I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2805
To direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and
Information to develop a National Strategy to Close the Digital Divide,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL9, 2025
Mr. W
ALBERG(for himself and Mr. PETERS) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Commu-
nications and Information to develop a National Strategy
to Close the Digital Divide, 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 ‘‘Proper Leadership to 4
Align Networks for Broadband Act’’ or the ‘‘PLAN for 5
Broadband Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. NATIONAL STRATEGY TO CLOSE THE DIGITAL DI-1
VIDE. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 3
date of the enactment of this Act, the Assistant Secretary, 4
in consultation with the heads of the covered agencies, 5
shall develop and submit to the appropriate committees 6
of Congress a National Strategy to Close the Digital Di-7
vide to— 8
(1) support better management of Federal 9
broadband programs to deliver on the goal of pro-10
viding high-speed, affordable broadband internet ac-11
cess service to all individuals in the United States; 12
(2) synchronize interagency coordination among 13
covered agencies for Federal broadband programs; 14
(3) synchronize interagency coordination re-15
garding the process for approving the grant of an 16
easement, right of way, or lease to, in, over, or on 17
a building or any other property owned by the Fed-18
eral Government for the right to install, construct, 19
modify, or maintain infrastructure with respect to 20
broadband internet access service; and 21
(4) reduce barriers, lower costs, and ease ad-22
ministrative burdens for State, local, and Tribal gov-23
ernments to participate in Federal broadband pro-24
grams. 25
(b) R
EQUIREDCONTENTS.—The Strategy shall— 26
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(1) list all— 1
(A) Federal broadband programs; and 2
(B) programs that exist at the State and 3
local levels that are directly or indirectly in-4
tended to increase the deployment of, access to, 5
the affordability of, or the adoption of 6
broadband internet access service; 7
(2) describe current, as of the date on which 8
the Strategy is submitted, Federal efforts to coordi-9
nate Federal broadband programs; 10
(3) identify gaps and limitations, including 11
laws, that hinder, or may hinder, coordination across 12
Federal broadband programs; 13
(4) establish clear roles and responsibilities for 14
the heads of the covered agencies, as well as clear 15
goals, objectives, and performance measures, for— 16
(A) the management of all Federal 17
broadband programs; and 18
(B) interagency coordination efforts with 19
respect to Federal broadband programs; 20
(5) address the cost of the Strategy, the sources 21
and types of resources and investments needed to 22
carry out the Strategy, and where those resources 23
and investments should be targeted based on bal-24
ancing risk reductions with costs; 25
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(6) address factors that increase the costs and 1
administrative burdens for State, local, and Tribal 2
governments with respect to participation in Federal 3
broadband programs; 4
(7) recommend incentives, legislative solutions, 5
and administrative actions to help State, local, and 6
Tribal governments more efficiently— 7
(A) distribute, and effectively administer, 8
funding received from Federal broadband pro-9
grams; and 10
(B) resolve conflicts with respect to the 11
funding described in subparagraph (A); 12
(8) recommend incentives, legislative solutions, 13
and administrative actions to— 14
(A) improve the coordination and manage-15
ment of Federal broadband programs; and 16
(B) eliminate duplication with respect to 17
Federal broadband programs; 18
(9) describe current, as of the date on which 19
the Strategy is submitted, efforts by covered agen-20
cies to streamline the process for granting access to 21
an easement, right of way, or lease to, in, over, or 22
on a building or any other property owned by the 23
Federal Government for the right to install, con-24
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struct, modify, or maintain infrastructure with re-1
spect to broadband internet access service; 2
(10) identify gaps and limitations with respect 3
to allowing regional, interstate, or cross-border eco-4
nomic development organizations to participate in 5
Federal broadband programs; and 6
(11) address specific issues relating to closing 7
the digital divide on Tribal lands. 8
(c) P
UBLICCONSULTATION.—In developing the 9
Strategy, the Assistant Secretary shall consult with— 10
(1) groups that represent consumers or the in-11
terests of the public, including economically or so-12
cially disadvantaged individuals; 13
(2) subject matter experts; 14
(3) providers of broadband internet access serv-15
ice; 16
(4) Tribal entities; and 17
(5) State and local agencies and entities. 18
SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 20
date on which the Assistant Secretary submits the Strat-21
egy to the appropriate committees of Congress under sec-22
tion 2(a), the Assistant Secretary shall develop and submit 23
to the appropriate committees of Congress an implementa-24
tion plan for the Strategy. 25
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(b) REQUIREDCONTENTS.—The Implementation 1
Plan shall, at a minimum— 2
(1) provide a plan for implementing the roles, 3
responsibilities, goals, objectives, and performance 4
measures for the management of Federal broadband 5
programs and interagency coordination efforts iden-6
tified in the Strategy; 7
(2) provide a plan for holding the covered agen-8
cies accountable for the roles, responsibilities, goals, 9
objectives, and performance measures identified in 10
the Strategy; 11
(3) describe the roles and responsibilities of the 12
covered agencies, and the interagency mechanisms, 13
to coordinate the implementation of the Strategy; 14
(4) provide a plan for regular meetings among 15
the heads of the covered agencies to coordinate the 16
implementation of the Strategy and improve coordi-17
nation among Federal broadband programs and for 18
permitting processes for infrastructure with respect 19
to broadband internet access service; 20
