otherwise not afford broadband. Is there any reason to believe this program will fail to connect families with school-aged children? If so, please explain how E-Rate expansion could succeed where the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program fails. In addition, how will you account for the funding provided by this program when making decisions regarding E-Rate expansion?
4. In order to constrain skyrocketing expenses, would funding to now-empty schools be reduced and redirected to their remote students? If not, please explain why the Commission continues to spend money on broadband to shuttered schools while expanding the E-Rate program to fund connections to students whose schools have not yet reopened.  
5. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently advises that schools may begin to reopen with certain safety precautions in place. The ongoing rollout of vaccines should also lead to schools reopening at a faster pace.  If the Commission chooses to reinterpret Section 254 of the Telecommunications Act, how quickly do you anticipate the E-Rate program could be transformed to support spending for internet services outside of traditional classrooms? Additionally, how quickly do you anticipate the funding could be disbursed by the Universal Service Administrative Company, and students obtain access to broadband services in their homes? How would the Commission prioritize the funding and would schools that have safely reopened be eligible for the additional spending? Will a potential expansion of the E-Rate program meaningfully help manage the impact of the pandemic in a timely manner as schools reopen across the country? As this expansion is intended to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, what is your plan for winding down this additional spending once the pandemic has been brought under control and students and teachers return to classrooms? 
6. With the contribution factor climbing to an all-time high, are you considering safeguards such as a cap on the contribution factor to ensure that the burdens of these programs do not fall on those who can least afford them? If not, please explain how you would protect Americans from ever-increasing fees.   
7. Given the inherent differences of providing service to students’ homes instead of classrooms, what rules would you need to implement in order to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse? Do you plan on following current Commission precedent of making any proposed rules available to the public prior to a vote? 

One of the oldest standing legislative committees in the U.S. Senate, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has jurisdiction over communications, interstate commerce, science, and technology policy. In the 117th Congress, broadband access will likely remain a priority. With the results of the 2020 elections, the Commerce Committee is experiencing a change in leadership. On February 3, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said leaders of both parties had finalized the organizing resolution for the new Democratic-controlled Senate. Modeled after the agreement of the chamber's last power-sharing arrangement in 2001, each party will have an equal number of committee seats, but the majority party will hold committee chairmanships and control the agenda, setting the schedule for nominees and legislation to come to the floor for votes, even if committee votes are tied. The committee will be comprised of 14 Democrats and 14 Republicans. Here we look briefly at their broadband priorities.