By Rep. Jordan Rasmusson
Bipartisan legislation I authored to efficiently improve broadband internet access for Otter Tail County residents and people throughout Minnesota has cleared its first committee hurdle with overwhelming support.
The bill (HF 3605) is a cost-effective approach to help close the Swiss cheese holes in internet delivery. In fact, my proposal comes at zero additional cost to taxpayers because it leverages existing federal funding. The program would directly connect residents and businesses lacking access to broadband internet service with service providers and assist in the expense of extending broadband to these locations.
Some households are in areas that show up on broadband maps as served, but still do not have broadband service – which means they are ineligible for current programs, resulting in gaps across our state maps unless my legislation is enacted.
A number of addresses are serviceable but require a significant investment from the property owner to extend service if, for example, they have a long driveway.
State and federal broadband programs currently are not scaled small enough to provide grant support to build out to these addresses. My legislation allows the Office of Broadband to use federal broadband funding to award smaller-scale grants to help reach these customers.
The bill I authored works by facilitating an Office of Broadband (OBD) portal allowing any person to report that broadband is not available at their residence or business. The OBD then would execute a reverse auction for those addresses so providers can bid on the amount of requested funding to provide the service and OBD will select the lowest bidder.
Minnesota is on the cusp of unleashing an unprecedented amount of funding for broadband deployment. Over the next few years, broadband providers have or will receive federal broadband funds to provide service to thousands of unserved households in Minnesota. These funds, along with the vast amounts of private capital, will allow Minnesota to complete its mission of ubiquitous access to broadband across the state – if spent wisely.
My bill helps this happen by seeking to solve the challenges we face in ensuring the inflow of federal funding is put to work to bring broadband service to customers as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The House Industrial Education and Economic Development Finance and Policy Committee provided unanimous support for my bill in its first House hearing. The Community of Minnesota Resorts, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the League of Minnesota Cities, and the Minnesota Technology Association all publicly support my bill, which has 16 Republican and Democrat co-sponsors. I look forward to continuing my efforts on this legislation throughout the session and remain hopeful we can get it to the governor for enactment.
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