(5) provide a plan for regular engagement with 21
interested members of the public to evaluate Federal 22
broadband programs, permitting processes for infra-23
structure with respect to broadband internet access 24
service, and progress in implementing the Strategy; 25
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(6) with respect to the awarding of Federal 1
funds or subsidies to support the deployment of 2
broadband internet access service, provide a plan for 3
the adoption of— 4
(A) common data sets regarding those 5
awards, including a requirement that covered 6
agencies use the maps created under title VIII 7
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 8
641 et seq.); and 9
(B) applications regarding those awards, 10
as described in section 903(e) of the ACCESS 11
BROADBAND Act (47 U.S.C. 1307(e)); 12
(7) provide a plan to monitor and reduce waste, 13
fraud, and abuse in Federal broadband programs, 14
including wasteful spending resulting from frag-15
mented, overlapping, and unnecessarily duplicative 16
programs; 17
(8) require consistent obligation and expendi-18
ture reporting by covered agencies for Federal 19
broadband programs, which shall be consistent with 20
section 903(c)(2) of the ACCESS BROADBAND 21
Act (47 U.S.C. 1307(c)(2)); 22
(9) provide a plan to increase awareness of, and 23
participation and enrollment in, Federal broadband 24
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programs relating to the affordability and adoption 1
of broadband internet access service; and 2
(10) describe the administrative and legislative 3
action that is necessary to carry out the Strategy. 4
(c) P
UBLICCOMMENT.—Not later than 30 days after 5
the date on which the Assistant Secretary submits the 6
Strategy to the appropriate committees of Congress under 7
section 2(a), the Assistant Secretary shall seek public com-8
ment regarding the development and implementation of 9
the Implementation Plan. 10
SEC. 4. BRIEFINGS AND IMPLEMENTATION. 11
(a) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 21 days after the date 12
on which the Assistant Secretary submits the Implementa-13
tion Plan to the appropriate committees of Congress under 14
section 3(a), the Assistant Secretary, and appropriate rep-15
resentatives from the covered agencies involved in the for-16
mulation of the Strategy, shall provide a briefing on the 17
implementation of the Strategy to the appropriate commit-18
tees of Congress. 19
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary 21
shall— 22
(A) implement the Strategy in accordance 23
with the terms of the Implementation Plan; and 24
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(B) not later than 90 days after the date 1
on which the Assistant Secretary begins to im-2
plement the Strategy, and not less frequently 3
than once every 90 days thereafter until the 4
date on which the Implementation Plan is fully 5
implemented, brief the appropriate committees 6
of Congress on the progress in implementing 7
the Implementation Plan. 8
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 9
subsection may be construed to affect the authority 10
or jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Com-11
mission or confer upon the Assistant Secretary or 12
any executive agency the power to direct the actions 13
of the Federal Communications Commission, either 14
directly or indirectly. 15
SEC. 5. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE STUDY 16
AND REPORT. 17
(a) S
TUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 18
States shall conduct a study that shall— 19
(1) examine the efficacy of the Strategy and the 20
Implementation Plan in closing the digital divide; 21
and 22
(2) make recommendations regarding how to 23
improve the Strategy and the Implementation Plan. 24
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(b) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 1
on which the Assistant Secretary submits the Implementa-2
tion Plan to the appropriate committees of Congress under 3
section 3(a), the Comptroller General shall submit to the 4
appropriate committees of Congress a report on the re-5
sults of the study conducted under subsection (a). 6
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -9
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-10
gress’’ means— 11
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 12
and Transportation of the Senate; and 13
(B) the Committee on Energy and Com-14
merce of the House of Representatives. 15
(2) A
SSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist-16
ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary of 17
Commerce for Communications and Information. 18
(3) C
OVERED AGENCIES .—The term ‘‘covered 19
agencies’’ means— 20
(A) the Federal Communications Commis-21
sion; 22
(B) the Department of Agriculture; 23
(C) the National Telecommunications and 24
Information Administration; 25
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(D) the Department of Health and Human 1
Services; 2
(E) the Appalachian Regional Commission; 3
(F) the Delta Regional Authority; 4
(G) the Economic Development Adminis-5
tration; 6
(H) the Department of Education; 7
(I) the Department of the Treasury; 8
(J) the Department of Transportation; 9
(K) the Institute of Museum and Library 10
Services; 11
(L) the Northern Border Regional Com-12
mission; 13
(M) the Department of Housing and 14
Urban Development; and 15
(N) the Department of the Interior. 16
(4) F
EDERAL BROADBAND PROGRAM .—The 17
term ‘‘Federal broadband program’’ means any pro-18
gram administered by a covered agency that is di-19
rectly or indirectly intended to increase the deploy-20
ment of, access to, the affordability of, or the adop-21
tion of broadband internet access service. 22
(5) I
MPLEMENTATION PLAN .—The term ‘‘Im-23
plementation Plan’’ means the implementation plan 24
developed under section 3(a). 25
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(6) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 1
State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 2
and each commonwealth, territory, or possession of 3
the United States. 4
(7) S
TRATEGY.—The term ‘‘Strategy’’ means 5
the National Strategy to Close the Digital Divide de-6
veloped under section 2(a). 7
Æ
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