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1 A BILL
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3 24-200
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5 IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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7 ____________________
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10 To amend the Office of the Chief Technology Officer Establishment Act of 1998 to clarify the
11 obligation and function of the Office of the Chief Technology Officer to pursue
12 reasonable, affordable, and equitable access to high-speed internet services for all District
13 residents and businesses, to instruct the Office to identify and remedy various barriers to
14 equitable internet access, and to require a status report on the District's participation in
15 certain federal programs promoting internet equity, a study of the feasibility of federally
16 funded fiber and conduit broadband infrastructure, and an assessment of the extent of
17 certain potential gaps in federally supported internet equity programs..
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19 BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
20 act may be cited as the Internet Equity Amendment Act of 2022.
21 Sec. 2. The Office of the Chief Technology Officer Establishment Act of 1998, effective
22 March 26, 1999 (D.C. Law 12-175; D.C. Official Code 1-1401, et seq.) is amended as follows:
23 (a) Section 1813 (D.C. Official Code 1-1402) is amended by striking the sentence In
24 addition, the Office may work to ensure that reasonable, affordable access to high-speed Internet
25 services is available to District residents and businesses. and inserting the sentence In addition,
26 the Office shall work to ensure that all District residents and businesses have reasonable,
27 affordable, and equitable access to high-speed Internet services. in its place.
28 (b) Section 1814(11) (D.C. Official Code 1-1403(11)) is amended to read as follows:
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29 (11) Develop and implement solutions designed to ensure that all District
30 residents and businesses have equitable and affordable access to high-speed Internet services;.
31 (c) A new section 1816a-1 is added to read as follows:
32 Section 1816b. Digital Equity Planning and Reporting.
33 (a) For the purposes of this section, the term:
34 (1) BIL means the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, Public Law
35 117-58, 135 Stat. 429, approved November 15, 2021, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure
36 Law; and
37 (2) Broadband means the transmission of wide bandwidth data over a high-
38 speed internet connection, including via fiber optic, wireless, cable, DSL, and satellite
39 technology.
40 (b) The Office shall work to identify and remedy barriers to equitable access to internet
41 service in the District, including racial, socioeconomic, geographic, and other inequities in
42 connectivity infrastructure, in device ownership, in the compatibility between devices and
43 critical services, in digital literacy, and in awareness and adoption of digital tools and benefits.
44 (c) Within 90 days after the applicability date of the Internet Equity Amendment Act of
45 2022, as approved by the Committee on Government Operations and Facilities on November 17,
46 2022 (Committee print of Bill 24-200), the Office shall deliver to the Council and post on its
47 website an internet equity status report.
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48 (1) The report shall include a description of the Districts participation in federal
49 programs pursuant to BIL, including:
50 (A) A list of federal programs established pursuant to BIL that the
51 District government is participating in, with a description of the Districts current participation in
52 each, including a description of anticipated uses of funds to advance digital equity as described
53 in subsection (b) of this section;
54 (B) A list of any federal programs established pursuant to BIL that the
55 District government is potentially eligible to participate in but has decided not to, with an
56 explanation; and
57 (C) A list of any federal programs established pursuant to BIL that the
58 District government is still evaluating as of the date of the initial report, with the Offices best
59 estimate of a timeline for deciding whether to participate in each.
60 (2) The initial report shall describe how the Office plans to conduct community
61 outreach and engagement regarding the Districts applications for federal internet infrastructure
62 funding.
63 (d) Within 1 year after the applicability date of the Internet Equity Amendment Act of
64 2022, as approved by the Committee on Government Operations and Facilities on November 17,
65 2022 (Committee print of Bill 24-200), the Office shall develop or obtain and shall deliver to the
66 Council and post on its website a study of the feasibility and anticipated consequences of one or
67 more projects using local or federal grant funds to increase District-owned fiber and conduit
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68 broadband infrastructure in areas identified by the Office as least likely to receive affordable,
69 reliable high-speed internet service absent such investments, including:
70 (1) Overall recommendations as to the scale of such projects that may reasonably
71 be completed within the implementation periods of any major BIL programs in which the Office
72 intends to participate;
73 (2) Estimated costs and buildout timelines;
74 (3) Barriers that may increase implementation costs;
75 (4) Estimated District revenues that might reasonably result during the useful life
76 of the resulting infrastructure;
77 (5) Estimated economic benefits to District residents and businesses that might
78 reasonably result during the useful life of the resulting infrastructure; and
79 (6) Estimates of the scale of any other significant benefits likely to accrue to
80 District residents and businesses as a result of the projects.
81 (e)(1) Within 1 year after the applicability date of the Internet Equity Amendment Act of
82 2022, as approved by the Committee on Government Operations and Facilities on November 17,
83 2022 (Committee print of Bill 24-200), the Office shall deliver to the Council and post on its
84 website an internet equity gap assessment report.
85 (2) The report shall concern the following digital equity goals:
86 (A) Ensuring that all District households earning 50% of the area median
87 family income or less are able to obtain home internet access, with adequate speed and reliability
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88 to support ordinary digital participation in important activities such as employment, education,
89 and health care, and at a cost of no more than 0.5% of household income; and
90 (B) Ensuring that all applications for important services or benefits that
91 District agencies offer in online formats may be accessed reliably and in a consistent manner via
92 desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet devices, and smartphones and via widely used
93 internet browsers;
94 (3) For each digital equity goal enumerated in paragraph (2), the report shall:
95 (A) Estimate the extent to which existing District government programs,
96 including programs that the Office anticipates pursuing using BIL funding, are unlikely to
97 achieve the goal within 3 years after the date of the report;
98 (B) Note any significant barriers to achieving the goal;
99 (C) Estimate the level of additional local funding that might be needed to
100 fully achieve the goal; and
101 (D) Provide any policy recommendations that the Office believes would
102 help further the goal..
103 Sec. 3. Fiscal impact statement.
104 The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal
105 impact statement required by section 4a of the General Legislative Procedures Act of 1975,
106 approved October 16, 2006 (120 Stat. 2038; D.C. Official Code 1-301.47a).
107 Sec. 4. Effective date.
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108 This act shall take effect following approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the
109 Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto), a 30-day period of congressional review as
110 provided in section 602(c)(1) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved December
111 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code 1-206.02(c)(1)), and publication in the District of
112 Columbia Register.
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