Doyle, Van Hollen, GAO Eye Broadband Speed Threshold Shift

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., believes lawmakers could include language in an infrastructure spending package aimed at encouraging buildout of “future-proof” broadband networks, despite the smaller amount of connectivity money in a bipartisan framework President Joe Biden endorses (see 2106240070). Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and GAO criticized the FCC’s current 25/3 Mbps minimum broadband speed benchmark.

“You never get everything you want” in measures that are of the scope of an infrastructure package, Doyle told us before the House recess that's set to end July 19. He supported Democrats’ proposals to include up to $100 billion for broadband (see 2103110060). The Biden-backed framework allocates $65 billion here. Biden said “that he was going to make an honest effort to get a bipartisan bill and he did that,” Doyle said. “We’ve got something that we think can pass the Senate now. You reach a point where you have to decide whether you take the best you can get in a negotiation or take nothing. My inclination is to deliver something.”

The proposed $65 billion “is still a lot” and “the key now is to take what we have and make the best use,” Doyle said. “We can still negotiate” to attach some of the nonmonetary broadband language included in the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-1848), including making 100 Mbps symmetrical the threshold for qualifying for much of the spending. The Biden-backed framework is a “general agreement with the Republicans” on spending levels, but “the specific language is still” something Democrats can influence, Doyle said. “I don’t know why we would shoot so low” by keeping the speed benchmark 25/3 Mbps.

It “would be great” if House Commerce advances its part of the infrastructure package before the chamber begins its planned August recess, Doyle said. The House will be in session for “two weeks” before then, so “it’s going to be pretty busy.” Senate Democrats are firming up their plans for the package with an eye to bringing it up for a floor vote as soon as July 19, aides told us.

The FCC’s 25/3 Mbps “is likely not fast enough to meet the needs of many small businesses, particularly with regard to upload speeds,” GAO reported to leaders of the congressional Commerce and Small Business committees.

The FCC intends to seek comment as part of its next Telecom Act Section 706 report on small businesses’ broadband speed needs in response to a GAO recommendation, the commission said in comments the auditor published Thursday. Section 706 “does not explicitly contemplate a specific examination of small business,” but “we agree that soliciting additional stakeholder input regarding small business broadband needs could assist the Commission in determining whether” its speed threshold “is adequate,” said Wireless Bureau Chief Kris Monteith.

The FCC should “solicit input from stakeholders and conduct analysis of small businesses' broadband speed needs and incorporate the results of this analysis into its determination of the benchmark for broadband,” which the commission currently doesn’t do as part of its Section 706 report to determine the broadband speed benchmark, GAO said. “Reviewing available information and soliciting input from stakeholders on how small businesses access broadband, including at what speeds, could provide key insights for future FCC determinations of advanced telecommunications capability and policies aimed towards achieving universal broadband access.”

“As the U.S. recovers from” economic side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses “will need high-performance broadband,” said Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Executive Director Adrianne Furniss. The FCC’s broadband speed benchmark, last updated in 2015, is “not running apace” and “is holding us back. It is well past time for the FCC to set new benchmark speeds that reflect what true broadband is in 2021.”

Van Hollen wrote Secretary Janet Yellen Wednesday to press Treasury to modify its final rule for broadband projects to be eligible for money from the $350 billion in state and local funding from the American Rescue Plan Act package to include areas with 25/3 Mbps (see 2105100060). Eligible projects shouldn’t be “required to solely provide service to unserved and underserved locations,” Van Hollen said. Comments on Treasury’s interim rules are due July 16.