Existing Statutory Authorities
As funding for broadband support programs has grown in recent years, Congress has endowed agencies with new powers and responsibilities to promote coordination and improve transparency. Set forth in several laws passed since 2020, these statutory obligations require that agencies work together to coordinate broadband investment, supply data to central repositories, and prevent the duplication of funding. Together, these authorities lay the foundation for future efforts to promote beneficial alignment of broadband programs.
In March 2020, Congress passed the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (Broadband DATA Act), which requires the FCC to change the way broadband data is collected, verified, and reported.3 Since 2014, the FCC had been collecting deployment data through Form 477 at the Census block level; if a single household could receive service in the Census block, then the entire block was deemed “served.”4
The Broadband DATA Act required the FCC to collect and disseminate broadband service availability data at the location level, rather than the Census block level.5 To do this, the FCC was required to establish the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, a common dataset of all locations in the United States where fixed broadband Internet access service can be installed, as determined by the Commission.6 That Fabric is “the foundation upon which all data relating to the availability of fixed broadband Internet access service . . . shall be reported and overlaid.”7 Among other requirements, the Broadband DATA Act directed the FCC to consult with the Secretary of Agriculture and NTIA to enable them to rely on the Commission’s broadband maps when awarding funds for broadband deployment under programs administered by USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and any future program administered by NTIA, respectively.8
In December 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA, 2021), a spending bill that contained two provisions written to promote interagency coordination on broadband.9 Section 904 of division FF of CAA, 2021, the Broadband Interagency Coordination Act of 2020 (BICA), directed NTIA, USDA, and the FCC to enter into an interagency agreement requiring coordination between the agencies for the distribution of funds for broadband deployment.10 While the FCC and USDA had previously signed a data-sharing agreement in 2014, CAA, 2021 included over $1.5 billion of funding to be administered by NTIA through three new funding programs: the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP), the Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP), and the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (CMC).11 In June 2021, pursuant to the statutory directive, the three named agencies entered into an Interagency Agreement.12
In March 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which established both the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) and the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF), both of which would be administered by Treasury.13 These flexible programs could be used by states and local governments for a number of purposes, including broadband deployment. As of May 2024, 47 states have dedicated more than $7.5 billion in funding through CPF to invest in high-speed Internet infrastructure to reach more than 2 million locations.14 Recognizing Treasury’s new and important role in broadband funding, FCC, NTIA, USDA, and Treasury signed in May 2022 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that included many of the same principles as the 2021 Interagency Agreement, but included Treasury as a “Covered Agency” and CPF and SLRLF broadband funding data as “Covered Data.”15
CAA, 2021 also included the Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access, and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand Act (ACCESS BROADBAND Act, or “ABA”).16 The ABA established the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OICG) within NTIA. Additionally, the bill codified the work NTIA had already been doing to promote interagency coordination and provide technical assistance to states, localities, and Tribes through the BroadbandUSA program.17
The ABA gave the newly created OICG a central coordination role in all federal broadband funding efforts to promote efficiency and avoid duplication. The ABA states that “any agency that offers a Federal broadband support program shall coordinate with the Office” to “ensure that Federal support for broadband deployment is being distributed in an efficient, technology-neutral, and financially sustainable manner, and that a program does not duplicate any other Federal broadband support program or any Universal Service Fund high-cost program.”18 The ultimate goals of that coordination are “[s]erving the largest number of unserved locations in the United States and ensuring all residents of the United States have access to high-speed broadband” and “[p]romoting the most job and economic growth for all residents of the United States.”19 To fulfill these goals, the ABA required NTIA to provide an annual report to Congress on federal broadband spending and how many residents of the US were connected to broadband as a result of that spending.20 That report must also include an estimate of the economic impact those broadband programs on local economics, small businesses, and jobs.21
