I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1838
To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to improve access to
broadband telecommunications services in rural areas, including by en-
couraging the provision of broadband loans and grants to increase
broadband service in rural ports, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH4, 2025
Ms. P
LASKETT(for herself and Mr. MOOREof Alabama) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in
addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to improve
access to broadband telecommunications services in rural
areas, including by encouraging the provision of
broadband loans and grants to increase broadband serv-
ice in rural ports, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Broadband Internet 4
for Small Ports Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. ACCESS TO BROADBAND TELECOMMUNICATIONS 1
SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS. 2
Section 601 of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 3
(7 U.S.C. 950bb) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (c)— 5
(A) in paragraph (2)— 6
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 7
(I) in clause (i)— 8
(aa) by striking ‘‘of at 9
least—’’ and inserting a semi-10
colon; and 11
(bb) by striking subclauses 12
(I) and (II); 13
(II) in clause (iii), by striking 14
‘‘and’’ at the end; 15
(III) in clause (iv), by striking 16
the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 17
and’’; and 18
(IV) by adding at the end the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘(v) give priority to applications for 21
projects to provide rapid and expanded de-22
ployment of fixed and mobile broadband on 23
cropland and ranchland within a service 24
territory for use in various applications of 25
precision agriculture.’’; 26
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(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 1
(I) in clause (i)— 2
(aa) in subclause (III), by 3
inserting ‘‘or’’ after the semi-4
colon; 5
(bb) in subclause (IV), by 6
striking ‘‘or’’ and inserting 7
‘‘and’’; and 8
(cc) by striking subclause 9
(V); and 10
(II) in clause (ii)— 11
(aa) in the matter preceding 12
subclause (I), by striking ‘‘2’’ 13
and inserting ‘‘1’’; 14
(bb) in subclause (IV), by 15
inserting ‘‘and’’ after the semi-16
colon; 17
(cc) in subclause (V), by 18
striking ‘‘; and’’ and inserting a 19
period at the end; and 20
(dd) by striking subclause 21
(VI); and 22
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-23
lowing: 24
‘‘(C) P
ORTS IN RURAL AREAS PRIORITY .— 25
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‘‘(i) DEFINITION OF PORT .—In this 1
subparagraph, the term ‘port’ means— 2
‘‘(I) any port on the navigable 3
waters of the United States, including 4
territories; 5
‘‘(II) any harbor, marine ter-6
minal, or other shore side facility used 7
principally for the movement of goods 8
on inland waters; and 9
‘‘(III) any port formed in accord-10
ance with applicable State or territory 11
law. 12
‘‘(ii) P
RIORITY.—In addition to the 13
priority given under subparagraph (B), the 14
Secretary shall give equal priority to an 15
application for a project that would in-16
crease the availability of broadband service 17
in a port in a rural area. 18
‘‘(D) I
DENTIFICATION OF UNSERVED COM -19
MUNITIES.— 20
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of an 21
application given the highest priority under 22
subparagraph (A)(i), the Secretary shall 23
confirm that each unserved rural commu-24
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nity identified in the application is eligible 1
for funding by— 2
‘‘(I) conferring with and obtain-3
ing data from the Chair of the Fed-4
eral Communications Commission and 5
the Administrator of the National 6
Telecommunications and Information 7
Administration with respect to the 8
service area proposed in the applica-9
tion; 10
‘‘(II) reviewing any other source 11
that is relevant to service data valida-12
tion, as determined by the Secretary; 13
and 14
‘‘(III) performing site-specific 15
testing to verify the unavailability of 16
any residential broadband service in 17
the unserved rural community. 18
‘‘(ii) A
DJUSTMENTS.—Not less often 19
than once every 2 years, the Secretary 20
shall review, and may adjust through no-21
tice published in the Federal Register, the 22
unserved communities identified under 23
clause (i).’’; and 24
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(B) in paragraph (3), by striking subpara-1
graphs (C) and (D) and inserting the following: 2
‘‘(C) M
AXIMUM.—Except as provided in 3
subparagraph (D), the amount of any grant 4
made under this section shall not exceed 50 5
percent of the development costs of the project 6
for which the grant is provided. 7
‘‘(D) S
ECRETARIAL AUTHORITY TO AD -8
JUST.—The Secretary may make grants of up 9
to 75 percent of the development costs of the 10
project for which the grant is provided to an el-11
igible entity if the Secretary determines that 12
the project serves— 13
‘‘(i) an area of rural households de-14
scribed in paragraph (2)(A)(ii); and 15
‘‘(ii) a rural community described in 16
any of subclauses (I) through (IV) of para-17
graph (2)(B)(i).’’; 18
(2) in subsection (d)— 19
(A) in paragraph (1)— 20
(i) in subparagraph (B), by striking 21
‘‘subsection (j)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection 22
(l)’’; and 23
(ii) by adding at the end the fol-24
lowing: 25
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‘‘(C) RELATION TO UNIVERSAL SERVICE 1
HIGH-COST SUPPORT .—The Secretary shall 2
communicate with the Federal Communications 3
Commission to ensure that any grants, loans, or 4
loan guarantees made under this section pro-5
vide a level of service that is not less than the 6
level of service provided through universal serv-7
ice high-cost support (as defined in section 54.5 8
of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any 9
successor regulation) provided by the Commis-10
sion.’’; 11
(B) in paragraph (2)— 12
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 13
(I) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘50’’ 14
and inserting ‘‘90’’; and 15
(II) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘3’’ 16
and inserting ‘‘2’’; and 17
(C) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(6) A
PPLICATION PROCESS .—The Secretary 19
shall provide to an applicant of a grant, loan, or 20
loan guarantee under this section feedback and deci-21
sions on funding in a timely manner.’’; 22
(3) by redesignating subsections (j) and (k) as 23
subsections (l) and (m), respectively; 24
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(4) by inserting after subsection (i) the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(j) B
ROADBANDBUILDOUTDATA.—As a condition 3
of receiving a grant, loan, or loan guarantee under this 4
section, a recipient of assistance shall provide to the Sec-5
retary complete, reliable, and precise geolocation informa-6
tion that indicates the location of new broadband service 7
that is being provided or upgraded within the service terri-8
tory supported by the grant, loan, or loan guarantee not 9
later than 30 days after the earlier of— 10
‘‘(1) the date of completion of any project mile-11
stone established by the Secretary; or 12
‘‘(2) the date of completion of the project. 13
‘‘(k) E
NVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS.—The Secretary 14
may obligate, but not disperse, funds under this Act before 15
the completion of otherwise required environmental, his-16
torical, or other types of reviews if the Secretary deter-17
mines that a subsequent site-specific review shall be ade-18
quate and easily accomplished for the location of towers, 19
poles, or other broadband facilities in the service area of 20
the borrower without compromising the project or the re-21
quired reviews.’’; and 22
(5) in subsection (l)(2)(A) (as so redesig-23
nated)— 24
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(A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 1
end; 2
(B) in clause (ii), by striking the period at 3
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4
(C) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(iii) set aside at least 1 percent to be 6
used for— 7
‘‘(I) conducting oversight under 8
this section; and 9
‘‘(II) implementing accountability 10
measures and related activities au-11
thorized under this section.’’. 12
Æ
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