FCC Chairman Pai: FCC Lacks Resources to Implement BRODBAND DATA Act

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai told a House Financial Services Subcommittee budget hearing that he could not provide a timeline for when the FCC could improve its broadband availability maps, in part because of a bill Congress just passed to require better mapping. Asked for a best-guess for when better maps could be produced, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (who was also testifying) said she thought the FCC could improve its maps within 3-6 months and again argued the FCC should hold off on handing new rural broadband buildout subsidies — $16 billion worth and the majority of that 10-year Rural Digital Opportunity Fund — until it improved those maps. Chairman Pai shot back that that was "flatly incorrect." He said having consulted the career staff at the FCC, it would take all of those six months just to analyze the underlying data before they could be translated into verifiable maps. He added that the was before the recent legislation that was passed that "doesn't give us the resources." Pressed for a time estimate, Chairman Pai said it would be a lot longer than 3-6 months, but could not provide an estimate "because the recently passed legislation imposes new mandates the FCC does not have the funding to be able to fulfill."  Chairman Pai was referring to the Senate's unanimous passage of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act March 10, which requires the FCC to issue new rules "to require the collection and dissemination of granular broadband availability data and to establish a process to verify the accuracy of such data, and more."