SENATE BILL: Lets Get Wired (LGW) Act (Passed)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

SENATE BILL

To expand access to broadband

Be it enacted in Both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Lets Get Wired (LGW) Act

1.) This Act hereby recognises the importance of broadband and data access for communities across Atlasia, and recognises that too many communities still lack reliable, affordable and high quality broadband. This act takes the following steps to remedy this inequality.

2.) The Lets Get Wired Task-Force is hereby created, with an NPC chairman and 5 other representatives appointed by the President, along with one representative from each of Atlasia's region. This taskforce is hereby empowered to expand, improve and introduce high-speed broadband across Atlasia and its regions.

3.) $20 billion shall hereby be appropriated over the next 5 years to aims and objectives of the LGW Act. The $20 billion is hereby broken down in the following areas.  

3A.) $10 billion of this funding is for the up-front cost of installing new broadband route in areas currently not receiving an connection of least 25 megabits per second, an upload speed of at least 3 megabits per second.

3B.) $5 billion is hereby granted to the regions of Atlasia to spend on the improving and expanding broadband access.

3C.) $2 billion is hereby allocated for the installation of broadband for rural areas and areas under the oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

3D.) $1 billion is hereby allocated for a federal jobs training and apprenticeship scheme designed to train employees for the skills needed in the installation of broadband infrastructure.

3E.) $1 billion is hereby allocated for public schools and libraries to improve and expand broadband access.

3F.) $500 million is hereby allocated for hospitals and other medical facilities to invest, expand and improve tele-health programs for patients, with the funding designated for improving services for patients with historic difficulty in accessing broadband connections.

3EG) $500 million is hereby allocated to be granted to small business (those with less than 10 employees) to improve internet accessibility for the business, and for employees working from home. The maximum grant amount shall be capped at $5,000 per company.  

Sponsor: Blair
Senate Designation: SB29:12

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The sponsor has 24 hours to begin advocacy here and other members have another 48 hours with which to respond with their initial comments, questions and concerns.

[Blair]

Even before the pandemic broadband (wifi, internet whatever one calls it) access was a really big driver of inequality- as all good bills start with a story one of my uncles wanted to set up a business after leaving his job & he lives in a rather rural part of the UK- his awful internet connection has made his job a lot harder and is a reason why he basically had to wait 5 years.

Broadband needs to be seen like any other policy area- if you have poor roads or public transport you suffer, if you have high crime in an area some businesses will be reluctant to open etc.

This bill puts forward a relatively large amount of funding to deal with both the installation up front, while providing support for the regions, rural areas and those managed by the BIA- while also including schools and libraries. (While the focus is rightly on rural areas there's also a huge problem with broadband in city areas, especially poorer communities)

The bill also works to generate jobs in the sector- with the pandemic it's clear that we're going need to ensure that young people and those wishing to re-train have the chance to do so and infrastructure is a good way of creating these skilled, high quality jobs.

EDIT: The one part I didn't include which some other RL bills have is around providing direct financial aid to pay for broadband connection- I'm open to this and would be interested to see what other people have to say on this.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

How does this interact with previously passed bills on the subject?

[Blair]

How does this interact with previously passed bills on the subject?

Good question time to head to the wiki...

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

How does this interact with previously passed bills on the subject?

Good question time to head to the wiki...

I know there have been attempts but I am unsure of final passage of such bills.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Where are we at with this?

[Blair]

Where are we at with this?

It’s on my list for Saturday; pretty sure there were previous regional and federal actions

[Mike Thick]

How does this interact with previously passed bills on the subject?

Good question time to head to the wiki...

I know there have been attempts but I am unsure of final passage of such bills.

I wrote a Universal Broadband bill that got signed last year.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

How does this interact with previously passed bills on the subject?

Good question time to head to the wiki...

I know there have been attempts but I am unsure of final passage of such bills.

I wrote a Universal Broadband bill that got signed last year.

What are the areas of overlap?

[Blair]

How does this interact with previously passed bills on the subject?

Good question time to head to the wiki...

I know there have been attempts but I am unsure of final passage of such bills.

I wrote a Universal Broadband bill that got signed last year.

What are the areas of overlap?

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=382317.msg7450879#msg7450879

This was and I think is the bill- I'm trying to go through it to see how to make the two bills link together.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

How does this interact with previously passed bills on the subject?

Good question time to head to the wiki...

I know there have been attempts but I am unsure of final passage of such bills.

I wrote a Universal Broadband bill that got signed last year.

What are the areas of overlap?

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=382317.msg7450879#msg7450879

This was and I think is the bill- I'm trying to go through it to see how to make the two bills link together.

How is this process going?

[Blair]

apologies over this- will be able to get it up tomorrow when I've got the PC working fully.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

apologies over this- will be able to get it up tomorrow when I've got the PC working fully.

What happened to it our sheer technical curiosity?

[Blair]

apologies over this- will be able to get it up tomorrow when I've got the PC working fully.

What happened to it our sheer technical curiosity?

Oh nothing bad just waiting for the new monitor to arrive so I can type fully rather than having to do it through my broken one.

[Senator-elect Spark]

I am in favor of anything to help expand internet access to rural areas.

[Blair]

So in funny news I wrote out a huge amendment which tried to deal with the previous bill and work the two before realising that I could basically just have this as a top up bill- the previous one by Ted was an amendment to the 1930s federal communications act, which removed any strict caps (in the way that I read it) on spending & this just clarifies the amount spent.

The only major cross over is having another commission; I considered removing it but I thought since we're spending such a large amount of money & trying to do something quite ambitious it would be better to have more oversight of it.

SENATE BILL

To expand access to broadband

Be it enacted in Both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Lets Get Wired (LGW) Act

1.) This Act hereby recognises the importance of broadband and data access for communities across Atlasia, and recognises that too many communities still lack reliable, affordable and high quality broadband. This act takes the following steps to remedy this inequality.

2.) The Lets Get Wired Task-Force is hereby created to work alongside existing commissions , with an NPC chairman and 5 other representatives appointed by the President, along with one representative from each of Atlasia's region. This taskforce is hereby empowered to expand, improve and introduce high-speed broadband across Atlasia and its regions.

3.) $20 billion shall hereby be appropriated over the next 5 years to aims and objectives of the LGW Act. The $20 billion is hereby broken down in the following areas.  

3A.) $10 billion of this funding is for the up-front cost of installing new broadband route in areas currently not receiving an connection of least 25 megabits per second, an upload speed of at least 3 megabits per second.

3B.) $5 billion is hereby granted to the regions of Atlasia to spend on the improving and expanding broadband access.

3C.) $2 billion is hereby allocated for the installation of broadband for rural areas and areas under the oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

3D.) $1 billion is hereby allocated for a federal jobs training and apprenticeship scheme designed to train employees for the skills needed in the installation of broadband infrastructure.

3E.) $1 billion is hereby allocated for public schools and libraries to improve and expand broadband access.

3F.) $500 million is hereby allocated for hospitals and other medical facilities to invest, expand and improve tele-health programs for patients, with the funding designated for improving services for patients with historic difficulty in accessing broadband connections.

3EG) $500 million is hereby allocated to be granted to small business (those with less than 10 employees) to improve internet accessibility for the business, and for employees working from home. The maximum grant amount shall be capped at $5,000 per company.  

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The amendment is adopted.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Next steps here?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Next steps here?

[Blair]

I'm happy to move to a final vote

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A Final vote is now open on this legislation, Senators please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

[Senator-elect Spark]

Aye