STATUS REPORT ON BROADBAND STIMULUS LEGISLATION (as of 1/29/09)

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By now the broadband sector knows that Congress is making significant progress towards adopting a comprehensive economic recovery package (presently titled the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009) that, among other things, will make more funding available for deployment of broadband services in rural and other areas deemed to underserved or completely unserved.  The House of Representatives passed its version of the legislation (H.R. 1)on January 27, while the Senate continues to deliberate over its version at the Committee level.  To help its constituents monitor the legislation's progress and identify key issues, W2i will provide periodic updates on the legislation provided by the law firm of Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP.  Download the up to date tracking chart comparing the House bill and the current version fo the Senate bill.

While the contents of the legislation will remain fluid for at least the next couple of weeks, a few points are worth noting:

• The House bill would make funding available through grant money; the current Senate bill (S.336) is the same, but tax credits endorsed by Senator Jay Rockefeller and approved by the Senate Finance Committee may eventually be included.
• Both the House bill and the current version of the Senate bill leave a number of critical issues largely unresolved, including the question of exactly who will be eligible for any grants and/or tax credits, and what geographic areas of the country are most likely to receive the lion's share of the funding. Regardless of which version of the legislation passes through Congress, it is expected that many of these issues will need to be resolved at the agency level (e.g., FCC, NTIA) during the legislation's implementation phase.
• The total amount of available grant money is higher under the current version of the Senate bill ($9 billion, versus $6 billion under the House bill.)
• Both the House bill and the current version of the Senate bill provide funding for broadband "mapping," under which NTIA would develop and maintain a map of exactly when and where broadband services are being deployed.

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