S 774 · 113th Congress 2013–2015, ended

A bill to require the Comptroller General of the United States to submit a report to Congress on the effectiveness of the Federal Communications Commission's universal service reforms.

Fact sheet

Latest action · Apr 22, 2013 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedApr 22, 2013
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Directs the Comptroller General (GAO), beginning on or before December 31, 2013, and annually thereafter for the following five years, to prepare a report to aid Congress in monitoring and measuring the effects of a series of reforms by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intended to promote the availability and affordability of broadband service throughout the United States.

Requires such report to include measurements, statistics, and metrics with respect to:

  • the implementation progress on the reforms adopted in the FCC's Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted on October 27, 2011;
  • any effects of such reforms on retail end-user rates for local voice telephony, interconnected VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), long distance voice, mobile wireless voice, bundles of voice telephony or VoIP, fixed broadband Internet access, and mobile broadband Internet access services;
  • any disparities or trends with respect to the relative average (such as per consumer) retail rates charged for each service to residential and business consumers located in rural and urban areas as well as between incumbent local exchange carriers subject to price cap regulation and those subject to rate-of-return regulation;
  • any effects on average fixed and mobile broadband Internet access speeds available to residential and business consumers as well as speed disparities between rural and urban areas;
  • any effects on the magnitude and pace of investments in broadband-capable networks in rural areas, including investments financed by the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, and investment disparities between rural and urban areas;
  • any disparities or trends with respect to the magnitude and pace of investments in broadband-capable networks in areas served by carriers subject to price cap regulation and areas served by carriers subject to rate-of-return regulation;
  • any effects on adoption of broadband Internet access services by end users; and
  • any effects on state universal service funds or initiatives, including carrier-of-last-resort requirements.

Cosponsors 9

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Apr 22, 2013 to May 21, 2013, with 1 there on the day it was introduced.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-NEDeb FischerOriginalApr 22, 2013
R-IAChuck GrassleyApr 24, 2013
D-SDTim JohnsonMay 20, 2013
D-MNAl FrankenMay 21, 2013
D-MNAmy KlobucharMay 21, 2013
D-MIDebbie StabenowMay 21, 2013
D-ORJeff MerkleyMay 21, 2013
R-WYMichael B. EnziMay 21, 2013
D-IATom HarkinMay 21, 2013

Actions 2

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Apr 22, 2013Introduced in Senate
  2. Apr 22, 2013Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Apr 22, 2013Introduced in Senate

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.