H.R. 2805 — PLAN for Broadband Act

This section directs the Assistant Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the heads of covered agencies, to develop and submit to the appropriate congressional committees, within one year of enactment, a National Strategy to Close the Digital Divide. The strategy must (1) support improved management and interagency coordination of federal broadband programs to achieve universal high-speed, affordable broadband access; (2) synchronize processes for approving easements, rights-of-way, or leases on federal property for broadband infrastructure; and (3) reduce barriers, costs, and administrative burdens for state, local, and Tribal governments participating in such programs. It must list all relevant federal and state/local broadband programs; assess current coordination efforts and legal gaps; establish agency roles, goals, and performance measures; analyze implementation costs and risk reductions; identify cost drivers for governments; recommend incentives, legislative, and administrative actions to enhance efficiency, resolve funding conflicts, eliminate duplication, and enable participation by regional economic organizations; describe federal property access streamlining; and address Tribal lands issues. In developing the strategy, the Assistant Secretary must consult providers, Tribal entities, state and local agencies, consumer groups, and experts.

This section requires the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to develop and submit to congressional committees, not later than 120 days after submitting the Strategy under section 2(a), an implementation plan for the Strategy that, at a minimum— (1) provides plans for implementing roles, responsibilities, goals, objectives, and performance measures for federal broadband programs and interagency coordination; holding covered agencies accountable for those elements; describing agency roles, interagency mechanisms, regular meetings among agency heads, and public engagement to evaluate programs, permitting processes, and Strategy progress; (2) provides plans for adopting common data sets and applications for broadband deployment funding awards (using maps under 47 U.S.C. 641 et seq. and applications under 47 U.S.C. 1307(e)); monitoring and reducing waste, fraud, and abuse (including from duplicative programs); requiring consistent obligation and expenditure reporting (consistent with 47 U.S.C. 1307(c)(2)); and increasing awareness of and participation in affordability and adoption programs; and (3) describes necessary administrative and legislative actions. This section further requires the Assistant Secretary to seek public comment on the implementation plan not later than 30 days after submitting the Strategy. (As background, the ACCESS BROADBAND Act established within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration an Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth to promote broadband access, adoption, and digital inclusion and to track federal broadband infrastructure investments.)

This section directs the Assistant Secretary, along with representatives from covered agencies, to brief congressional committees on Strategy implementation within 21 days after submitting the Implementation Plan under section 3(a). It further requires the Assistant Secretary to implement the Strategy per the Implementation Plan and to provide progress briefings to the committees every 90 days, beginning 90 days after implementation starts and continuing until fully implemented; it clarifies that these provisions do not affect the Federal Communications Commission's authority or empower the Assistant Secretary or executive agencies to direct the commission.

This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study examining the efficacy of the Strategy and the Implementation Plan in closing the digital divide and making recommendations to improve them, and to submit a report on the study to the appropriate congressional committees not later than one year after the Assistant Secretary submits the Implementation Plan under section 3(a).

This section defines key terms used in the Act, including (1) appropriate committees of Congress (i.e., the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce); (2) Assistant Secretary (i.e., the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information); (3) covered agencies (i.e., 14 specified agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Agriculture, and National Telecommunications and Information Administration); (4) Federal broadband program (i.e., any program administered by a covered agency to increase broadband deployment, access, affordability, or adoption); (5) Implementation Plan (i.e., the plan developed under section 3(a)); (6) State (i.e., each state, the District of Columbia, and territories); and (7) Strategy (i.e., the National Strategy to Close the Digital Divide developed under section 2(a)).