Democrats’ Better Deal Broadband Plan: $40 Billion in Broadband Funding

Congressional Democrats have released their “Better Deal Broadband” plan that proposes to use $40 billion in federal funding to help make high-speed broadband Internet access services available to the 34 million Americans, including 23 million rural Americans, that do not have it. The plan is part of a larger “Better Deal” economic agenda put forth earlier this year by Democrats.

Congressional Democrats compare their Better Deal Broadband plan to the 1936 Rural Electrification Act and President Roosevelt’s New Deal that brought jobs, productivity, opportunity, and economic growth to all parts of the U.S. The plan would invest at least $40 billion in direct federal funding using the following principles:

Provide Direct Federal Support for a Universal Internet Grant Program to Close the ‘Last Mile’ Gap

Create Accurate Maps of Areas that Lack Adequate Internet Access

Deliver Internet Speeds Needed to Compete in the 21st Century

Upgrade the Nation’s Critical Safety Infrastructure

Federal Grant Program to Close the “Last Mile” Gap

The centerpiece of the plan is a grant program that would distribute funding for broadband deployment on a technology-and provider-neutral basis. A broad range of entities would be eligible to participate, including rural cooperatives, local governments, and private entities. The plan intends to support high-speed internet at “levels sufficient for the 21st Century,” which it loosely describes as “speeds fast enough to surpass modern challenges like rebuilding main street, completing homework assignments, precision agriculture, access to health care, classrooms and other business applications.”

Funding would be prioritized to unserved areas, but funding would be available to upgrade existing infrastructure in underserved areas. The Better Deal Broadband plan proposes the use of a weighted bid reverse auction, similar to the one that will be used by the FCC for the Connection America Fund Phase II auction:

High-speed internet providers would compete against each other (in a reverse auction fashion) to win support to deploy service in unserved and underserved areas in the country. Bids would be rated by cost, service quality, and other factors to award the funds to the bidder who provides the most highspeed internet “value” to the American public with the available funds. In addition, bids from providers who have failed to make good on previous commitments would be given a higher level of scrutiny or flat out rejected.

Funding recipients would be subject to accountability audits, and if deployment targets are missed, funding would be rescinded.

It’s All Talk At This Point, But It’s Good To Hear, Right?

Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure has been at the top of President Trump’s policy agenda since taking office, and the administration has publicly stated it will included broadband in any infrastructure initiative. In June 2017, President Trump said he will include a provision “to promote and foster, enhance broadband access for rural America” in the administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure proposal. To date, the Trump administration has not yet released its full infrastructure plan. When the Trump administration released its proposed 2018 budget, it included a fact sheet outlining its vision for the infrastructure plan, but there were no details explaining how it expects federal funding to be used to support broadband deployment.

Both democrats and republicans have publicly stated their support for including broadband in any infrastructure funding, but until now, there have been no genuine suggestions for distributing the money aside from casual references to the broadband stimulus programs under the 2009 Recovery Act. Many in Congress and the broadband industry have expressed their reluctance to support another broadband stimulus because they believe the 2009 broadband stimulus programs resulted in overbuilding and wasted government money. They want to support broadband, but they don’t want another wasteful government program. There are a few parts of the Better Deal Broadband plan that may spark interest from those weary of another wasteful stimulus program – the proposals to use a reverse auction to distribute funding and prioritize support to areas that are unserved. Of course, there would need to be additional safeguards to win over all those that have been critical of the results of the 2009 stimulus programs. To be sure, some will see parts of the Better Deal Broadband plan as a step in the right direction, while others will welcome its release because it advances the discussion over how to use federal funding to increase broadband deployment and access to broadband service.