Sen. Bennet Says Coloradans’ Complaints About Poor Broadband Drove Passage of Infrastructure Act

KEYSTONE, Colorado, May 24, 2022 – The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for Coloradans to get better broadband, and the reactions that people felt as a result of their poor experiences with broadband motivated Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., to craft legislation that ultimately led the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation.

Speaking at the Mountain Connect conference here, Bennet traced the history of how grass-roots reactions to the problems of poor broadband translated into legislation.

”Wherever I went in the state, whether it was rural, suburban, or urban, broadband kept coming up again and again,” Bennet recounted. “People constantly told me that broadband was too slow or too expensive to be of much use to their family, their farm, or their small business.”

A few months into the pandemic, he introduced the Broadband Reform and Investment to Drive Growth in the Economy (BRIDGE) Act, a piece of legislation that would have allocated $40 billion in federal funds to states, Tribal Governments, and U.S. Territories.

Although the BRIDGE Act did not pass the 117th Congress, the language of the bill had a major influence on federal broadband policy that followed it, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which passed the Senate in August and the House in November. The measure was signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021. It led to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment Program, the details of which were released on May 13.

BRIDGE Act a precursor to IIJA

The BRIDGE Act served as a precursor to the BEAD program in two regards. First, it put states in the driver’s seat to disperse federal funds in the place of federal agencies, under the theory that states have the best understanding of their surrounding communities’ needs.

Second, the BRIDGE measure significantly raised broadband speed standards, more than quadrupling the FCC’s long-held 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload standard by requiring that projects funded under the Act deliver no less than 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband connections.

IIJA upped the dollars spent on broadband by the federal government, but it dropped the speed requirements to 100 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up.

Other Colorado-focused broadband measures

Colorado state legislators are also active in other broadband measures, as outlined by Brandy Reitter, the executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office, and others speaking at the conference.

Earlier this year, Gov. Jared Polis issued a state executive order directing the Colorado Broadband Office to develop a strategic plan to connect 99% of Colorado households to high-speed Internet access by 2027.

Colorado’s most recent legislative session saw increased activity in the broadband space, with much of the legislation passed aimed at expanding broadband initiatives across the state in order to achieve the governor’s goals.

One key piece of legislation was House Bill 21-1289, which invested $75 million dollars of the state’s American Rescue Plan funds toward digital inclusion programs. Of that allocation, $35 million dollars went toward digital inclusion projects, including $20 million allocated to the Southern Ute Mountain Tribes; $15 million was invested in telehealth and telemedicine; and $35 million was allocated to a broadband stimulus grant program, to which ISPs and other providers can apply to access funding.

The final $5 million of the funding was allocated to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for the Digital Connectivity Program, which communities interested in building middle-mile broadband can access.

Senate Bill 21-60 allocated an additional $5 million to digital inclusion grant programs, managed by the Office of eHealth Innovation, and specifically set aside funding to offer discounts of up to 50% to Coloradans with telemedicine bills.

House Bill 22-83 set the framework for the Colorado Department of Transportation to put systems in place for permitting and use of rights-of-way.

Finally, House Bill 22-1306 shortened the time frame the Colorado Broadband Office reviews grants in from a 60-day timeframe to a 45-day time frame. This bill helps mitigate supply chain issues, as the price of supplies can often escalate by 10 to 20% within an additional 15 days.

Reitter said that these measures help state of Colorado to participate actively in every federal funding program possible,.

The state plans to take advantage of the NTIA’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment Program, and hopes to receive up to $700 million in funding from the program, based on data from the Colorado Broadband Office.

“We think this is a real opportunity to keep continuing the investment in broadband,” Reiter said of the BEAD program.