In moves strongly supported by a leading telework advocate, U.S. lawmakers have put forward legislation that would require room made for the information superhighway in the vehicular variety.

 

H.2428, The Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009 and a companion Senate bill, S. 1266 of the same name, would require states to install broadband conduit in new or expanded federally-funded highways. H. 2428 is sponsored by Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), and Edward Markey (D-Mass.). Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), and Mark Warner (R-Va.) put the Senate bill forward.

 

The House and Senate legislation directs the federal government to:

 

 

The legislation also allows the broadband requirement to be waived if/when the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Communications Commission determine that the conduit is not necessary.

 

The bills are aimed at reducing broadband costs, enabling it to be readily expanded, and with this, say telework supporters, permitting more home-based work especially in rural areas. Equally if not more significantly it is a major move to connect transportation and information infrastructure funding that opens the door for measures to encourage telework in exchange for federal highway and transit dollars.

 

“Depending on what study you look at, the U.S. ranks anywhere from 15th to 22nd in broadband, behind countries such as Finland, Belgium, and Luxembourg,” says Rep. Eshoo in introducing H.2428. “Anything we can do to reduce the barriers to deployment and increase investment and competition for broadband will make our country more connected, more competitive, and more prosperous. This simple, commonsense proposal will actually do a great deal to connect more Americans to more affordable, higher quality broadband connectivity.”

 

Sen. Klobuchar cites the need to improve rural broadband access and to avoid costly and disruptive road ripups to install and expand broadband once new and widened highways are in place. She cited Federal Highway Administration estimates that 90 percent of the cost of deploying broadband is for digging up and repairing the road.  That means it is 10 times more expensive to add broadband after a road is already built than to install it in the first place. 

 

“Whether in our cities, suburbs or rural communities, widespread access to the information superhighway is essential to our future prosperity,” says Klobuchar.  “Our businesses, schools, health care institutions and more will all depend on access to high-speed, high-capacity communications.  This infrastructure must be built as quickly and efficiently as possible, and that’s what this legislation aims to do.”

 

While the bills, which have been referred to committee are for new/widened roads a story in the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer indicate that it could be expanded to include rebuilt roads, which could broaden the benefits. A story in the paper announcing the legislation cited federal government reports that relatively few new miles of roads are built: just 5,000 miles in 2006 compared with 14,000 miles a year earlier. 

 

The legislation has been praised as an important but by far not the last step needed to encourage more teleworking by Nicole Belson Goluboff, a New York lawyer who writes extensively on the legal consequences of telework. She is also an advisory board member of The Telework Coalition (TelCoa), a telework educational and advocacy organization.

 

In a recent article published in New Geography Goluboff called upon lawmakers to introduce and pass legislation tying telework incentives to federal highway and transit infrastructure money, citing that telework cuts road and transit demand, and costs. Telework also significantly improves productivity, enables employment opportunities to disabled, older, and rural Americans, and provides disaster response.

 

There is precedent for such proposed actions. She said Federal law requires executive agencies to consider alternative workplace arrangements like telework, when deciding whether to acquire buildings or other space for employee use. Requiring state and local governments that seek federal aid for new roads to include telecommuting in their transportation plans, she said “’would demonstrate the same kind of fiscal responsibility.’”

 

“If passed the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act would only strengthen the case that funding for infrastructure projects should be conditioned on state and local government efforts to facilitate telework,” said Goluboff. “If, as they finance highway projects, American taxpayers also fund broadband, they should not then have to struggle to telecommute. They should be able to help contain transportation costs and, at the same time, easily make the greatest possible use of the broadband access they financed.”

 

Goluboff also called on Congress to provide telework tax incentives for employees and employers; eliminate tax, zoning and other laws that are hostile to telework; and offer public and private sector employers technical help in developing and implementing robust telework programs. The government grantees should be required to create such programs for their own employees.

 

There is lawmaker interest in encouraging telework. She reported that 12 House members wrote to both the House Transportation Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, requesting that they consider including some pro-commuter reforms as they design the nation’s new transportation and energy laws. Among their requests were initiatives to incentivize telecommuting.

 

“When Congress finalizes its new transportation policy, it must exploit the tremendous mileage it can get from encouraging web-based travel,” wrote Goluboff. “Conditioning funding to state and local governments on investment by those governments in pro-telework measures – and offering meaningful federal funding to promote telecommuting – is a dual strategy that would yield a greener and leaner transportation system.”