I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2399
To require the Federal Communications Commission to establish a vetting
process for prospective applicants for high-cost universal service program
funding.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH27, 2025
Mrs. H
OUCHIN(for herself and Ms. KELLYof Illinois) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To require the Federal Communications Commission to es-
tablish a vetting process for prospective applicants for
high-cost universal service program funding.
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 ‘‘Rural Broadband Pro-4
tection Act of 2025’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:07 Apr 05, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2399.IH H2399
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•HR 2399 IH
SEC. 2. VETTING PROCESS FOR PROSPECTIVE HIGH-COST 1
UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND APPLICANTS. 2
Section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 3
U.S.C. 254) is amended by adding at the end the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘(m) V
ETTING OFHIGH-COSTFUNDRECIPIENTS.— 6
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 7
‘‘(A) the term ‘covered funding’ means any 8
new offer of high-cost universal service program 9
funding, including funding provided through a 10
reverse competitive bidding mechanism provided 11
under this section, for the deployment of a 12
broadband-capable network and the provision of 13
supported services over the network; and 14
‘‘(B) the term ‘new covered funding award’ 15
means an award of covered funding that is 16
made based on an application submitted to the 17
Commission on or after the date on which rules 18
are promulgated under paragraph (2). 19
‘‘(2) C
OMMISSION RULEMAKING .—Not later 20
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this 21
subsection, the Commission shall initiate a rule-22
making proceeding to establish a vetting process for 23
applicants for, and other recipients of, a new covered 24
funding award. 25
‘‘(3) C
ONTENTS.— 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:07 Apr 05, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2399.IH H2399
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•HR 2399 IH
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In promulgating rules 1
under paragraph (2), the Commission shall pro-2
vide that, consistent with principles of tech-3
nology neutrality, the Commission will only 4
award covered funding to applicants that can 5
demonstrate that they meet the qualifications in 6
subparagraph (B). 7
‘‘(B) Q
UALIFICATIONS DESCRIBED .—An 8
applicant for a new covered funding award shall 9
include in the initial application a proposal con-10
taining sufficient detail and documentation for 11
the Commission to ascertain that the applicant 12
possesses the technical, financial, and oper-13
ational capabilities, and has a reasonable busi-14
ness plan, to deploy the proposed network and 15
deliver services with the relevant performance 16
characteristics and requirements defined by the 17
Commission and as pledged by the applicant. 18
‘‘(C) E
VALUATION OF PROPOSAL .—The 19
Commission shall evaluate a proposal described 20
in subparagraph (B) against— 21
‘‘(i) reasonable and well-established 22
technical, financial, and operational stand-23
ards, including the technical standards 24
adopted by the Commission in orders of 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:07 Apr 05, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2399.IH H2399
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•HR 2399 IH
the Commission relating to Establishing 1
the Digital Opportunity Data Collection 2
(WC Docket No. 19–195) (or orders of the 3
Commission relating to modernizing any 4
successor collection) for purposes of enti-5
ties that must report broadband avail-6
ability coverage; and 7
‘‘(ii) the applicant’s history of com-8
plying with requirements in the Commis-9
sion and other government broadband de-10
ployment funding programs. 11
‘‘(D) P
ENALTIES FOR PRE-AUTHORIZATION 12
DEFAULTS.—In adopting rules for any new cov-13
ered funding award, the Commission shall set a 14
penalty for pre-authorization defaults of at least 15
$9,000 per violation and may not limit the base 16
forfeiture to an amount less than 30 percent of 17
the applicant’s total support, unless the Com-18
mission demonstrates the need for lower pen-19
alties in a particular instance.’’. 20
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:07 Apr 05, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2399.IH H2399
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS