Home Internet Accessibility Act

This Act may be cited as the “Home Internet Accessibility Act”.

(a) In general.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report on the capacity of federally assisted housing to support broadband service.

(b) Contents.— The report required under subsection (a) shall include—

(1) an analysis that identifies which federally assisted housing has access to broadband service and which such housing does not have access to broadband service, disaggregated by State, congressional district, ZIP Code, and census tract, that includes demographic information and any Federal agency responsible for such housing;

(2) an analysis of which such housing does not currently have the capacity to support broadband service deployment and would require retrofitting to support broadband service deployment, disaggregated by State, congressional district, ZIP Code, and census tract, that includes demographic information and any Federal agency responsible for such housing;

(3) an analysis of the estimated costs and timeframe necessary for all federally assisted housing to have the capacity to support broadband service;

(4) an analysis of the challenges to more widespread deployment of broadband service, including the comparative market dynamics to expansion in rural areas and low-income urban and suburban areas, and the challenges to pursuing retrofits for all federally assisted housing to have the capacity to support broadband service;

(5) descriptions of lessons learned from previous retrofitting actions;

(6) an evaluation of the ConnectHome pilot program of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and

(7) recommendations for Congress to allow for all federally assisted housing to have the capacity to support broadband service under a range of specific projected timelines.

(a) In general.— The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in consultation with the Comptroller General and other relevant heads of Federal agencies, shall—

(1) develop a plan for retrofitting federally assisted housing, as necessary, to support broadband service; and

(2) submit such plan to the Congress not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(b) Definitions.— In this Act:

(1) Broadband Service.— The term broadband service has the meaning given the term broadband internet access service in section 8.1(b) of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor regulation.

(2) federally assisted housing.— The term federally assisted housing means any dwelling that constitutes or contains a housing unit that is assisted under a program administered by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development or the Secretary of Agriculture.

(3) State.— The term State means each State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.