Will highlight his legislation to help small ISPs expand broadband access to underserved areas
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Dave Loebsack will continue his tour of small Internet Service Providers (ISP) across the state TODAY, April 22nd. Loebsack will meet with owners and operators of small ISPs to discuss bipartisan legislation that he helped pass in the House, the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act. This legislation seeks to promote broadband deployment by extending the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) exemption from its enhanced transparency rules for small ISPs for 5 years. Media are invited to attend.
Grand Mound Broadband Visit
4:00pm
Grand Mound Telecom
705 Clinton Street
Background on the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act
The Small Business Broadband Deployment Act unanimously passed the full House of Representatives by a vote of 411-0 earlier this year. Loebsack helped drafted this commonsense, bipartisan legislation along with the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee, Greg Walden (R-OR). When originally introduced, H.R. 4596 sought to exempt ISPs with 500,000 or fewer subscribers or 1,500 employees. While Democrats were initially opposed to this proposal, Loebsack worked closely with both Republicans and Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to negotiate this smaller, short-term exemption, which allows small ISPs to focus their resources on broadband deployment, while giving Congress time to evaluate the rules’ impacts on consumers.
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