Senate Indian Affairs Committee Eyes Broadband Shortfall on Tribal Lands

Gigi Sohn, counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, enumerated the GAO recommendations and outlined how the commission is trying to work toward fulfilling them. “When implemented in concert, the recommendations advanced by GAO will help to improve and measure the availability and adoption of high-speed Internet on Tribal lands, giving the Commission a deeper understanding of where and how to direct resources,” Sohn testified. Starting in FY 2017, the FCC “intends to amend directions to the E-rate application to offer guidance in applicants’ self-reporting of Tribal affiliation,” Sohn noted.

“To address the GAO’s recommendation, USDA’s RUS and the FCC are currently working to closely coordinate outreach efforts to better assist tribal areas in providing high-speed internet access,” Rural Utilities Service Administrator Brandon McBride testified. “Included in these discussions will be development of joint outreach materials that explain how programs can be interrelated, and how available funding options may be leveraged. Both the USDA and the FCC offer programs to improve internet availability and adoption on tribal lands. Examples of recent USDA telecommunications projects specifically benefiting tribal areas include not just broadband funding, but funding for equipment to improve access to quality health care and educational services.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pressed McBride on the metrics involved. McBride cited provisions from the 2014 farm bill. “One provision of the farm bill required us to share reporting on our loans with the FCC, and we are working with them to share data we have to update broadband maps,” McBride said. Sohn mentioned telecom companies submit twice a year to the FCC their Form 477 information on broadband deployment. “We do measure deployment,” she said. According to the FCC’s latest reporting, 41 percent of tribal land doesn't have access to broadband service, Sohn said.

“The 41 percent, I don’t know what that means,” Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said, worrying about what struck him as “imprecise” testimony from Sohn. “Does that mean that let’s say you have a huge reservation and there’s connectivity at the school. What percentage of the people are counted as having connectivity then? How is that figured out? How is that calculated?”

Sohn defended the recent USF overhaul but promised more changes to come. “We recognize that our work is far from finished,” Sohn said. “For example, the commission recently adopted a further notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on measures to increase broadband deployment on tribal lands served by rate-of-return carriers. Chairman Wheeler publicly committed to bringing forward a proposal addressing this challenge before the end of the year.”

“I’m very disappointed that the FCC did not provide ONAP [Office of Native Affairs and Policy] even the modest $300,000 in funding that Congress directed for tribal consultation in FY 2015,” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., told Sohn. “We will not repeat that mistake,” Sohn assured him. “I will give you that assurance.” Sohn said the money appropriated to ONAP would hold consultations, training and workshops with tribal communities. “And they did that,” she said, tallying off numbers of consultations in past years. “The goal of appropriating that money is being accomplished.” In the first four months of 2016, there have been 20 consultations, she added. “We will spend the money. We’re planning on it.” Udall said the main answer is that the budget request is zero for FY 2017, expressing concern.

The GAO issues come “as no surprise,” Godfrey Enjady, president of the National Tribal Telecommunications Association, testified, listing many challenges tribal entities face. “Access to capital is also a major roadblock to network growth and viability,” he said. “Because most tribally owned carriers cannot collateralize their assets, RUS is our only lender and I appreciate the work that they do.” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., later asked him about roadblocks. “There are only nine of us,” Enjady told him of tribal telecom companies and the difficulties involved in setting up one now. Hoeven wondered about a need for more partnerships with private companies to help broadband deployment goals.

“We found that, unfortunately, the kind of barriers we’re talking about today existed years ago as well,” GAO’s Mark Goldstein, director-physical infrastructure issues, told Hoeven, saying there were not many examples of companies partnering with reservations. Barriers included long distances, rural terrain, poverty, challenges in acquiring spectrum and other regulatory and legal obstacles, Goldstein said. He also criticized the broadband mapping by census block as “not terribly accurate” due to the large census blocks in tribal land. He mentioned talking to tribes that protested the accuracy because they were being denied funding. “It is not fully rectified,” Goldstein said. “We’re not certain how accurate that is.”

“We’re not going to solve this problem unless we have an accurate assessment of what the problem is today,” Cantwell said. “Let’s get data and measurements and work together on it.”

“Going much more granular than that could have privacy implications,” Sohn told Franken, citing counsel on the possibility of the FCC measuring broadband deployment more closely than by census block. Franken said he thinks money is the elephant in the room. “We may well need Congress’s help to collect more granular data,” Sohn later told Barrasso.

Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, offered four recommendations: “Restore funding for RUS grant programs for broadband deployment and target that money for deployment on tribal lands as defined by the FCC; Expand the USF Schools and Libraries program to include Head Start, GED programs, and online college courses; Create a new program within BIA to lower the cost of broadband for tribal and Native serving institutions, funded in part through the USF program; Set aside 10 percent of the new market tax credit program for projects benefiting Indians, Alaska natives, and native Hawaiians for ten years, with half that amount being dedicated to broadband deployment.”

“Quite frankly, it doesn’t get enough attention,” ranking member Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said in his opening statement. Broadband “plays a key component” in the economic development of Indian communities, he said. He echoed Cantwell’s concern about broadband mapping, referring to one showcasing full cellular service in Montana and calling it “total BS.”