SS/HCS/HB 1872 - This act establishes a grant program to award grants to applicants to expand access to broadband internet service in unserved and underserved areas, as defined in this act. The Department of Economic Development shall administer the grant program. Grants awarded shall fund the acquisition and installation of infrastructure that supports broadband speeds of at least 25Mb per second download and 3Mb per second upload, but that is scalable to higher speeds. Applicants shall submit a grant application to the Department of Economic Development, that includes certain information as set forth in this act. At least 30 days prior to the first day applications may be submitted each year, the Department of Economic Development shall publish specific criteria on its website used to evaluate such applications. Within 3 days of the close of the grant application process, the Department shall publish on its website the proposed geographic areas and internet speeds for each application. A broadband internet service provider that provides service in or adjacent to a proposed project area may submit, within 45 days, a written challenge to an application as set forth in this act. The Department shall evaluate the challenge, and shall not fund the challenged project if the existing provider currently provides, has begun construction to provide, or commits to provide broadband service at speeds of at least 25Mb per second download and 3MB per second upload. If the Department denies an applicant as a result of a challenge, and such broadband internet service provider does not fulfill its commitment to provide service, the Department shall not consider another challenge from the provider for the next 2 grant cycles unless the failure to fulfill the commitment was due to circumstances outside of the provider's control.
This act also sets forth an order of priority for applications and a quantitative weighing scheme to be used by the Department of Economic Development in ranking applications. Further, this act puts certain limitations on grants that may be awarded under the program, including that no grant may be awarded where funding from certain federal funds has been awarded, where the grant will fund more than 50% of a project, or where total grant awards will exceed $5 million.
This act requires the Department of Economic Development, by June 30 of each year, to publish on its website and provide to the General Assembly a list of all applications and challenges for the previous year, and certain information relating to such applications as set forth in this act.
This act shall expire in 3 years unless reauthorized by an act of the General Assembly.
This act is identical to provisions contained in SS/SCS/HCS/HB 1456 (2018), and is similar to SB 922 (2018), HB 2256 (2018), and HB 2741 (2016).
KAYLA HAHN