Legislative – 9/27/19

The fourth and final rural broadband hearing of the Senate Communications and Technology Committee was held on Monday and featured extensive questioning of Department of General Services Secretary Curt Topper by Committee Chairwoman Senator Kristin Philips-Hill. At issue was a recent state contract seeking to monetize state assets for the purpose of broadband deployment and related legislation in the form of House Bill 305 and Senate Bill 470 (Sponsored by Hill), which seek to do something similar by establishing the freestanding State-owned Assets and Mobile Broadband Services Act. Hill specifically focused on whether the state contract would address utilizing state assets to provide broadband in unserved and underserved areas to which Topper responded that it did not specifically address the issue in that way.