Senate Bill Seeks FCC Report On Broadband Supply Problems

Law360 (March 9, 2023, 5:32 PM EST) -- A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has reintroduced a bill requiring the Federal Communications Commission to report to Congress on how supply chain disruptions are affecting broadband infrastructure projects.
Bill sponsor Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said The Network Equipment Transparency Act, or NET Act, is intended to ensure the projects funded by 2021's massive infrastructure spending package have an efficient rollout, according to a Tuesday press release.
"The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is connecting every house in America to affordable, high-speed internet. Getting to the bottom of broadband supply chain issues will help us do it faster," Hickenlooper said.
Similar legislation was introduced last year and made it out of the Commerce Committee unanimously in May. However, this year, the NET Act's introduction comes as the U.S. Department of Commerce prepares to distribute $42.45 billion in grants through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, or BEAD, program this spring.
"I'm proud to join my colleagues in reintroducing the NET Act, which will provide us with another tool to monitor the supply chain so these crucial projects can be executed in a timely manner," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said.
The group behind this year's bill includes Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan.
Senators on both sides of the aisle have shared concerns that the deployment efforts might be hampered by everything from flawed broadband maps to regulatory barriers.
In December, 26 senators sent a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel calling for the commission to take action to make its new broadband connectivity maps as accurate as possible.
Another bill, introduced in February by a bipartisan group of senators, would merge the U.S. Department of Agriculture's ReConnect program with the department's traditional broadband loan and grant program. The group, which includes Sen. John Thune, R-S.D, Sens. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb, insists that the change would streamline rural broadband efforts and make them more effective.
Industry stakeholders have also warned that the U.S. labor force may need more telecom workers for the projects. A September 2022 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that while federal broadband funding would support about 23,000 additional workers at its peak in 2023, the funding would decline to support just 9,000 workers by 2031.
Meanwhile, despite mounting supply chain concerns from some industry groups, the Biden Administration has vowed to use only American-made products for the BEAD program.
In February, the DOT's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is tasked with distributing the grants, announced it would strictly enforce the "Build America, Buy America" requirements outlined in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
While the agency clarified that it had previously requested waivers from "Buy America" requirements, it said the BEAD program has "different requirements, and manufacturers have time to re-shore or expand their operations."