IIJA, signed into law on November 15, 2021, created new programs for NTIA to administer, including the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the $1 billion Middle Mile Grant Program, and, through the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act, three digital equity grant programs. IIJA also made an additional $2 billion available for TBCP and made a number of technical amendments to the program.22 Additional IIJA funding was directed to the FCC for the Affordable Connectivity Program ($14.2 billion); to USDA’s RUS ($2 billion); and to Treasury for Private Activity Bonds for rural broadband ($0.6 billion). IIJA tied the distribution of BEAD funding to the FCC’s maps of broadband availability, tightening the thread that weaves these programs and agencies together.23 IIJA also included a reporting requirement for any agencies that fund broadband-related programs. Any agency that offers a Federal broadband support program would be required to provide data “in a manner and format prescribed by the Assistant Secretary [i.e., the NTIA Administrator], to promote coordination of efforts to track construction and use of broadband infrastructure.”24 Section 60105 of IIJA also charged the FCC with the creation of a new map that would show the overall geographic footprint of each broadband infrastructure product funded by the federal government. Unlike the FCC’s National Broadband Map, which shows where broadband is or is not available, this map would demonstrate, at a location-by-location level, where the federal government has invested in broadband infrastructure. IIJA declared that this map, the Broadband Funding Map (BFM), would be the “centralized, authoritative source of information on funding made available by the Federal Government for broadband infrastructure deployment in the United States.”25
Together, these statutes are driving billions of dollars of federal spending towards the deployment of broadband and creating new obligations and opportunities for collaboration between agencies. NTIA was designated by Congress to lead that coordination effort and administer a significant portion of planned federal broadband spending through the BEAD Program, but numerous agencies are funding broadband deployment and have roles to play in reporting, collecting, or publishing data; streamlining applications; and promoting program alignment. These authorities outlined in this section illustrate the wealth of opportunities that exist for further coordination, both at the point of Congressional authorization and during Executive Branch implementation.
Current Efforts to Promote Program Alignment
3 Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act, Pub. L. No. 116-130, 134 Stat. 228 (2020)(codified at 47 U.S.C. §§ 641-646).
4 Form 477 Resources, Federal Communications Commission. Accessed May 16, 2023.
5 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(B)(i).
6 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(A)(i).
7 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(B)(ii). This mandate was unfunded until December of 2020, when Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, which included a $90 million appropriation to the FCC to build the map required by the Broadband DATA Act.
8 47 U.S.C. §§ 642(c)(4)(A), (B).
9 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Pub. L. No. 116-260, 134 Stat. 1182 (2020).
10 Pub. L. No. 116-260, Div. FF, § 904, 134 Stat. at 3214 (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 1308).
11 Pub. L. No 116-260, Div. N, §§ 902, 905, 134 Stat. at 2121-28, 2136-44. The $285 million for CMC, $300 million for BIP, and the $1 billion for TBCP were the largest broadband grant programs at NTIA since Congress tasked NTIA with the implementation of the $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program in 2009.
12 Interagency Agreement Between the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
13 Pub. L. No. 117-2, § 9901,135 Stat. 4, 223.
14 Capital Projects Fund Awards Made to States, Territories, and Freely Associated States, to date, U.S. Department of The Treasury.
15 Press Release, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, FCC, NTIA, USDA and Treasury Announce Interagency Agreement to Collaborate on Federal Broadband Funding (May 12, 2022).
16 Pub. L. No. 116-260, Div. FF, § 903, 134 Stat. at 3210 (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 1307).
17 47 U.S.C. 1307(c).
18 Id. at § 1307(f)(1).
19 Id. at § 1307(f)(2).
20 Id. at § 1307(c)(2)(C).
21 Id. at § 1307(c)(2)(C)(iii).
22 Pub. L. No. 117-58, Div. F, Titles I to IV; Div. J, Title II; see 47 U.S.C. §§ 1702(b)(2), 1705(b), 1723(k), 1724(l),1725(e), 1741(h).
23 See, e.g., 47 U.S.C. § 1702(a)(1)(A), (a)(2)(H).
24 Pub. L. No. 117-58, Div. F, § 60102(j)(1)(E)(ii), 135 Stat. 429, 1202 (2021) (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 1702); see also 47 U.S.C. § 1307(g)(4) (defining “federal broadband support program”).
25 Pub. L. No. 117-58, Div. F, § 60105(c) (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 1704).