I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 46
To direct the Federal Communications Commission to prioritize the timely
processing of certain long-form applications in the Rural Digital Oppor-
tunity Fund Phase II auction.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. B
ERGMANintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To direct the Federal Communications Commission to
prioritize the timely processing of certain long-form ap-
plications in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase
II auction.
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 Win-4
dow of Opportunity Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 6
The purpose of this Act is to level the playing field 7
for service providers participating in the Rural Digital Op-8
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•HR 46 IH
portunity Fund that are disadvantaged by short construc-1
tion seasons. 2
SEC. 3. APPLICATION PROCESSING PRIORITIZATION. 3
With respect to the long-form applicants of the Rural 4
Digital Opportunity Fund Phase II auction provided for 5
in the Report and Order in the matter of Rural Digital 6
Opportunity Fund and Connect America Fund adopted by 7
the Federal Communications Commission (in this section 8
referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’) on January 30, 2020 9
(FCC 20–5), the Commission shall prioritize the timely 10
processing of long-form applications and any subsequent 11
paperwork (in this section referred to as the ‘‘applica-12
tions’’) submitted by the long-form applicants as follows: 13
The Commission shall prioritize the timely processing of 14
applications which are proposing to provide service in geo-15
graphic areas which the Commission determines to have 16
the shortest construction seasons (such as in areas charac-17
terized by long winters with heavy snowfall). 18
Æ
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