Today:  US House Subcommittee to Consider Several Telecom Related Bills, FCC Chairman Pai Proposes Increased Funding for Rural Health Care 

US House Subcommittee to Consider Several Telecom Related Bills

The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), will be considering the following bills:

H.R. 5709, Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (PIRATE) Act, authored by #SubCommTech Vice Chairman Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), will increase fines for illegal pirate operations from $10,000 per violation to $100,000 per day per violation, up to a maximum of $2,000,000, and streamline the FCC’s enforcement process and empower state and local law enforcement in combating illegal pirate operations.

H.R. 3994, the Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Business Resources, Opportunities, Access, and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand (ACCESS BROADBAND) Act, authored by Rep. Tonko and Rep. Lance, will establish an Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to coordinate and track federal funding for broadband across all agencies. This is an important step in the NTIA reauthorization process the subcommittee began last year and continued with the recent #SubCommTech oversight hearing.

FCC Chairman Pai Proposes Increased Funding for Rural Health Care

Chairman Pai announced that he is circulating a draft order that would increase funding for the USF’s Rural Health Care Program.  Currently the cap for funding is $400 million and was set in 1997.  The Chairman seeks to increase the annual cap to $571 million.  Chairman Pai released the following statement, in part, regarding his plan:

“As the son of two doctors in rural Kansas, and having visited telemedicine projects from Alaska to Florida, I understand the critical role that broadband plays in giving patients in rural areas high-quality health care services.  That’s why I’m pleased to announce my plan to increase funding for the FCC’s Rural Health Care Program by $171 million.”

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.