Booker Introduces Community Broadband Act
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced the Community Broadband Act Thursday. A Booker news release said Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., are backing the bill. The legislation would forbid any state statute or regulation “from barring any public…
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provider from providing advanced telecommunications capability or any comparable service to public or private entities and it would provide antidiscrimination safeguards in the event that any public provider regulates competing private providers,” in language provided by Booker's spokeswoman. “This Act aims to promote and protect local communities, enabling them to enhance economic development, improve access to education and health care services, and stabilize prices, allowing them to more successfully compete in local markets.” Markey issued a statement praising the bill while also urging the FCC to act. Booker mentioned his support for municipal broadband during a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on net neutrality. He said a GOP draft bill would limit Telecom Act Section 706. Many suspect the FCC would need 706 authority to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband. “This legislation takes the ability to fight Goliath out,” Booker said of the GOP net neutrality draft bill. He continually framed major industry ISPs as “Goliaths” and praised municipalities that move to provide their own Internet. Republicans, in control of both chambers on Capitol Hill, are not seen to favor municipal broadband. The House passed legislation last Congress that would prevent FCC pre-emption of state laws on this front, but that provision never advanced through the Senate. The Coalition for Local Internet Choice praised Booker for “his affirmation of local Internet choice and his support for the authority of local governments to work on next generation broadband networks with their private partners and local communities.” Free Press, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Public Knowledge also back the bill. Booker posted the seven-page bill online. It includes a section encouraging public-private partnerships. If any municipal project “fails due to bankruptcy or is terminated by a public provider, no Federal funds may be provided to the public provider specifically to assist the public provider in reviving or renewing that project,” with some exemptions for major disasters, the text said.